Wash away your stress with Iqaluit’s Uasau Soap products

 

(adapted from a feature by Thomas Rohner published in Nunatsiaq News in 2015)

 

When you first walk into the Iqaluit home of Justin and Bernice Clarke, wafts of citrus, spices and flowers welcome you.

In neatly-stacked piles inside their living room and kitchen, you’ll find soaps, body blubbers, bath products and skincare remedies, wrapped in a small logo bearing the word “Uasau.”

The Clarkes have been making these products in their kitchen at home since 2013 with the help and inspiration of friends, family, and their eight-year-old daughter, Alethea.

But what started as a hobby, fueled by curiosity and a desire to connect to land and culture, has blossomed into a passion that’s on the verge of becoming a booming business. People from around the world want what Uasau Soap is producing. 

The couple’s products are natural, sustainable and chock-full of Nunavut-harvested ingredients, like tundra flowers and bowhead whale blubber.

Bernice started the company in 2013, but since then has watched her husband, a trained chef, grow more and more interested.

“It’s like he’s cooking when he makes soaps or body butters. He’s passionate and puts his love into it,” she said, sipping hot tea and sitting at her large wooden kitchen table with beautifully-scented products spread out in front of her.

In fact, Justin’s interest in the hobby has founds its way into his dreams. 

“I dreamed a bowhead whale was chasing me. I told him, ‘I don’t want to hurt you. I’m only taking what wasn’t harvested already!’” Justin said, somewhat embarrassed, sitting beside his wife.

The Clarkes are serious about the ethics of their business: their bowhead whale blubber comes only from community hunts. The couple said they won’t hunt for animal products, but only use what’s left over from community hunts.

“Inuit don’t waste any part of an animal,” Justin said.

And Inuit traditionally use bowhead whale blubber as a healing agent, Bernice explained.

“These animals are like 200 years old, so there’s something magical in them,” Justin added.

Their use of tundra plants for natural exfoliants and essential oils is fundamental to their sustainable approach. 

“People love our tundra soap,” Bernice said, adding that the couple quickly sold out and tripled their sales from last year at the recent Christmas craft fair in Iqaluit.

The couple have also been thanked by some customers for helping to clear up acne and eczema.

Envisioning their business as a community and family affair, the Clarkes have been helped by elders and  kids to gather tundra plants for their products to pass on traditional knowledge from one generation to the next.

They use Inuktitut names for many of their products.

“We like to have fun with naming our products,” Bernice said, their daughter Alethea having come up with a few.

Like a spearmint soap called “Kutsusunni,” whose name comes from the English words “good chew” that some Inuit use for “chewing gum,” and “sunni,” meaning, “smells like.”

Or a fragrant-free body butter called “nilak,” which means “ice.”

Some of the ingredients used in the products include butters from avocado, cocoa and shea trees; vegetables such as carrot, cucumber and olives; and scents from lemons, dill weeds and coconut.

Some products can even be used as shaving creams.

The Clarkes also make lip balms and hair products.

The response the Clarkes have received from friends and customers alike, from as far away as XXXX, have inspired them to keep going.

“I feel the energy from people, when they use our products,” Bernice said.

“This could be something big for us.”

Justin is a little more cautious, hesitant to quit his full-time job and jump into the risky world of private business.

“I’m a Virgo and she’s an Aries,” he explained, laughing.

But the couple has big plans.

They’d like to see their products available on flights to and within Nunavut, sold in gift shops across Canada, and available as a Nunavut-made and inspired product wherever tourists to Canada travel.

But for now, the couple is recovering from the Christmas rush while finishing up a custom order of wedding favours.

“We have a lot to learn still, but we’re having fun with it. It’s our passion,” Bernice said.

If you’re interested in learning more about Uasau Soaps’ products, the Clarkes invite you to explore their Shopify pages, or you can connect with them through Instagram @uasau_soap.

 

 

 

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Our Soaps are the kicker, by incorporating Bowhead while oils harvested and obtained through local community hunts, UasaU can give you the most spiritually moisturizing soap on earth. 

Our Soaps are the kicker, by incorporating Bowhead while oils harvested and obtained through local community hunts, UasaU can give you the most spiritually moisturizing soap on earth. 

Uasau Body blubbers also carry these Bowhead whale oils, helping calm down and also heal those nasty skin irritations.