THE STORY BEHIND ONO We were not always soap-makers. Before ONO, we were bakers and cake-decorators. At least, my husband was. My husband came from a baking family. He had been baking since he was 8, before he was even tall enough to reach the kneading counters. He told me how he would stand on an overturned bucket so he could knead the breads he was assigned to make. His family moved to Guam when he was 12 and the baking continued. But baking was not his true love. Creating was. He wanted to become a scientist, and experiment, and create things. When it was time to go to college, he had a dilemma. He wanted to get a scholarship but that meant he would have to go to the mainland to study. Should he leave his parents alone with the family business so he could pursue his dream, or should he give up his dream and stay? He decided to stay. At that time, his parents were in partnership with other relatives. After he finished college, he helped his parents set up their own bakery until the family moved to Washington State. When my husband came back to Cebu, Philippines at the age of 43, I encouraged him to open his own bakery, and he did. But every time he baked something, I could see he was not really happy. Baking had probably lost its magic on him. Instead he was happiest when he was experimenting with something, or creating something out of something else. One day, he presented me with a soap that he said he made. He told me it was made purely of natural ingredients. No artificial chemicals had been added, no artificial fragrances, no artificial colors. I was sceptical. He asked me to try it. I said no. He insisted, so I grudgingly agreed. Well, what do you know: I liked his soap. I went to Facebook to tell my friends about my husband’s creation, not really to sell but mainly to say that I was proud of what he made. I was in for a big surprise. The response was overwhelming. Later on, I realized that the public had been waiting for an all-natural product that was both effective and affordable. My husband’s soap was all that. ONO came from my husband’s family name PONO, and it is not a coincidence that ONO in Hawaiian means “delicious”. Soaps and everything else we put on our skin is technically food for the skin. We therefore use ONO to mean “delicious food for the skin”. Because it is made from all-natural products, it is probably one of the healthiest products you can use on your skin. But I guess that what makes our soaps special is that, for once in his life, my husband is finally happy with what he is making. And I guess that when you make something with happiness, you create something that brings happiness to other people. Looking at it from that perspective, I think I understand why the public has received ONO with so much joy.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Mar 2014 16:20:41 +0000
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