Triana Shaw had been facing a problem of rough skin and acne during her High School days. Despite eating healthy and applying all sorts of creams suggested by her dermatologist, it didn’t help her much. After continuous follow ups with multiple skin specialists and trying home remedies, none of which helped overcome her problem, she decided to develop a homemade product herself. Triana said “I started with reading books on different products for suitable for skin types, worked alongside a holistic nutritionist during co-op and extensively watched videos on YouTube to study what kind of natural ingredients suit different skin types. After applying multiple combinations of all-natural ingredients, it took me good 8 months to develop the first prototype which I could test on myself.”
“After spending hours on qualitative research, I realized that improving your skin is a holistic process of how you think, what you apply on your skin and what you eat. It is a mindfulness approach of positive thinking along with applying the right products to keep one’s skin healthy.” Following testing and seeing the positive results of the product on herself, Triana manufactured few more samples of the product and took those to the farmers market. While selling her products, Triana briefed her customers to think positive as it is a holistic approach of mindfulness and noted down contact details of the customers to get a feedback on the products. As per her expectations, she received a huge positive response as all the ingredients used in the product were natural. Post this, Triana registered her venture under the name of Plushura.
To sustain her business endeavor and get mentorship, she enrolled herself for the Seneca college’s Incubator program. Alongside, she started working on minimum wage jobs to sustain herself. Triana explained “The initial struggle was really hard as I had to work on two minimum wage jobs to sustain myself and at the same time pump in money to scale up my business. I had to be very cautious of managing my time.”
After initial validation of products, the real challenge was to manufacture products at large scale and setting up the website for the brand. This required tracking down a Canadian white label manufacturer and a huge investment. Triana pitched her concept to different organizations to eventually get business grants from the City of Vaughan and Seneca’s Incubator Program. Triana told “Canada is a great place to start a new business. There are so many channels to support the budding entrepreneurs including the government programs, university programs, startup workshops, meetup groups and seminars. The grants we received were a huge help in further setting up of the business and scaling it up.”
Currently. Plushura has a range of products including body scrubs, face masks, creams, and toner. The products are available on the website, www.plushura.com and Ten Lifestyle Group – Canadian Concierge. The company is focused on natural way of healing by manufacturing its products using natural ingredients and conducting mindfulness workshops. The focus is on creating awareness around the products, skin care regime and mindfulness.
