Single mom turns life savings into successful organics brand now expanding abroad
MANILA, Philippines — It wasn’t too long ago when most Filipinas depended their choice of beauty products on a single qualifier: Is it imported?
Today, as consumers evolved and learned to consider everything from the item’s ingredients to its environmental impact, “mompreneur” Tyff Short of proudly local beauty brand One Earth Organics looked back with pride on how much the market’s mindset has changed.
Short admitted that she, too, used to solely base her beauty product purchases on whether it’s manufactured outside the country. After all, this led her to learn firsthand about the harmful effects of chemical-based products, and why she established the brand more than a decade ago as a healthier alternative. The brand offers safe, clean, and best-quality skincare products as organic as they can get, designed to enhance and sustain natural beauty.
More than that, the brand has always stood for beauty that runs not just skin-deep, but self-deep, rooted in principles that today have become staples in the industry.
“From the beginning, our goal was to educate people about the benefits of organic skincare in a way that wasn’t just a trend, but as a lifestyle,” the founder said. “We were able to prove that the quality of (our) local brand is as good or even better than imported products; and that we can also compete with the premium brands.”
Short founded the brand in 2013 with her little life savings as a single mother making ends meet. Her goal was to present the market with organic beauty solutions and to give her son a brighter future.
Through innovative offerings that resonated with the market, the brand proved to be the answer for many. A member of PETA, the brand champions all-natural materials, combining cutting-edge plant-based solutions with the potent synergy of organic and natural components. The goal was to nurture a positive impact on both health and the environment. That means the brand has always trumpeted concepts like “sustainability,” “niacinamide,” and “paraben-free,” among others, even before they became the beauty buzzwords that they are now.
One of the brand’s hero products from the get-go is the multi-awarded, game-changing Under Arm Therapy Set, comprised of antibacterial whitening deo-spray, healthy glow booster serum, and underarm deep whitening cream. To go with the product’s popularity, the brand sparked the “kili-kili selfie” trend that became a revolutionary online phenomenon, empowering women to be more open about their underarm insecurities.
“I always believe that the underarm is as important as the face because it plays that confidence factor,” Short said. “All the products we produce stem from addressing a specific beauty problem or insecurity of women. We get to solve it without using harmful chemicals and by boosting confidence to allow them to focus on their goals.”
The brand evolved from its humble beginnings as a constant participant in bazaars, to changing countless lives with its distributorship/reseller program, to breaking ground with milestone partnerships with national wellness chains Watsons and Beauty Bar. The brand also takes pride in overcoming the trials of the global pandemic.
According to Short, the key to the brand’s recovery was setting its priorities straight, which started with fixing everything internally. The brand began its rebuilding efforts in the last quarter of 2022, following two years of losses and system collapse. Short took care of the brand’s employee welfare across all departments, from human resources to operations, then proceeded to create a new roadmap for the brand.
“I fought for it,” she said. “I wanted to stay true to myself and my advocacies, which meant fixing everything from the inside first before producing and marketing our products. Also, I did not want to compromise the quality of our offerings, which is why we had to make sure that we got everything right.”
Today, the brand, available in the Philippines via Watsons and Beauty Bar, as well as in LazMall and Shopee Mall, is back on its feet with bigger goals than ever, including a global expansion that’s already in motion. The brand went live on its export partner’s trade website this year, bringing the brand one step closer to being available in the U.S., Europe, Middle East, and Indonesia.
Short admits that the journey has exceeded her expectations. What began as a business to help those like her and to give her son a better shot at life has evolved into a full-blown revolution on women empowerment. She receives messages from female entrepreneurs, thanking her for inspiring them to take control of their lives. Some even ventured into beauty and wellness as well, but Short does not view them as competition.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about women empowerment and supporting other women,” she said. “I am happy and also inspired by their story.”
