Water soft on a hard stone beats water hard.
This is how Ana Paula Leitão, mentor and founder of Água Mole, described her life project!
Água Mole is a registered cosmetics brand that arose from the resilience and stubbornness of Ana Paula Leitão, who never gave up on the project, and today is already a national and international reference!!!
But to be able to talk about the present or the future, it's important to know what's behind this great lady, who welcomed us with great warmth to her workshop in Cabeço de Vide and told us a beautiful and passionate life story.
He was born in Angola and, like many other families, left as a baby in 1961 because of the colonial war. He arrived in Portugal and lived in various parts of the country due to his father's work, who was sent to work on different dams.
At school age there was a need to settle down and Ana Paula, along with two brothers and her mother, settled in Cacilhas, where they stayed for a few years.
In 1969, they returned to Africa, more precisely to Mozambique, once again because of their father's work, who joined a team of labourers in Cabora Bassa, where they stayed for two years and, due to their mother's illness, were forced to return to Portugal at the end of that time.
After her mother died eight months after returning from Mozambique, Ana Paula went to live with her aunt and uncle in France and stayed there until she was 20.
She returned to Portugal to study languages, where she met António, her husband, who was a pharmacy technician in Lisbon.
One day she went to help her boyfriend at the pharmacy for fun and never left it again. She also specialised in pharmacy during her time in Lisbon.
One day Ana Paula went to the village of Cabeço de Vide for a weekend in the Alto Alentejo, at the invitation of some friends, and she told us that as soon as she set foot on Alentejo soil she said "this is where I belong", without ever having been there. He'd never felt at home anywhere he'd been.
Ana Paula and her husband, who were already married and had two children, aged 1 and 4, quickly left Lisbon, went on an adventure and moved to the Alentejo.
Along the way, they used the funding and support available at the time and opened a handicrafts and regional products shop in Alter do Chão, which led to an interruption in the pharmaceutical business. With the advent of the motorways, which took the Portuguese to other destinations, they decided to settle permanently in Cabeço de Vide and close the business in Alter do Chão. They returned to the pharmacy business to this day.
The Água Mole project was born along the way and, as Ana Paula says, it began for two reasons. Firstly because, as a pharmacy technician with experience in handling medicines, she had skin problems and was looking for products to solve them. Secondly, she decided to go ahead with the project at a critical time for the country, in the midst of the troika, with the hope that it might succeed in the future. So, in 2014 the ideas and experiments began, but it wasn't until 2017 that the business and commercialisation of its range of products really began.
Água Mole started out with 6 references and now has more than 20, such as soaps, shampoos, eau de cologne, scented candles, air fresheners, solid deodorants, massage candles, solid perfumes, among others.
The main characteristic that sets this brand apart from the competition is that it works the senses through aromas, using thermal water in the production of its products and being the only one in the sector to do so. Simple formulas, but with aromas that immediately take us back to the scents of Alentejo and our roots, such as fennel, orange blossom, rosemary, among others.
The birth of the products is intuitive and often comes from customer requests to meet certain needs. They have answers to various problems, such as the body and hair gel, which was created for use by holidaymakers in hotels. There are testimonies that during stays and after using the shower gel for a few days in a row, they have felt significant improvements in their skin.
Ana Paula also highlights the repellent shampoo, which is great for keeping annoying bugs away and has excellent properties for dandruff problems thanks to its essential oils. There are also neutral shampoos for people with allergies or skin problems.
There's so much more to say about this brand, which is now a national and international reference, with several shops in Portugal and Spain. The company already has a team of four people who complement each other in every way and for the future there is a renewal of the brand's image and a new body lotion on the way.
We were able to witness the care and passion with which these products are made and we invite you to discover the whole range in our shop, Despensa Franciscana.
