By Ruken Alışkan
The term “witch”, which we encounter in many religious and mystical sources and often used in a bad sense, is seen when describing a “bad woman”.
However, according to many sources, witches were people, mostly women, who prepared the right mixture with the herbs they took from nature and gave healing. Today’s feminist discourses use the word witch to describe the powerful woman who seeks her rights, that is, the “troublemaker”, and overturns the negative meaning of the word.
I’m telling you all this to tell you that I met a modern witch. In her house in Akbuk, when people go to sleep, this witch starts to stir her cauldron in the stillness and serenity of the night.
As she mixes her oils made from flowers, a mystical scent fills her lungs and she feels like she is doing magical works at that very moment. She leans over her cauldron and says “healing to the person who will reach this”.
So who is she? Ilkay Baysal. A female entrepreneur has recently bought her own brand. Here’s Ilkay’s story.
Although Ilkay has been coming to Didim since 2015, she moved here in 2018. She has gone through a divorce process that has still not been finalized and has worn her out.
The mother of 2 children, İlkay has been living alone with her daughter Doğa for a long time. She had a tough time as a single mother. Ilkay, who has been struggling financially and morally, is proud and happy to have her own brand. But what pleases her most is knowing, in his own words, that she heals people.
İlkay, who is a graduate of Tourism and Hospitality Management, saw an advertisement for sign language training for the hearing-impaired and enrolled in the training while looking for ways to help the disabled before the divorce process.
After receiving her certificate, she started to work as an interpreter for the disabled who had problems in courthouses. Afterward, she started to give sign language education in public education centers, universities, and primary schools, respectively.
While everything was going well, both the divorce process and the pandemic have put Ilkay in financial and moral difficulties. Since she could not continue her job at the public education center, she started working in a supermarket.
But the long working hours prompted her daughter, who is now 9.5 years old,to complain: “Mom, find a job where you can work at home.”
Ilkay thought for a long time about how this could be possible. She compares the day she came up with the idea to make soap to the day when Archimedes found the buoyancy of water in the bath.
“Probably Archimedes also jumped up with the bowl in the bath. While I was sitting with tea in my hand, I suddenly dreamed I was making soap with natural ingredients, and I jumped out of my seat with such excitement that I spilled the tea on myself.”
Ilkay states that Doğa is now happier. Doğa says to those who ask, “My mother adds healing to soap.”
Last August, right after the idea of soap making came to her mind, she attended a professional soap-making course in Istanbul. She understands better that the job she wanted to do while she was studying here was not to make ornamental soaps;
She determined to make healing natural soaps by reaching the natural oils produced in high quality in Turkey. Immediately after her education, she conducted research to get her brand.
After all the challenging processes, she became the owner of the “Ilkay Aden” brand. Aden means Garden of Eden. It’s a pretty apt name for their fragrant soaps.
After getting her brand, she participates in Didim Vegan Festival. Because she doesn’t have enough connections and she thinks this festival would be suitable for meeting people.
İlkay delivers her soaps to many local and foreign people here. When Didim Mayor stops by her booth at the festival, she spoke about her brand and the fact that she is a woman entrepreneur in Didim. She was encouraged to participate in the Medusa Handicraft Sales Area.
Saying that it is very exciting to know that they have soaps that reach the world from a tiny stand in a tiny place like Didim, İlkay thinks it is a chance for her to live in a place like Didim where many visitors come from around the world.
Ilkay’s dream about soaps is not small. As a female entrepreneur, she wants to touch the lives of women who feel lonely no matter what their story is and give them jobs in her workshop that she plans to open next year.
She said: “I founded this brand by enlarging my dreams. Now I dream of touching women’s lives.” She dreams of the day when a workshop where all employees are women will be opened in other places in Turkey, perhaps through franchising.
It is also possible to visit the stand with İlkay’s natural soaps in the Medusa Handicraft Sales Area, in the small area in Altınkum Neighborhood where local people sell their handicrafts.
The price of soaps varies between 35 and 65 liras. It is possible to see the content and benefits of the soaps you will buy from the English catalog prepared for foreigners. Her Instagram page is: ilkayadensabun.