Katre: Creative with soap

by Sibel DORSAN

The striking Katre range of natural soaps and cosmetics is produced by an Istanbul company run by equally extraordinary women. Not content with raising the health and happiness of their customers, they set aside a part of their revenues for development projects and the preservation of the environment.

Orange, bergamot, mint, lavender, laurel, daisy, cinnamon, clove, vanilla, lily, jasmine, rose…

That amber one looks like sugar candy, those pink ones like rose-scented lokum. The others would resemble fruit jellies, but that each piece is larger and come contain eye-beads. A dizzying assortment of colours and smells. These are the soaps of Katre, hand-made by natural methods.

Some fifteen types of natural volatile oil are used in the production of the soaps. Olive oil or glycerine and massage fibre are essential ingredients. The soaps are made entirely by hand, and each piece is unique. There is endless opportunity for each member of the five-member team to display her creativity.

Every year, new products are added to the sweet-smelling range, including massage oils, hair creams, bath salts, skin salts and cologne. Beautifully gift-wrapped and modestly priced, their neatness and elegance never fails to catch the eye. Abroad they are marketed under various trade marks: so far, they have reached the United States, Canada, China and Georgia.

Environment-friendly

 “The production of these soaps began with a little bit of coincidence and a little bit of curiosity,” says Leyla Derya Çelikel, who founded the company in 1998. A biologist and environmental scientist, Dr Çelikel first got serious about soap while wandering through a US bookstore. Purchasing every book she could find on the topic, she returned to Istanbul and started to experiment.

A long-standing observer of the negotiations of the UN agreements in the protection of the environment, Çelikel has participated in many conferences and made many presentations on the topic. After working at the TEMA Foundation, set up to combat soil erosion in Turkey, she took her first steps in business - and found herself in the USA….

Women’s labour

Çelikel’s partner, Zeynep Davaz, is educated in history, economy and Chinese. She has worked voluntarily for search and rescue operations for many years. She arrived at Katre via the United Nations, the Swiss Red Cross, Kosovo, Afghanistan and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Project.

The partners have not lost the spirit of the environment and civil society. A part of their revenues goes to the Yeşil Adımlar Çevre Eğitim Derneği (Green Steps Environmental Training Association) founded by Çelikel. And this year, Katre has been training women in Mardin to produce soaps as part of a project carried out by the Kadın Emeğini Değerlendirme Vakfı (Foundation for the Valutation of Women’s Labour), which aims at local development and creating new business opportunities for the women.

Ancient advice

“Our principle is to implement environment-friendly methods during the production process and to support projects which aim at spreading environmental consciousness by donating one part of our revenues to them,” declare the Katre partners  The products which they have been producing for the past seven years reflect all of their pleasures, interests, desires and enthusiasm.

Meanwhile, as Hippocrates, the ancient father of medicine, said some 2,400 years ago, the way to be healthy and happy is to take an aromatherapy bath and massage every day.

(DIPLOMAT  -  September 2005  -  Ankara)