Did you know that the average person uses over 20 bottles of shower gel and shampoo a year? Add to these numbers plastic containers of conditioner, body lotion, and face cleansers. That’s a whole lot of unnecessary waste as only 10% of all plastic is actually recycled. Unpackaged cosmetics take up much less space on your bathroom shelf. Plus they are travel and hand-luggage friendly.
Anastasia and Carlo Wyssbrod don’t have any plastic waste in their bathroom 😉 . They’re the husband and wife team behind “The Soapery Switzerland”.
The Soapery Switzerland is a small family business that produces handmade natural cosmetics. Their mission is to provide high-quality products that are good for you and the environment.
Their factory is in Leukerbad which is a beautiful place in the Swiss Alps with thermal springs. This makes it the perfect wellness and well-being destination. They have a brick-and-mortar shop there too. Here you can buy natural skin and hair care products in small batches and also learn how they make them. If you have an interest in learning how to make your own natural cosmetics, they offer workshops.
The Soapery Switzerland is committed to using natural ingredients which means you can trust that their products are safe and gentle on your skin. They’re always looking for ways to reduce our environmental footprint.
Freewebstore talks to Carlo and Anastasia about how they started their Handmade Natural Cosmetics business in Switzerland.
1. Please tell us a bit about your online store
We were living in Thailand and struggling to find good natural cosmetic products. Anastasia was always interested in these products and had the idea to start to making them herself. After starting with soaps and realising that she had a passion for handmade natural cosmetics, she dived deeper into the topic, started to follow courses, and make more and more products.
People started to ask about the products and order from her. It turned slowly into a business.
2. What inspired you to start?
When Covid hit, a week before the sky above the world got closed, we flew back to Switzerland and with heavy hearts left everything behind. For us, it seemed clear that this crisis would last and at this time it seemed safer to be in our country.
Having to start from zero, we saw it as an opportunity, and because we did not really have roots anywhere we started to search where our Handmade Natural Cosmetics business would fit best.
We decided to start our business in Leukerbad, a beautiful thermal destination in the Swiss Alps. The Soapery Switzerland was born in June 2020 after buying and renovating our beautiful shop during the lockdowns.
3. Do you have any advice for new store owners?
Nowadays it is difficult to reach your customer without spending a lot of money on customer acquisition. You need a creative idea or a big budget to start, especially if you serve a niche market like ours. For us, the biggest challenge though was that customers can’t try or smell our products online. It makes it difficult for that kind of product to start a pure online shop. Fortunately, we had a physical shop as a kick-off help.
4. What were the results you were hoping to achieve when you first signed up for a freewebstore?
Reach customers that could not come to our remote shop location and give the opportunity for tourists that would buy in our physical shop to order online in the future.
5. Why is that important to you?
People travel to Leukerbad maybe once per year, as it is in the beautiful Alps but hard to reach, customers wouldn’t of course drive so far for cosmetics as it would not be ecological
6. What is your most popular product?
Our best sellers are the solid shampoo, deodorant, and our amazing face cream.
7. If you could choose one magic power, what would you go for?
We do everything ourselves in our own shop in Leukerbad. From creating the formulations to choosing the ingredients to produce and pack, we control every step of the process. We can stand behind our products and warranty that they are 100% handmade in Switzerland. This is hard to find nowadays.
8. And finally, where would you like to be in 5 years’ time?
We believe in our now more than 15 products and according to the amazing feedback we get, people are satisfied and recommend us. We want to stay local and not grow away from our roots in Leukerbad but we want to reach the world with our products and prove that Swiss Handmade Natural Cosmetics can be affordable and that our formulations and quality are outstanding. Try our products, you won’t regret it.
There’s an offer we can’t refuse! 😊
If you’re interested in making your own products and want to sell them online, you can set up your own free website with a free website builder like freewebstore. Freewebstore is here to help. We want you to succeed and we will do whatever it takes to make that happen.
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