News24 | How a mom turned granny’s soap recipe for autistic son into a lauded skincare business

This story is part of the series SA Success Stories: Origin stories of successful brands and names, sponsored by Old Mutual Wealth.

When Tanya du Bois’ two-year-old son Ruben was diagnosed with autism, her doctor offered the usual recommendations: behavioural therapy, speech therapy, and one that would quietly change the trajectory of Du Bois’ life.

“She casually mentioned that we needed to lower the toxin overload in his environment,” Du Bois recalls. “Fewer chemicals in the food we were eating, fewer chemicals in the products we were using on his skin...”

It was 18 years ago, and autism information was not as readily available as it is now. The conversation around what the skin actually absorbs was only just beginning.

And Du Bois found herself in pharmacy aisles reading labels she couldn’t understand.

“We were using whatever everybody else was using, full of fragrance, mineral oils and bad ingredients for kids,” she says. “We realised we needed to go back to very basic products.”

The solution arrived from an unlikely source. Her grandmother, who was living with Du Bois’ mother at the time, pulled out a 1960s recipe book filled with formulas for homemade balms.

“I still have the book,” says Du Bois. “Recipes for making your own soaps, face mists, lotions. I just thought, well, let me try.”

She melted beeswax with sweet almond oil, added essential oils, and made her first bar in her kitchen.

For the first three years, Du Bois made the products only for her own family. But other mothers in her autism support groups soon started asking where they could buy them.

She began buying small quantities of packaging, filling just five or six bottles at a time and selling them at small Christmas markets from a little table stocked with five products.

“It was very slow growth,” she says. “Selling five products, making a profit, making another 10, selling those, making a bit more. It wasn’t a case of having big capital,” she says.

Today, her range Naturals Beauty has almost 80 products stocked in 40 locations around the country. But it’s a far cry from those early years, when a group of moms was looking for natural products for their children.

Tanya du Bois never intended to start a business, but her quest to find natural lotions for her two-year-old son led to a two-decade-long journey running Naturals Beauty.

Tanya du Bois/Naturals Beauty via King of the Jungle

Tanya du Bois never intended to start a business, but her quest to find natural lotions for her two-year-old son led to a two-decade-long journey running Naturals Beauty.

Tanya du Bois/Naturals Beauty via King of the Jungle

Finding a chemist

After the first three years, Du Bois realised the business had potential but needed more sophisticated formulations – and she was not a chemist.

Finding one proved very hard, she says. “There just weren’t natural cosmetic chemists at that time. They didn’t seem to exist, or they didn’t want to work with someone so small.”

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She approached big cosmetic companies, discussed her requirements, like unwanted preservatives, and received samples full of the very ingredients she had asked to avoid.

Eventually, she found a woman who had worked on a famous South African Woolworths range, created her own brand, and built a laboratory as an add-on to her home. She was a mother herself, willing to work with a small business.

And some of the formulations she developed are still in Tanya’s business today, now called Naturals Beauty.

The Kamers break

Naturals Beauty’s first big break came after those first three years at Kamers, the prestigious craft and design exhibition that tours South Africa.

“We had maybe eight products at the time,” says Du Bois. “They really did take a chance on us. Over the years, we’ve grown with them, and they’ve helped us introduce our ranges to customers all over the country.”

Retailers visit Kamers looking for products to stock – and it was there that Faithful to Nature, now one of South Africa’s biggest online natural retailers, first took an interest.

Following that, other clients came on board, which today include Wellness Warehouse, select Pick n Pay stores, as well as Amazon, Takealot and their own online store.

When Covid-19 hit, the various trade shows across the country closed. But Naturals Beauty was classified as an essential supplier selling soap, conditioner, body wash and its online store, already set up, grew exponentially.

Monthly online revenue jumped from R15 000 to R20 000 to R120 000 to R180 000.

“It was a perfect storm,” says Du Bois. “South Africans suddenly realised buying online was trustworthy.”

Today, Naturals Beauty has almost 80 products stocked across 40 locations nationwide.

Paul Herman/News24

Today, Naturals Beauty has almost 80 products stocked across 40 locations nationwide.

Paul Herman/News24

Today, Naturals Beauty has almost 80 products stocked across 40 locations nationwide.

Paul Herman/News24

Tragedy and growth

In early 2021, Du Bois suffered a personal tragedy. Her husband was killed in a motorcycle accident.

“It was devastating,” she says. “But the business was able to continue – I had amazing staff, and they just carried me through.

“Suddenly, I am solely responsible, financially, for my children. There was a drive in me since then to be even more motivated to make sure this is a success.”

Today, Naturals Beauty makes around 80 products across baby, kids, teenage, adult, body, hair and bathroom ranges, producing 3 000 to 5 000 items a month. Turnover exceeds R2.6 million a year.

The team is almost entirely women, save for one male chemist. Manufacturing is subcontracted to two labs in the Western Cape.

The baby and kids range that started it all is still gently scented, using rooibos, calendula, chamomile and aloe, designed not to overwhelm a child’s senses.

“Kids with autism often have sensory overload issues,” says Du Bois. “A lot of natural products are so strongly scented – you open them and think, no, you can’t use this on a child with autism.”

Beyond its own brand, Naturals Beauty has built a bespoke manufacturing arm. Its most ambitious collaboration so far is with Klein Constantia, the historic Cape Town wine estate, formulating body care, skincare and men’s grooming products using winemaking by-products such as grape seed extract and grape-derived exfoliants.

It will be the first wine estate in South Africa to do this, launching in November.

‘You can’t be put off by the nos’

This year, Naturals Beauty won the Nedbank Business Ignite title, chosen from more than 740 entrants under the theme “My Pain. My Purpose. My Solution.”

Du Bois says she did not expect to win, as her story is almost two decades in the making.

“The judges loved the origin story – the fact that it started with my son, and that I didn’t set out to start a business. It fit the theme.”

Naturals Beauty won the Nedbank Business Ignite title, chosen from more than 740 entrants, almost two decades after starting the business.

Tanya du Bois/Naturals Beauty via King of the Jungle

Tanya runs her operation from an office in Cape Town, along with staff like Edith, her office manager, Gail, her office assistant, and Elaine, her operations assistant.

Tanya du Bois/Naturals Beauty via King of the Jungle

Tanya runs her operation from an office in Cape Town, along with staff like Edith, her office manager, Gail, her office assistant, and Elaine, her operations assistant.

Tanya du Bois/Naturals Beauty via King of the Jungle

Her son is now 21, works overseas and will study sound engineering next year, having completed mainstream matric. “They said he was probably never going to be on his own, always going to need support. He’s gone on to do a list of things they said he would never do.”

And one of the joys of her work is still being recognised by those early support groups with the moms. “They’ll say, ‘Do you remember me?’ Those moms from back then are still the pioneers. We were the ones looking for solutions that weren’t available.”

Her advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is characteristically direct: “You can’t be put off by the nos. Start where you are with what you’ve got. I speak to people who have great ideas and say, ‘Why don’t you start?’ And they say, ‘I don’t have a business plan’, or ‘I don’t have R100 000 in the bank’. Start with what you’ve got. You grow slowly. Maybe you’re not going to reach success at the rate at which you’d like. But it’s going to be more meaningful.”

And finally, when asked what has surprised her most about the journey, she said: “I’m a little bit more tenacious than I thought I was. I just keep going.”