Pink Pineapple is the creation of two Mothers living on Koh Phangan. The idea came from a mutual desire to make and create something really great. Something very different, unique and something that was their own.
“We both had young children at the same kindergarten and actually started talking over the swing at the park in Thong Sala. We started hanging out together with the kids and quickly became great friends”.
Both of the women had been living and running businesses here on the island with their husbands for years but with young children and a very busy daily life, they both realised that they wanted to do something completely different from what they normally did and something that had nothing to do with their other businesses.
“We wanted to challenge ourselves again and to be someone other than someone's mom, someone's wife and just do something for ourselves”.
Why the name ‘Pink Pineapple Asia’?
We wanted a catchy name that represents what we are and what we do. Hand making all natural products in paradise, the name had to somehow symbolize that.
A pineapple is a sweet and delicious tropical fruit and pink is just fabulous so we thought the combination was a great fit for us.
Tell us the main concepts of Pink Pineapple Asia...
It is no secret that ‘all natural’ is the way to go when you want something really good for yourself.
All natural is the key in everything we do. We use only all natural substances and if Mother Nature didn't provide it, we won't use it.
But at the same time, all natural does not mean plain and simple products. Nature is so colorful and we love playing with natural colorants like plant or mineral based pigments and fruit juices. Nature also provides us with the most delicious and yummy scents and we use only essential oils and absolutely no artificial fragrances or perfumes.
So the concept for us is to offer all natural and handmade upscale and upright delicious products - and just to make it all a little more interesting and fun we have named all our products after songs because after all life is a party right!
You also support ‘no waste’...
As mothers of young children, we want them to grow up in a beautiful world. We want to support a long-term ecological balance and overall try our best not to contribute to more waste and pollution. We want to set a good example and perhaps inspire them with the passion of knowing and believing that you can do anything you set your mind too and that you don’t have to compromise just because it’s easier or cheaper. So we stay clear of plastic in our packaging, we reuse empty candle jars and often make special limited products from our soap scraps and ends and all other things that does not meet the qualifications of our standard products.
What products do you have?
We have a range of different soap bars. All our soaps are coconut based soaps but each variation have a different look, colors and scents. Each soap variation is full of a number of health benefits due to the essential oils and natural minerals used.
Besides the soap bars, we have our beeswax candles. We have two types of candles including aromatherapy candles and meditation candles. All our candles are a mix of beeswax and coconut oil and all scented with different essential oil blends to enhance different aromatherapeutic properties.
An example can be our ‘California Dreaming Aromatherapy Candle’ that contains an essential oil blend full of calming, soothing and relaxing properties and creates a peaceful atmosphere and helps improve sleep quality.
Another is ‘Soul Detox Meditation Candle’ that contains a blend that’s great for purification and cleanse. The essential oils used purifies the air, uplifts and cleanses the spirit and combats negative energy.
We also make a mosquito repellant candle that is essential when living here.
We make 3 different all natural lip balms, all great for dry and sun kissed lips and our Body Oil Sprays comes in 2 different types with one being a detoxing spray and one being a balancing spray.
Lastly, we have our child friendly collection of different balms including our healing balm that works wonders healing small cuts and wounds, our baby bottom balm and our bug bite balm that provides instant relief from itchy bug bites. All are essentials for tropical living and adults uses them too!
Right now, we are finishing our gift sets that will be added to our collection soon. They are different sets with an extra treat and comes in our cute and colorful custom made little toilet purse you can use for anything after.
Tell us about the natural ingredients you use...
We have so many criteria in everything we do and it is sometimes a challenge to live up to them all especially living on this small island where supplies are so limited. We want to support local and in-country suppliers as much as we can, we want our products to represent our tropical living and they have to be all natural.
There are very few all natural oils that we can honestly say are cure-all but Coconut oil comes pretty close and because Koh Phangan is a coconut island, coconut oil is the main ingredient in all our products. Combined with plant based minerals like bamboo charcoal for example, you end up with a product that’s not only is great for the skin, but because bamboo charcoal can absorb toxins, impurities and other harmful substances from your skin, it also leaves you with stronger and healthier skin.
The cool thing about working with all natural ingredients is that each oil, butter and essential oil contains so many benefits and combined they not only moisturise or clean your skin, they strengthen and build up at the same time.
Because everything is handmade, no two batches of products are ever exactly the same. We love to see the difference in a pattern every time we cut a new soap and it’s important to remember that with all natural, a little goes a very long way. You cannot expect to have the same strong scent in our products as you have from store-bought products containing artificial fragrance and perfume. The great thing with essential oils though is that when used the scent enhances, for the candles, the scent starts with one distinctive scent but after lit for a while the scent changes. Essential oils are very powerful so we always make sure to stay well within the recommended limit.
For the candles we decided on beeswax instead of soy for different reasons but mainly because beeswax is a reusable and sustainable product straight from Mother Nature. Beeswax has a high melting point so the candles burns longer and brighter than any other candle and beeswax candles are the only completely non toxic candles out there. Soy wax are commonly genetically modified, bleached and hydrogenated and soy wax goes rancid without preservatives but beeswax does not. It's been recovered from ancient shipwrecks, heated up and is still usable. We found that really cool!
Where did you learn to make the products?
We did a lot of research. It was a completely new field for us and we knew nothing to be honest.
We started making soap. We gathered mountains of information, tested so many different recipes, made a ton of mistakes but slowly learned the key elements and began understanding the process. It took months to come up with the perfect recipe but we finally nailed it.
With our beeswax candles it was the same process. Because beeswax burns harder it was really difficult to find the perfect candle wick. We use an untreated lead free cotton wick but used month's testing so many different types and sizes until we finally found the perfect match for our candles.
What issues or skin conditions do you try to cover with your products?
We try to have a wide variety of products, all with different skin benefits. Because all our products contain great all natural ingredients, no product will be bad for you even if you have a special skin condition. Our products are mainly designed for tropical living and the problems one encounters here like sunburns, dryness, itching, bug bites and so on but they work just as well in cold weather where dryness and itchiness is a common problem also.
Who is your audience?
Our audience is a very wide group of people. We are so strict about our supplies, ingredients and processes but at the same time we try to combine it all with a fun and colorful appearance at affordable prices. People who appreciate all natural products for themselves and their children, people who are looking for something different here on the island and also tourists who wants to bring home a special Koh Phangan treat are all our customers.
Where can people buy Pink Pineapple Asia products?
We have a stall at Walking Street Market in Thong Sala every Saturday. Here you can find all our products, our limited products and it's also the first place our new products land.
We also have a selection of our products for sale a few other places on Koh Phangan including Dots Coffee Shop, Pure Relax and The Sanctuary. The plan is to get our products out to more places on the island and the surrounding islands.
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