Story

Nüsoak was founded by Ann-Marie Sanfacon, an adventurous soul from Canada (Québec) with her own vision of the world. Ever since she was a little girl, Ann-Marie wanted to start her business, but it took her about 5 years after university to find the project that would be in alignment with her values and passions. Ann-Marie’s main value that guides her decisions is LOVE. For 5 years, she tried working on different business ideas until she found the ONE project that would speak to her heart. She finally found a passion into the chemical-free living and that is how Nüsoak came to life!

 

Nüsoak (pronounced “New Soak”) was created to help people be more conscious about what they apply on their body. Ann-Marie is a lover of holistic medicine and she believes that everything you feed your body with, including what you apply on your skin, affects your health. She wants to help people make better decisions for themselves, help the world be healthier, increase consciousness and improve happiness at the same time. Let her tell you more about the first product we are selling at Nüsoak and how it all started.

Hello, I’m Ann-Marie

Picture of Ann-Marie Sanfaçon

Being someone who is very active, I have always cared about my health, but I was not really conscious of the chemicals I was feeding my body with. The year of 2021 was the year I got more conscious of how much chemicals we are exposed to. That’s when I started reading ingredients on the food to understand what I was feeding my body with and the ingredients of personal care products.

Did you know that your skin feed itself with the products that you apply on it through a process called dermal absorption? Each pore is like a tiny mouth nourishing itself with the ingredients that you apply on your skin. The ingredients then go in your blood and lymphatic systems which can cause multiple health problems such as skin problems. 

"1 of 3 Americans at any given time are affected by skin diseases such as acne, cancer, eczema and psoriasis." (NCCIH, 2019)

When I started reading the ingredients of my personal care products, I realized that 1) I didn’t know most of the ingredients and 2) most of the them were not good for our skin and our health. This was the beginning of my journey towards a more conscious living and healthier life.

Sensitive Skin

I started making my own personal care products or finding existing solutions to reduce the exposition of my body to chemicals. The first product I ever tried was a microfiber cloth to remove my makeup so that I can eliminate my makeup remover. It was doing an amazing job of removing any trace of my mascara, so I thought it could be perfect to clean my face as well.

Next thing I did was to eliminate my facial cleanser. For your information, my skin is very sensitive and it’s a combination skin which means my forehead, nose and chin are oily and the rest of my face is dry. Not easy to find the right products! The following weeks after eliminating my facial cleanser, I saw an improvement on my skin as the little bit of acne I had was all gone. That’s when I thought it could possibly be good for my whole body.

Water does clean

We are so used to hear that the more foam there is, the cleaner we will be. I wanted to challenge that false marketing claim that we have been fed for so many years by the big companies, so I started cleaning my body with the microfiber cloth and water ONLY. I started in December 2021 and it worked! Water is actually a great solvent and can dissolve a wide range of substance including dirt, sweat and bacteria.

Acne gone!

At that time, I had good acne problems on my chest and my back that was making me lose confidence in myself. I’ve had this problem for over 3 years, and I was very self-conscious about it. I had tried so many products, cheap ones, more expensive ones and even products advised by my dermatologist hoping to find a solution but nothing worked. After a few weeks of using the microfiber cloth to clean my body my acne disappeared completely. I’m still amazed by the product to this day! It cleans so well with water only and you get a healthy looking skin. Let’s just think about why it's so good for the skin:

  • Water is PH balanced.
  • Water doesn’t remove the barrier protection of your skin like soap does.
  • Water is a natural hydrator which is why it is the main ingredient in most personal care products.
  • You can drink water which means it’s healthy for you.

Obviously, this is my story and I won’t promise you that it will remove your acne, but it is a good possibility. What I can guarantee, though, is that :

  • it will help your body and skin to be healthier.
  • it will remove any impurities off your skin.
  • it will facilitate your life by making you save time, money and energy.

That’s what it did for me, and I know it will do the same for you!

Testing the product

I tested the product for one year and a half before thinking of launching it. I wanted to make sure that it cleans the body properly and removes any natural odors. Not only it cleaned my body, but it helped my skin by eliminating my acne. I am very happy to introduce you the Nüsoak Mitt which is, I believe, the first product in the world allowing you to clean your full body with ONLY water.

New Habit

I will be honest, the first week that I used the microfiber mitt to clean my body, it felt weird to me: 1) Water is a liquid, not foam 2) There is no odor 3)I didn’t feel fresh 4)I was scared that my intimate parts would not be clean. However, when I let go of the teaching that soap is necessary to clean your skin and I tried the mitt for a few days, that feeling went away. The mitt removed any natural odor, odor from sweat, extra oil from my skin and dirt insides my pores. I can see that my skin is much healthier now and I do feel fresh after every shower.

Let’s go on an adventure

Being more of a nomad type of person, I love to travel and discover new places. My favorite place to be is in nature, so you can imagine that caring for nature is very important to me. The mitt made me stop buying body wash, facial cleanser and makeup remover which is reducing the use of plastic. Also, as I only need water, I can clean myself in a lake when I go camping without leaving any chemical in the lake. As for my travelling, it got easier with the mitt since I do not bring liquid personal care products anymore (you can find in the “Natural Recipe” section what I use as shampoo and conditioner for my hair):

  • I don’t have to worry about security restrictions for liquids anymore.
  • I don’t have to worry about potential leaks of liquid in my suitcase.
  • I save space in my suitcase as the mitt is light, small and reversible so you can use it for 2 showers.

FYI: I like to bring 7 mitts with me when I travel so that I only have to do laundry every two weeks.      

Chemical-free recipes

In my consciousness journey, I started making my personal care products. I really wanted to understand what I was applying on my body and frankly, there was no product that would answer my needs as most natural products on the market require preservatives. My goal was to find the simplest recipes, have the easiest routine and have the best results. I truly believe that simple is better and it can give amazing results.

I tried a lot of products with a variety of natural ingredients that you can actually eat. If your body feed itself from the product that you apply on your skin, it only made sense to me that I should use ingredients that I can actually eat. 

After trying multiple different recipes, buying multiple ingredients and testing, I found some great ones that work very well for me and I thought I could share them with everyone. That is when I had the idea of eBook recipes. It will be available in October 2023 for a very cheap price. I really want people to have access to these recipes to improve their health. The eBook will be called Chemical-free Personal Care Recipes: Simple and Effective.