Vereeniging, Gauteng native and 27-year-old entrepreneur Refiloe Mohono has turned her experience with foot sweat into a profitable business. The cosmetics industry may very well be turned upside down by this breakthrough. Many of us experience the common occurrence of perspiring feet and may dismiss it as nothing more than an irritation. Mohono and her 33-year-old business partner, Optimist Philiso, set out to discover an effective answer to the issue. There’s a lot more to it than that, though.
Creating Eco-Friendly Options with Top-Notch Cosiness
For a long time, many people have neglected to adequately address the problem of foot sweat, which is often accompanied by stench. Refiloe’s struggle to overcome this barrier inspired the concept of a company that may give a solution, and this new company is known as O&R Products. The Complete Comfort brand is known for its organic foot care products and other remedies designed to rejuvenate tired feet.
Complete Comfort was born out of a desire for a solution that not only dried out feet and got rid of odorous foot perspiration, but also rejuvenated feet and made shoes smell like new. It’s a game-changer in the health and wellness industry, and it shows the promise of chemical-free organic products. Refiloe wanted to create a product that would do well with its intended market, so it set out to learn what factors would work best together to make the most desirable final product.
An All-Natural Solution to Your Persistently Sweaty Feet
The two spent the preceding year researching and developing a prototype of Complete Comfort, which they unveiled in 2019. But just with the creation of any new product, they encountered challenges that needed to be surmounted. At first, rather than keeping its natural colour over time, the product became a brownish hue. But with new knowledge on how to best include natural ingredients into their product, the dogged couple headed back to the drawing board.
Getting startup funding proved difficult given our recent graduation. They used their funds to pay for production and later reinvested some of their profits to expand the business. In 2022, however, all of their hard work paid off when the startup received R38,000 in funding from the Sebokeng Innovation Hub’s eKasi Labs. This Sebokeng-based initiative aimed to support new and creative enterprises operating out of Gauteng’s informal settlements.
Possibilities for Development and Revival
Despite being temporarily shut down due to the COVID-19 epidemic, Complete Comfort has experienced tremendous growth ever since it was reactivated in November 2022. They have manufactured about 300 machines, but have only sold about 250 so far.
Rose geranium, lemongrass, and tea tree are the three accessible fragrances, and they each have their own set of benefits to offer. The calming impact of rose geranium, for example, can aid with stress reduction and is effective against mental health issues like anxiety and depression. The advantages of this go beyond conventional foot care to include aromatherapy.
A Glance into the Future
By the end of 2023, Complete Comfort hopes to have added to its catalogue heel balm, callus removers, and sea salt foot massage items. This expansion will strengthen their position in the market and allow them to introduce cutting-edge organic remedies for persistent foot care issues. In addition, this growth will result in additional job openings.
Thanks to her ingenuity, Refiloe Mohono was able to triumph over a personal challenge while also raising the bar for the standard of excellence in organic foot care products. She finally achieved her lifelong goal of a sweat-free experience, which has helped a lot of people and given her a unique niche to work in the beauty and wellness industry.
