WHEN people think of mauby, they imagine a refreshing drink, not a key ingredient in soap.
Not anymore. Fledgling businesswoman and pharmaceutics graduate Leah Inniss is making soaps from this traditional beverage and other natural raw materials.
“Mauby is full of antioxidants and antioxidants keep you looking young and fresh,” she said. “They reverse the free radicals that are produced inside the body in the internal environment which can cause abnormalities with cells. It is also detoxifying and I add hard spice and cinnamon which are naturally anti-inflammatory and antibacterial, so it is great for cleansing your skin or if you have acne.”
Inniss’ love for formulating personal care products has spawned a year-old company that focuses on organics.
The owner and manager of LCI Organics, makes bar soaps using lemon zest, mauby, spice, honey, goats milk, aloe vera, cucumber and other ingredients. She also has plans to develop a range of Caribbean-inspired body butters, sunscreens, lotions, day creams, night creams and insect repellents.
Inniss started making the products in January last year though she didn’t put them on the market until the following May. Her interest in skin care developed in England where she went in 2012 to pursue a master’s degree in pharmaceutics at the University of Hertfordshire. Upon completion of the programme she was fortunate enough to work in the cosmetics industry. 
Caught her interest
While studying she was taken in by a course that dealt with the structure of the skin and formulating products and how to administer medicines topically via the skin.
“I really fell in love with that particular part of the course and I was lucky enough following my master’s to get an internship at DDD Limited where I was developing, manufacturing and testing personal care cosmetic products,” she said.
Inniss would spend four months there and even though she wanted to continue she was unable to get a work permit and returned to Barbados. On her return she was unable to get a job in her field, so the next option was to start working for herself.
“I love formulating products and I thought to myself that I would rather work for myself than go and do something that I would not enjoy,” she said. “This is something that I am very passionate about, the difference between LCI and where I was working before is that I try to use natural ingredients and you can understand and call the name of every ingredient in my soaps.”
Last year after a close family member was diagnosed with cancer, Inniss was even more convinced of the need for natural products.
“It became a passion for me to use natural alternatives in these products because some of these chemicals like parabens, sulphates; they are very bioactive and can lead to abnormalities within the body,” she said.
She is therefore on a mission is to use wholesome raw materials and is researching different products to see if they are anti-inflammatory and safe.
Inniss said she chose pharmaceutics because she found it interesting. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biochemistry.
“Anything that you put on your skin has the potential to go into the internal system so some of the actives used in personal care products such as aluminium found in antiperspirants can attach to biological cells and cause abnormal cell development,” she said.
Since her products are new to the market, Inniss admitted that sales have been a process, but have been gradually picking up. “I have to do some work in terms of getting it out there and getting people accustomed to using natural products and moving away from the chemicals,” she said.
“It depends on the person. with the whole green movement, you have people out there that will spend the money so they can have the benefit of the product for their skin; there are still the others who say they will not buy a bar of soap for $10 when they can buy it for $1,” she said.
For now she caters to those conscious of health and wellness.
She currently sells her products at stores in the Bridgetown Port and is in discussion with a supermarket.
She recently participated in BMEX and relished the experience. Her use of mauby in soap created a lot of interest “because everyone thinks mauby is only for you to drink”.
Leah Inniss prints and cuts out the boxes for her soaps, an exercise she said is more cost effective for the recently formed business.
More viable
Inniss sources her materials locally but has to import the essential oils, like virgin oils from the United States. “Truth is I would have liked to get the raw materials here but it was most viable (to get from the US),” she said. “There is a lady here in Barbados who does virgin oils but she does not do it in bulk so 18 kilograms of her oil, the amount that I was quoted, was the same amount that I paid for my entire shipment which include Shea butter, virgin olive oil, castor oil and vitamin E.”
When she wants lemons, cucumbers and spices she goes to the farmers’ markets while she grows aloe vera.
To make her business more efficient, she prints and makes her own soap boxes, saving her at least $4 000 every three months.
Inniss, who works from home, acknowledged that the process of making soaps was a bit technical and hard to put into layman’s terms. The process is called saponification and even though she can mix the ingredients together in a few hours she has to leave the final product to cure for four weeks before it can be used.
She hopes to expand the business and employ others eventually, but for now she is doing everything herself. She is also grateful for the advice offered by Barbados Youth Business Trust. (LK)