BAGUIO CITY―With an uncanny knack for business, young entrepreneur Melody Ayupan boasts of her own line of beauty products, proving that good business sense does not come only with age. At 20, she has developed organic beauty products that satisfy the senses while claiming to be mild and kind to the skin.

Her products, which come under the rather enigmatic brand Metaphors, include organic lip balm, feminine wash, bath soaps, body scrubs and body lotion.

?My products are made without passing through a heat process so the nutrients of the organic ingredients are still there to nourish the skin. They are also live enzyme-based, making the ingredients work harder,? cites Ayupan.

She was only 15 when she first thought of developing the organic bath soaps. A family friend, a chemist who formulates beauty and skin health products for several top of the line spas and beauty companies in Manila, Taiwan and Japan, helped her out.

Ayupan developed her first product―rice bran bath soap―from organic rice from the Mountain Province. ?Rice bran was used by the geishas in the early days of Japan to whiten their skin. It works just as well as glutathione,? she explains. Her rice bran soap also makes use of cultured micro-organisms, making it quite effective as a whitening and exfoliating soap with anti-bacterial action. Aside from its claims of preventing skin allergies and skin blemishes, the soap also has an appealing scent that reminds users of the fresh outdoors and new harvest from the fields.

The latest additions to her line―the organic strawberry soap, strawberry lip balm, feminine wash, lotion and body scrub―have been included in the line of strawberry products of La Trinidad, Benguet under the government?s ?One Town One Product? program. They are also on display at Tiendesita?s in Pasig.

Ayupan is definitely her products? best endorser because she knows the processes and materials involved by heart. Strawberries, she explains, are high in alpha hydroxy acids, which are derived from fruits and act as an exfoliant. They also contain malic acid, which is used to whiten teeth without eroding, and alleic acid, another whitener.

?Eight pieces of strawberries contain more vitamin C―140 percent more―than an orange and is high in anti-oxidants. Strawberries are also good for sunburn,? she adds. Ayupan says that strawberries also contain potassium, which promotes muscle contraction for a tightening effect. For a thousand bars of soap, her company uses only a kilo of strawberries, or 10 percent of the component. ?More than 30 percent can cause allergic reactions,? she shares candidly.

Organic strawberries cost around P350 per kilo. But Ayupan adds that it is the soap base that is expensive, at P75,000 per barrel and procured only in bulk. Natural soap base is a combination of acid base derived from fruits, and oil base from virgin coconut oil, not animal fat as commonly used in commercial soaps.

Organic soap also uses virgin coconut oil, almond oil, papaine from papaya (which acts as a natural preservative), honey, vegetable oils, vitamin C and vitamin E. This makes organic soap healthier and more effective as a skin whitener and in preventing skin blemishes.

Fortunately for this young entrepreneur, strawberry is plentiful in the Mountain Province where she is based. About 35 percent of La Trinidad?s farming population are engaged in strawberry production and are concentrated in the Barangays of Betag, Poblacion, Puguis, and Pico. From November 2006 to April 2007, a total of 1,036 metric tons of strawberries were produced by 580 farmers in 74 hectares.

Strawberries here are either eaten fresh or processed into wine, jams, tarts, candies, cookies, cakes and other products. Soaps and cosmetics are the latest addition to the fruit?s uses, with Ayupan?s products claiming to be the first known strawberry cosmetics produced in the Philippines.

Aside from strawberries, Ayupan uses other fruits in season, including pineapple, avocado, bananas, and papaya for her Savon de Frutas, a colorful bar that combines the benefits of all these fruits. The soap, which she says also contains goat?s milk, is very effective in lightening dark spots. She developed it in the late 2006, when they first came to Baguio from Isabela.

?We were so dark from getting too much sun in the province and so my chemist friend and I decided to develop Savon de Frutas to help revitalize our sun-damaged complexions,? she reveals. It could easily be the prettiest soap around, taking on the appearance of that popular dessert ?crema de fruta.?

Metaphors also produces collagen soap which, Ayupan says, is rich in hyaluronic acid that ?helps bind the skin cells together and helps in making the skin more supple, thus delaying the appearance of wrinkles.?

While organic soap production is relatively cheap, it can be labor-intensive, taking as long as a month before the soaps are ready. Drying alone, says Alupan, takes about three weeks. Much of the processes are done manually, she explains, and this not only keeps most of the organics intact but also makes for aesthetics. ?All our soaps are made by hand,? she says.

At P100 for each hand-cut bar weighing between 120-170 grams, the soaps are relatively pricey. ?But buyers are getting their money?s worth,? says Ayupan. ?They?re gentle on the skin but also effective against bacteria, and you can really smell the ingredients,? she adds.

Though well-researched, Ayupan has had no formal training in chemistry. In fact, she has never been to college and has been mostly home-schooled. She had to finish her high school through correspondence but plans to take up pre-law as soon as the business is more stable.

This daughter of pastors Robinson and Lorna Jane Ayupan became the most involved family member when the soap business was started in 2003. It has since been turned over to her to manage and to own.

Her business sense, she says, was honed by experience since she started selling odds and ends at 12. Though she started her organic soap business as a hobby, she now treats it as a livelihood program for women and students, offering them her products at a discount so that they can re-sell them at a modest profit. She now has 25 distributors in Northern Luzon alone, while other distributors are in Cavite, Bulacan, Zambales, and Tuguegarao.

More than the profits, Ayupan says she finds particular joy in knowing that her products are helping other women earn a living. Women?s Feature Service