In the awards autumn series of blog posts, we get to know the brands and people behind the nominee products of the Nordic Natural Beauty Awards 2022. In this post, we are proud to share more about the Swedish petcare brand FURFACE Dogs, as told by the founder of the brand, Maria Ahola:
“In 1993 I started a business as a dog groomer. I loved the job but my hands suffered a lot and after ten full years, I left dog grooming and went all in for dog training which I still love very much.
Over the years I have continued to work for making dogs’ lives easier and happier, and one area that I have especially been interested in exploring more is aromatherapy. In 2019 I took the leap to combine my two passions and started making candles scented with lavender essential oil since lavender has a calming effect on dogs that suffer from stress.
My late Cesky terrier Mirka had greasy skin and a coat that caused itchiness, so I wanted to find a solution that would also help this condition of hers. In addition to candlemaking, I got into natural soapmaking and let me tell you how much I have been experimenting ever since. For Mirka, I made a 100% natural coconut oil soap for deep cleansing. It was an immediate success, so needless to say – there was no chlorhexidine shampoo from the vet used in our household anymore!
My other dog Meta, a Sealyham terrier, suffered from allergies instead. She had redness, itchiness, and fungus, mostly in ears and paws making her daily life miserable. For her, I started testing different mixtures of oils and clays. After several baths, I saw such a difference and can now truly say that all three of FURFACE’s soaps in production at the moment cover the needs that I have experienced with my own dogs.
After the successful candle and soap making, I wanted to produce also a paw balm for Meta and did countless different mixtures before ending up with the Nordic Natural Beauty Awards nominated SMOOTH PAWS.
My aim with Smooth Paws was to create a balm that was more of a cream, similar to a hand cream for humans, and I also wanted it to absorb quickly into the skin of the paw so it wouldn’t leave greasy stains or be licked off by the dog. Based on customers’ feedback, I can confirm that the paws really do become silky smooth and leave no greasy stains.
In the beginning, there was also lavender essential oil as the scent in Smooth Paws but I made the decision to leave it out in the end. Scents are mainly for the pleasure of us humans, dogs do not care for the scents. So since Smooth Paws was made for dogs, I kept it appealing for those sneaky movements!
I hope FURFACE’s products keep making the lives of dogs and dog owners better and easier since it is the whole reason why I make them.
Maria Ahola
The founder of FURFACE dogs
Get to know FURFACE Dogs even better on their website at furface.se and follow the brand’s journey on FURFACE Dogs’ Instagram account >
