A pair of sisters in White Lake have turned making organic deodorant into their own company,
Rustic Maka.
Kasia Rothe and Monica Stakvel started down this road a few years ago when Rothe was pregnant and developed a body odor she didn't like. She couldn’t do much about it with options available on store shelves.
"Nothing seemed to be working for me," Rothe says.
So she started making her own deodorant. Rothe is also a stickler for living a healthy lifestyle so she made sure she only used natural ingredients, leaving out the likes of parabens and aluminum that are often found in deodorants.
"We realized deodorant, among other things, has a ton of bad ingredients," Rothe says.
That home-made deodorant turned into the answer Rothe needed, working for her for 12-24 hours. She and Stakvel turned it into Pachy, the new odor-fighting deodorant for Rustic Maka. They launched the company in February and have been selling Pachy online and in 12 stores (primarily natural foods shops) across the state.
"We're hoping we can get some national exposure and take this to the next level," Rothe says.
Source: Kasia Rothe, co-founder of Rustic Maka
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.