Catalina suffered for not being like other children. She could not go to the beach, play in the sand, or even run until she perspired. All this was a threat to her skin, unable to resist the friction, the sun, the sweat. At night, she slept little: she scratched herself – unconsciously, non-stop – and that kept her awake. The burning was simply unbearable and the lesions frequent.
-She started having these symptoms when she was about four years old and we spent another four years trying to come up with a diagnosis. We were told it was fungus, scabies, everything, until we finally found out that what he had was atopic dermatitis. This affected us a lot as a family, not only because of how she suffered, but also because many people, friends, relatives, or at school, thought it was something contagious. There are many prejudices,” says her mother, Karina Riquelme.
The indicated treatment was to use moisturizing and emollient creams and take corticoids. But Karina, who studied chemistry and pharmacy for a year and then qualified as a nurse, was not satisfied. Corticosteroids, she says, ‘are safe but long-term use can lead to thinning of the skin, kidney damage and dependency’.
She decided then that she would look for a homemade formula to help her. She had read about the anti-inflammatory power of some plant-based ingredients – mainly calendula, aloe vera and rice – and started trying to make a cream with them that would take advantage of them in the maximum concentration allowed, to increase the skin’s response speed.
-At the beginning, I used to make creams for my daughter, at home, with a pot and a piping bag. They were very good for her. Then, in 2018, I made some samples that I gave away, and they started asking me for more, until mid-2019 when I decided to start with this. Everyone questioned me when I started. I did everything by myself: the formula, packaging, labeling, I went by bus to drop off orders and I had no profit. Today I have 5 people working with me and I am on the shelves of 61 stores of a pharmacy chain, from Arica to Coyhaique. A week after being there, they went out of stock,” she says happily.
Along the way, Karina has made a point of seeking support, starting with the Sercotec Business Center in Puente Alto. At the end of 2018, she applied for the Impulso Chileno award, given by the Luksic Foundation, and won first place, which gave her access to a fund of 10 million pesos and a six-month mentorship with MBA students from the UC. With that capital, he financed all the legal issues associated with his brand, including health registrations, created his website and made his first production on a larger scale. In 2020, she obtained a fund from StartUp Chile, with which she carried out studies to be able to sell her products in the dermo-cosmetics category and opened a line of oils, which was added to the line of creams. In 2021, it obtained a capital Semilla Expande from Corfo, with which it relaunched the brand and promoted the hygiene line, with shampoos and soaps. In 2022 she obtained another Corfo fund and, with the support of Mujeres Empresarias, managed the alliance with the drugstore chain.
Today her daughter Catalina is 16 years old and has a normal life. She no longer wakes up at night from scratching herself and enjoys the beach like any other young person her age.
-It has been a difficult road, because no one teaches you how to start a business, and you have to break down many barriers,” Karina concludes. But with a driving force behind you, as I had my daughter, anything is possible. My love for her led me to do something unthinkable.
Fuente: El Mercurio.
