The Tribune

By ALESHA CADET

Tribune Features Reporter

acadet@tribunemedia.net

Businesswoman Desiree Major-Corneille describes herself best as an innovator and homesteader at heart.

As a child, when the other little girls were dreaming of castles and princes, she was busy drawing pictures of farms and trying to figure out how to establish a viable homestead.

Since 2015, Des – as she is affectionately called – has contributed to several farmers’ markets, showcasing her home-grown produce. She then created two product lines. The first was Nourished Naturals, a toxin-free skin and haircare line aimed at helping women in particular with edge regrowth issues.

Her second line, Prized Piggies, offers flour cakes along with other food options such as vegan energy chunks, dried fruits, and flowers, like her popular hibiscus burst and hibiscus iced tea.

“I love that that farmers’ markets gave me insight into what persons are looking for and to also know that there will always be a sector of people who love what I create, whether it is a hibiscus or lavender pepper jelly, or fried grits and lobster with pepperoncino , or zucchini and chocolate cake, or lavender limonada,” said Desiree.

At some point, working from home or only on weekends as a passionate “hobbypreneur” was not enough as delivery requests kept pouring in. The number of requests for her products quickly became unsustainable. Therefore, she decided to centralise operations at a brick and mortar store to satisfy clients.

Desiree’s business, now called Alabaster Unboxed, offers raw ingredients and packaging for various crafts industries.

“As a creator, procuring raw ingredients and packaging on a timely basis for the items I wanted to experiment with or create was very difficult. I was completely at the mercy of the timeliness of oversea suppliers and local couriers. I started bringing items in wholesale and started selling those to others in my field. That’s when it hit me: there is a huge gap that we can fill and help stimulate the production agencies in the country. Our mission is to create a one-stop shop where ‘hobbypreneurs’ can learn a trade, outsource items for their creations, provide packaging and labelling for them to see their ideas come to fruition and then watch the Bahamas become a self-sustaining place,” said Desiree.

At Alabaster Unboxed, located in the Jems Plaza, Horseshoe Drive, Desiree’s packaging services includes: cosmetic containers for shampoos, deodorants, conditioners, body scrubs and butters, lip balms, as well as glass containers for jams, sauces, honey, and more. Also available are beverage pouches, green pouches, candle containers, essential oils and phenolic containers.

The raw ingredient selection includes: shea butter, cocoa butter and black soap, tangerine, coffee, kokum and mango butters, carrier oils like castor, sweet almond, avocado, apricot kernel, argan, clays, as well as emulsifiers, stabilisers, preservatives, xanthum gum, dried herbs, rose and lavender petals, and citric acid.

Under the Alabaster Unboxed brand, workshops are held every month in to teach people how to make a variety of items that they can add their spin on and create a side hustle or even a main source of income.

“A highlight is also our creation of items for your restaurant, hotel and spa; whether it be soap, shampoos, bath bombs, lip balms, candles, we package and label, help you brand as your own,” she said.

Since launching this April, Desiree said it has been a wonderful feeling seeing her plan in motion and the excitement on behalf of her customers.

“ I love to see customers walk in and after five minutes, make a remark like, ‘Wow ya’ll got everything’. We have had excellent experiences teaching persons to make lip balms, candles, soaps, kombucha, and so forth, and see them creating businesses from it. I love the workshops. So far there are about four businesses we have stimulated and others we have helped to meet their clients’ need in a timely fashion. I like being able to provide incredible value with the activities I am involved in. I understand my role in helping people to step into having multiple streams of income which in turn stimulates the Bahamian economy. I think I have created something that gives me the best of both worlds. No day has to be the same at Alabaster Unboxed. I also appreciate the challenges associated with strategising how to combine strategy and raw passion to create a successful business,” said Desiree.

She hopes to to see considerable growth in small businesses in the country in the next few years. To this end, Desiree is also offering handbag-making sessions.

“We see ourselves expanding to offer workshops more than once per month. We see setups where people can come and create their items, for those who don’t have sanitary spaces or places to make their craft. Bahamians are a creative people and my job is to make sure they have necessary items to help them fulfil their own purposes. We are working on getting our website up and functioning for online orders. We would like more exposure so Bahamians know we exist and would like to host larger class sizes with follow-up help for their businesses,” said Desiree.

Those interested can follow the Alabaster Unboxed on Instagram and Facebook.