GLENDA THOMPSON finds the recipe for the sweet smell of (natural) success
Ballito’s Nadine Camara has had a lifelong passion for soap. “As a child, while my friends were spending their pocket money on sweets and toys, I’d be choosing the best smelling soaps,” she explains.
She put her passion on the backburner after leaving school, delving instead into the rat race of the corporate world which satisfied her monetary needs but kept her yearning for the world of bubbles and creams and deliciously aromatic fragrances.
Her life changed after she read an article by a former Fortune 500 lawyer who decided she’d had enough of hard core life in New York, and traded her corporate robes for the good life, starting a natural hand-made beauty business.
Nadine was so encouraged by the story that she too took the plunge and broke away from the corporate world.
“I was free at last! But without the safety net of a predictable monthly income, it was more like freefalling,” she said. “I spent months researching my chosen subject and my passion – soap making. I tried to unravel the mystery, the allure, the hype and the complexity of making soap. Rivers of oily caustically burned batches of ruined soap and mountains of disappointing mediocre product surrounded me, but with the knowledge that the bridges to safety had long since been burned, I persevered.”
After much trial and error she found her “pot of perfect soap” at the end of the rainbow, and had a much better understanding of “how the process really comes together and why”.
“Every time a new soap recipe is successful, every time the metamorphosis into real soap happens from a dubious mixture of oils, water and lye, with the added bonus of an extra molecule in its chemistry (glycerine), it’s Christmas morning for me,” she said.
Today, with the help of her two trusty helpers, Thembeni Dube and Zanele Njiyela, Nadine manufactures soaps, body butters, bath salts, room sprays, and bath scrubs under the name Brunfelsia Natural Products (Brunfelsia is the botanical name for Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, her favourite flower).
Her fragrant oils have a distinctive, exotic and sensual scent, very unusual, very African bush, and are the ideal gift for homesick, globally scattered South Africans.
“I took several jars of Amanzi body butter with me to Peru last year and distributed them liberally to friends and family. The fragrance sums up the uniqueness of our indigenous bush beautifully, and the Peruvians were entranced.”
The shea butter in her cream products comes from the Karite trees, indigenous to North Africa. “The small fleshy fruits contain the prized nuts that are gathered, traditionally, by the women. The nuts are boiled, dried and pounded and the butter extracted and distributed around the world worldwide.”
Nadine distributes her fragrances, Amanzi, Savannah, Imbali and Umoya, through Cinnamon and Silk in Ballito’s Lifestyle Centre.
(PS: Cinnamon and Silk is spreading its wings and will soon be opening a new shop in Stellenbosch.)
Useful contact: Telephone Nadine at 084 577 0055 or e-mail nadine@brunfelsia.com
2 Comments
Good Morning….
I am trying to locate your Flowerbomb Room & amp; Linen Spray? I bought a few bottles a while ago at your Durban morning market. I live in Johannesburg so I was wondering if you could tell me where I can source the product .
Thank you kindly
Belinda Campbell
It’s wonderful that people can step out of their comfort zones an follow their dreams, well done to Nadine. And equally wonderful is that she uses shea butter in her products. This is a wonderful natural product which comes from West and East African (not North) and is excellent for the skin, especially the unrefined shea butter.