- Rishma Rizvi on homemade skincare products
The art of soap-making, while fascinating to watch, requires a skilled hand and knowledge to pull off without any hitches. Rishma Rizvi, a student who just left school, has always loved dabbling in the art of skincare. She enjoys making beauty products entirely organically at home in her free time while also studying for her higher education.
Eventually, she stumbled into soap-making and launched her online business SoapstoRIS (@soapstoris on Instagram), selling them to make some profit on the side. Speaking to Brunch on why she chose to launch her business, she said: “Soap making is fun! It’s very relaxing and calms your mind. It’s another level of enjoyment.”
From childhood, Rizvi had a passion to melt down existing makeup products and apply them on her face. “I would eternally watch makeup videos. My mom would rarely buy makeup, so when she got something new, I’d be the first to try it on my hand, put it on my eyes, and do all sorts of stuff.”
Describing some of the experiments she conducted as a child, Rizvi said: “Whenever my mom went to sleep, I would go to the kitchen and melt things. I melted chocolate and used it as contour, I melted crayons, added coconut oil, and used it as lipstick. My mom would always be shocked because she doesn’t buy makeup, so when I applied this new stuff I’d get scolded for potentially ruining my face.”
Although she was berated, her parents were incredibly supportive of her journey and encouraged her to follow her passion. Her parents even funded her attending a class on how to make these products. “When I was in Grade 10, I heard about this Argentinian lady who was conducting a soap-making class. I thought ‘why not try it’ and went. I learned the basics, and when I came back home during the holidays, I thought since I’ve learned the skill, I should put this skill into practice.”
After much practice and lessons on safely making beauty products, she perfected the art and she’s now the proud owner of SoapstoRIS; her very own business where she sells handmade soaps, lip balms, body scrubs, body butter, foot soaks and bombs and lip scrubs. The name SoapstoRIS was born once she realised each bar of soap has their own story.
“I didn’t like using products that had chemicals in them, so I thought that people would appreciate products that are less likely to harm their skin,” she explained as to why she started her brand. “I wanted to give people an organic alternative that’s affordable and made in a safe, clean environment.”
Their products are 100% authentic; with the base products being mainly coconut oil, sodium hydroxide, and water. Detailing her other ingredients, she told us she gets most of them from abroad. “We try to get herbal ingredients from the local shops here in Sri Lanka. It’s hard to find natural, authentic ingredients and they’re pretty pricey as well, but we get unique ingredients that are good for the skin after researching what is good and what is not,” she added.
Listing some of the popular ingredients in her products, she said: “Pygmy seed powder is good for brightening and smoothing your skin. I also like sandalwood, weniwal (Coscinium fenestratum), kohomba (neem), turmeric, which gets rid of skin pigmentation and sunburn, and fuller’s earth, which reduces acne.”
Rizvi went on to say: “Our bestselling soaps are the fuller’s earth bar, carrot and turmeric bar, and the Himalayan salt bar, which reduces body odour and leaves you feeling fresh. My lip balms are just shea butter, cocoa butter, almond butter, and beeswax that we get straight from the beekeepers.”
She also spoke about some of the drawbacks she’s faced. “Sometimes, the soap can look a little ugly when you cut the bar, and it can be really devastating because as much as the product still maintains its effectiveness, it’s not as attractive. If the soap doesn’t set properly, there’ll be holes and clumps in it, and when that happens, we don’t waste the batch; there’s a process called the heat process, where we melt the soap again and cook it. If we’ve mixed several colours together, the end product will be a very dark shade, but there are people that want soap with no colour, so the colour-free soaps go out to them.”
Talking about what we can expect in the future, she explained that she is working on increasing the range of products. She also shared that she hopes to show people that they don’t have to stick to one thing, advising them to branch out and take every opportunity one gets. “If you maintain honesty in what you do and you’re doing it for a good purpose, you will achieve your dreams,” she concluded.
