Venezuelan Ariana Sáez had the idea of creating her own line of hair products aimed at children when she was looking for natural shampoo alternatives for her daughters. This is how the Hippi brand was born, a venture that she created with her husband and that currently offers two products on the market: a shampoo and a body wash.
“We live in Spain and when we arrived in Venezuela, after my first daughter was born, I began to look for a more natural option to use with my daughter. I already had knowledge of the benefits of natural products and how so many chemicals affect us. We consume since babies are born. So, I especially wanted to avoid the chemical part. I start looking in Caracas and I can't find an alternative. Seeing myself in this need, of having to import even the shampoo that my daughter consumed, I said to my husband one day: What do you think if we do something ourselves? That's how the idea came about,” Sáez recalls in an interview for the Voice of America.
A 100% Venezuelan product
Unlike other products in the national market, the Venezuelan company says that its Hippi brand is a natural line, since it does not have raw materials that come from animals. However, she clarifies that her products are not artisanal, they are industrialized thanks to the fact that she and her husband visited many manufacturers offering the idea when the brand was still a project.
Despite being industrialized products, Sáez emphasizes that she was involved in the entire process of preparing the Hippi line and the packaging used. “I explained to the pharmacists in charge of Hippi's formulation what I wanted and they gave me samples and tests, what we did was try and test the products, read the ingredients, see what was yes, what was not,” she explained.
For Sáez, the most important point in the preparation of the product was that all its components had to be natural and made in Venezuela. However, he remembers that during the tests he ran into the obstacle that there were no national natural preservatives, so they had to bring them from Germany.
Another aspect in which they also had everything to do was with the design of the Hippi logo, created by her and her husband, and then they came up with the labels with the help of designers. “The packaging, the same, we tried several containers until we finally arrived at this one that is most similar to what I want. It's not ideal for me. Our idea is to change them to ecological packaging, but they are not found in the country. We have to bring them imported and we use everything made in Venezuela,” she says.
The challenge of entrepreneurship
The beginning of Hippi, as in the case of many ventures, was not easy. Although the product began to be sold in the country's largest pharmacy chain, which has more than 170 stores, sales were low. The Venezuelan confesses that for a moment they thought about abandoning the idea, but perseverance was what later made them successful. To the point that shampoo, which was initially aimed at children, is now used more by adults.
Despite this, Sáez emphasizes how challenging it is to start a business today, even more so if the person has always been an employee, as was his case until then. “The path of entrepreneurship is almost all downs and a few small ups. It is a very long, very extensive and complicated path. It is a path, it is not a 100 meter race, but a marathon. And well, we did it. We made it at least so far. We managed to get on the market, we managed to have all our permits, do everything that needed to be done so that Hippi is on the market today,” she says.
Beyond the support and dedication she has had for the creation of her shampoo line, Ariana Sáez says that a fundamental part of the brand's success comes from the support of her family. Mainly, because the idea for her project came to her after becoming a mother. “In the end it is a family business and we are all super happy and super happy that we are really already in the market.”
Now that they have managed to establish the brand, Ariana Sáez and her husband already dream of expanding their line and including more products such as, for example, a body cream, among other things.
“The sky is the limit,” says this Venezuelan, in reference to creating natural personal hygiene alternatives. “Up to 70% of what we apply to our children's skin is metabolized. So, well, that's why the line is, that's why the topic of the natural line for children comes to mind.” she concludes.
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