Marianella began in 2007 with bars of soap. Marianella Febres-Cordero had started making soap again in her spare time and was giving the bars to her son, David Foote. He passed them to friends, the friends asked for more, and that year the two of them started Jabonería Marianella, selling bars of soap in seven scents, three to a set.
Everything we make now, from face serums to candles, grew out of those first bars. This is the story of how they came about, and what from that first year is still true.
Before the brand: soap in a grandmother's kitchen
Marianella learned the craft long before it was a business. She grew up making soap in her grandmother's kitchen in Venezuela, and that early habit grew into a lasting interest in scents and in the ingredients that carry them. As an adult she worked as a graphic designer and an author. Soap was something she knew how to make, not something she planned to sell.
Years later, living in the United States, she began making it again in her spare time. It was the same kitchen-table work, done for the pleasure of it, and she gave the bars to David.
Bars for a son, then for his friends
David passed the bars on to friends. The friends came back and asked for more. That small, repeated request is the closest thing we have to a business plan, and it is the reason our brand exists.
Marianella knew how to make the soap. David, a fine artist and designer, knew how to give it a look. In 2007 the two of them started the company together.
2007: seven scents, three to a set
Our first products were bars of soap, made in seven scents and sold three to a set. The name was Jabonería Marianella. Jabonería is the Spanish word for a soap maker's shop, which is exactly what we were.
One of those early scents, Wisteria and Jasmine, was made to recall the dama de noche flower Marianella kept beside her young son's bed in Venezuela. From the start, the scents came from places and memories rather than from a trend report. David designed the packaging for those first bars, and he has designed every piece of our packaging since.
A first write-up, that November
W magazine wrote about the bars in November 2007, in our first year. At that point our brand was a mother, a son and seven scents of soap, and the bars had only just started to travel beyond David's circle of friends.
Later coverage followed in Vogue, Refinery29, Bloomberg, Brooklyn Magazine and People. But that first piece in W came before any of it.
What has stayed the same since the first year
Quite a lot. Marianella still makes every formula and every fragrance. David is our Creative Director and still gives every product its look, from the bottle and the label to the box. We still work in small batches, now in our workshop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with more hands and better equipment than that first kitchen.
The reason for the scents has not changed either. Every scent still begins with a place Marianella has been. And we are still a mother and son brand, making what is needed rather than filling a warehouse.
What grew from seven bars
The range grew one product at a time. The craft of soapmaking is still at its center. Our Replenishing Body Wash with Kalahari Oil is a true castile-style liquid soap, saponified the traditional way, and our Rose Face Wash Cream starts from a base that comes from our own soapmaking.
Today the range also takes in body creams, hand creams and body oils; face care, led by The Royal Kalahari Face Serum, which won People's Star Beauty Award for Best Facial Care Product; and candles, reed diffusers and room sprays in the same scents we use on skin. Moroccan Fig and Bergamot, a scent that carries the light of a warm Mediterranean coastline, is still our best seller.
If you want to see how the work is done today, read about our Williamsburg workshop and its small batches.
Questions about how Marianella began
When was Marianella founded?
In 2007, in Brooklyn. We have made our products in small batches ever since.
Who founded Marianella?
Marianella Febres-Cordero and her son, David Foote. She makes every formula and fragrance; he is our Creative Director and designs how everything looks.
What were the first Marianella products?
Bars of soap in seven scents, sold three to a set. W magazine wrote about them in November 2007, our first year.
What does Jabonería mean?
It is Spanish for a soap maker's shop. Our company started as Jabonería Marianella because soap was the first thing we made.
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