The founder of Old Bexley Soap Co. has championed local artisanship after being invited to exhibit her work at this month’s Ideal Home Show.

Paula Mateo runs her company from Bexley village and has been crafting artisan soap and skincare since 2014.

Many of 47-year-old Paula’s customers are local and she uses as many local suppliers as possible, having lived in Bexleyheath for 20 years.

Paula was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at 28 and after months of treatment realised her body needed nurturing, inspiring her to create her own natural soaps and body butters.

Explaining just how important her local community is, Paula told News Shopper: “A lot of my customers are local people, people of Bexley and the surrounding area.

“I’ve lived in the area for 20 years.

“I’m a local and when I started my company, I thought about my audience.

“I decided I wanted to work with locals and for locals.

“I wanted to open my services to the local people because of that sense of community.

“That’s why the name is very clearly for people around the Bexley borough.

“I do my courses in Bexley village and I try to use as many local suppliers as possible and support other local businesses.”

Paula, who is originally from Spain, also started running candle and soap making courses three years ago.

She hopes her workshops are inspiring and help people realise anything is possible.

Paula said: “People will see this as an inspiration and see that there are no limits.

“If you put your mind to it and work hard, you can achieve anything.

“A lot of people come to me because they may have lost their job in the pandemic and they need a change of career or they’re near to retirement age and they don’t want to be doing what they’re doing, and I help them with that.

“I give them the skills and the knowledge to do that, whether it's a hobby or they want to start a side hustle.”

Paula taught herself everything she knows and admitted it was a slow process that started out as a hobby and over time grew into a business.

She added: “With every bit of feedback my confidence grew and now I work with the best course providers in the UK.

“This led to me being offered the job with the Ideal Home Show.”

Saying she is “honoured” to be taking part in such an enormous event, Paula continued: “They’ve asked me to run a perfume making workshop and it will be in small groups.

“It’s really interesting for me because I’m going to be able to combine my passion for fragrances and cosmetics products.

“I’m going to go with all the materials and people can make their own blends and test top quality fragrances and go home with something they’ve made themselves.

“It’s only £25 a ticket and this includes entry to the Ideal Home Show itself.”

As for her biggest pinch me moment to date, Paula said: “On Friday I have a lady coming from Shannon in Ireland.

“She’s booked a hotel and a flight to take one of my courses.

“I’m still pinching myself.

“Someone coming all the way from Ireland and taking a flight is such an honour.”

Paula still works three days a week as an accountant and runs her business during the remaining days.

She added: “I built my company from the ground up.

“I run my business during the other days of the week.

“I think a lot of people resonate with that.

“I can’t quit everything just yet, but I can combine both.”

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