Maui-made exfoliant line rubs users the right way

Ruby Makuch is not a typical handcrafter. Yes, she has her business and a day job as a manufacturer’s representative for the food service industry that has been her career for more than 30 years, but she also has a patent.

Her exfolifeet sand-pumice soap looks sort of like a Lego block on one side, except the protrusions are dome-shaped instead of flat on the top. The other side has a built-in nail-scrubbing brush, and it is created using her patented process.

She is seeking another patent for her loofah soaps.

“There are loofah soaps out there, but not the way I do it,” she said.

Her process keeps the hard, center core of the loofah away from the skin. “I came up with something I liked,” she said.

In the interest of spreading lifelong learning, your columnist will share a lesson learned from Makuch.

If you think loofah is a type of sponge, perhaps commonly thought to be a type of water plant, you would be wrong.

“They grow on a vine, like cucumbers,” Makuch said.

A quick Google image search for “loofah plant” reveals terrestrial trellises supporting long, green, vegetable-looking things that sort of resemble bittermelon on the outside — but not so much on the inside.

“I will be working with a local farmer to grow them” so she can use Maui-grown loofah in her Maui-made soap.

Makuch’s handmade products provide benefits beyond exfoliating soaps. Their sales afford her a way to regularly support the Brain Trauma Foundation in honor of her husband, Dave, who suffered a brain injury in an assault in Michigan in 2003. A portion of her company’s sales is donated to the foundation, which was helpful to the couple during his recovery. Dave previously had spent most of his adult life on the Valley Isle, which is one reason the couple has lived on Maui for the past five years.

In addition to specialized soap bars, Makuch makes salt and sugar scrubs designed to exfoliate, condition and moisturize the skin, using local ingredients including hard-to-handle macadamia nut shells.

“I forget how many psi (pounds per square inch of pressure) it takes to crack a mac nut … but I created a process,” she said.

Spa Grande at the Grand Wailea Resort uses exfolicare’s Maui Turbinado Sugar scrub, which incorporates the ground macadamia nut shells, in its treatments. “They’re trying to stay as local as possible,” Makuch said.

Some of the formulations of her scrubs, such as Salted Coffee, Papaya Seed & Maui Cane Sugar, sound good enough to eat.

“You could,” she said, citing the products’ natural ingredients, including vitamin E oil, coconut oil and other items. However, the products are recommended for external use.

The company offers facial scrubs and mud masks, which are “fun to make and fun to use.”

A colorful body mist on the exfolicare website is enriched with macadamia nut oil.

The fragrances available vary from tropical to spicy to beachy, such as her signature “Walk the Beach” scent, which is the top-selling fragrance, available across her various products.

After she introduced a plumeria fragrance, it almost caught up with “Walk the Beach,” but then her signature fragrance regained dominance, indicating strong repeat business and a local following.

While available at Blue Ginger shops at resorts on Maui, Kauai, Hawaii island and Oahu, “I do have a lot of local customers,” she said.

Prices range from $3.99 for lip balms to $8.99 for loofah soaps, or $9.99 for exfolifeet, $10 for cream, $14.99 for scrubs and a range of prices for a variety of products in between. She also sells products in sets, and takes custom orders, for corporate gifts, for example.

For those who order online, she offers a kamaaina discount via a password-accessible link on her website. So, how does one obtain the password?

“You have to find Ruby,” she said.

“Buy Local” runs on Aloha Fridays. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.