Pinkberri Kosmetique; a small business with big dreams

Owner of Pinkberri Kosmetique June Alfred-Rogers with her range of products at the recently concluded Trade and Investment Convention (TIC) held at the Centre of Excellence in Macoya. —PHOTO: JERMAINE CRUICKSHANK

A class project actualised into a business; this is the story of how Pinkberri Kosmetique, a business based in Adventure Micro Enterprise Centre in Plymouth, Tobago, was created.

The owner, 52-year-old June Alfred-Rogers is currently pursuing her degree in Business Accounting.

Describing herself as a part-time entrepreneur, Alfred-Rogers is employed with the Tobago House of Assembly’s Division of Community Development, Youth Development and Sport and learned her trade in soap-making in 2016 through a course offered by the Division.

“Pinkberri Kosmetique was created because of skin issues I had and I said to myself for me to be able to benefit from it I wanted other persons to benefit from it also, so I decided to create a brand,” she said.

Alfred-Rogers said she used her salary to buy materials when she started her business in October 2016.

“I had dry, leathery skin, so when I was going to high school I could have used like glycerine or sometimes just Vaseline and my skin still used to itch and flake,” she said.

“It was a horrible look for me and for my mother and I said to myself when I started doing my degree with COSTAATT (College of Science Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago), I had to create a business plan” Alfred-Rogers said.

It was while doing that project that she came up with the name for her business, she said.

“We manufacture 100 per cent natural hand-crafted soaps, bath and body (products), hair essentials (oils), and also our premium soy wax candles.

“We also have our hair essential oils line and we also have our new line - our sargassum seaweed line which is the Tobago blue economy line,” she said.

Alfred-Rogers explained that the seaweed line helped with skin health issues such as pityriasis rosea, dermatitis, wrinkles, acne and mark removal.

“It is a wonder product” she said. She boasted that fruits and vegetables are the main ingredients used to manufacture her products.

Her products range from $30 bars of soaps to $150 anti-wrinkle line face moisturiser, she said, adding that most of her products were designed to target skin issues.

“We have charcoal, it’s a detoxing soap; rosemary and charcoal for sensitive and oily skin, turmeric, ginger and cocoa butter which is good for removing dark spots.”

She said her top sellers are her body butters.

Alfred-Rogers said she has a range of products that cater to men such as beard balms, beard oil, beard shampoos, body butters, soaps and lotions.

According to Alfred-Rogers she participated in the recently concluded Trade and Investment Convention with the intention of widening her reach to customers through new distributors in Trinidad.

Currently, Alfred-Rogers said, there are only two distributors of her products in Trinidad, the Fashion Arch Gallery in St James and The Little Souk in La Romain.

“We also have intentions some day of being able to export our products to the Caribbean, USA, and Canada” she added.

Pinkberri Kosmetique will be participating in the upcoming St Lucia Trade mission which is being supported by exporTT and the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association.

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