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Piman

"I'm Piman Tovanabootr, but you can call me 'Pui.' I was born in 1969, and I'm the third child of three. My father works as a government officer and my mother runs a small restaurant in a guest house. My older sister is married and stays with her family and my other sister helps my mom at the restaurant.

"I studied a master's degree in the United States, and as a hobby I started making soaps prompted by a friend. It also became a good way for making some extra money, as other friends liked my soaps, and they spread the word.

"I returned to Thailand after graduation, worked for a while and then got married in 1998. My husband and I went back to the U.S. to study. In 2000, he passed away from leukemia. I decided to stop studying and return home, to Thailand, longing to be near my family and friends. I didn't want to move away anymore and was happy to take on any job.

"In 2001, one of my closest friends encouraged me to start making soaps again, and together we set up a small workshop in my father's garage. We didn't have a market plan, we just worked hard every day and eventually business began to flourish. We still work from the same workshop in the garage, but now we've also been able to have a small shop where people can come and visit us and look at our soap products.

"At first I didn't take making soaps seriously - for me it was just a way of passing time. Now this hobby has grown into a challenging endeavor, and I hope our products will be well known in the near future. We craft a variety of soap products and they attract a clientele that is very interested in healthy products.

"Handmade soaps are different from factory-made soaps because they contain glycerin, which absorbs moisture from the air. It also absorbs the moisture for your skin. Its easier to use glycerin when making soaps by hand, than at an industrial level, because there can be residues left in the molding machines. The factories then have to remove the glycerin, and sell it at a higher price. But since our procedures for making soaps are executed completely by hand, we don't have that problem since we don't have to use molding machines. Moreover, all of the ingredients we use are natural, they come from plants - there are no chemical or animal ingredients so our soaps are safe healthwise.