Cerasee in expansion mode
Published:Friday | May 31, 2013 | 12:00 AM
Sacha Walters-Gregory, Staff Reporter
CERASEE, A local company which makes lathering up a sensory experience, has opened a new store in Kingston. "It's really a personal care line as well as soaps and candles," said Shelly-Ann Josephs, the store's manager as well as a partner in the business. The line's name, Cerasee, is reflective of a number of the products with ingredients common to Jamaica, which include fever grass, moringa and chocolate.
"Just trying to reach people's senses and give them that sensory experience," said Josephs. Founded on all-natural, paraben-free and sulphate-free soaps, Josephs says their clientele relish in taking a bath or shower.
This choice to go all natural with their products is built on the links between parabens, used to preserve the life of the soap, to cancers and artificial dyes etc. causing unwanted reactions.
"We don't know but studies have shown this, so you stay away from them," said Josephs. "You have to think about your health long term, what you're putting on and in your body."
formed out of necessity
The business arose out of a another problem.
"One of the founding partners Angela Chin-Hing had children with eczema and skin problems so it was really formed out of necessity. She couldn't find anything on the market that was good for her children and she always liked making soaps so she started out with the unscented soap line of four soaps," said Josephs. They then branched out into scented soaps like the Jamaican espresso, a coffee soap.
"We use real Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee to make it. Some people don't like the smell of coffee but they like the benefits. It's very exfoliating and very soothing. She created a Kimo Latte soap. It has the same benefits of coffee but the scent of coffee is extracted from it," she explained.
"Initially, the store was a testing ground because the business really started off supporting our sister company," she said. This company is Pretty Slippery Limited Manu-facturers which makes and sell soaps, bath salts etc. to the hotels and gift shops. "But then Jamaican individuals started asking 'Where can we buy this?'" So Cerasee in Montego Bay was opened two years ago, and since then, they have been growing.
more convenient option
Another request from customers led to the opening of the Kingston store, as Kingston customers wanted a more convenient option to access their favourite products.
The store opened in December with a variety of products to include body washes, body creams, shampoos and conditioners, bath salts, scrubs and facial scrubs, facial masks, whipped soaps and pumice soaps.
"We also have therapeutic soaps. The neem soap is anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal. It is excellent for eczema and then we introduced our raw bar. It's very new to Jamaica. It's sea-salt soaps. It's general scented bar soaps but we use Himalayan sea salt, which is the best in the world and very therapeutic, exfoliating and rich," she explained. Others include activated charcoal, which is good for odour; peppermint for depression and pink lemonade whose aroma infuses your bathroom.
Cerasee is located at 8 Haining Road, Kingston 5; Tel : 620-8076.