Beyond the Label with Naomi Cooking

Join us as we go beyond the label with brands that we love at Martie. Today, we chat with Preston, creator of Naomi After-Cooking Hand Scrub.

We’ve been hearing about Naomi everywhere, so we are thrilled to chat with you and learn more! Before we dive in, check out all the tantalizing soaps here.

Martie: Who’s Naomi?

Preston: We’re cooks trying something new! I cooked in Michelin star restaurants before starting Naomi with other cooks.

Martie: How’d the idea for Naomi After-Cooking Hand Scrub come to life?

Preston: It started with realizing that it’s harder to cook at home than in pro restaurants. At home, you have to integrate your cooking into the lives of your loved ones, and my girlfriend dreads the smell of garlic. 

I thought it’d be a fun challenge to make a hand wash that could neutralize food odors for me while still feeling and smelling luxurious for her. I spent months testing hand wash recipes in our home kitchen until I made one we both liked.

Martie: What else makes a great hand wash?

Preston: At this point we’re obsessed with testing hand washes! No restaurant bathroom is safe. When I ate at Alouette in Copenhagen last summer, their team surprised me with a blind “taste test” of three different hand washes at the dinner table haha. We mean business!

The best hand washes feel substantial in your hand. Like a demi-glace that leaves a trail when you run your finger through it. Their scent is subtle, more like muddled source ingredients than perfume. If there are exfoliants, they’re gentle enough that you can use the hand wash throughout the day.

Importantly, great hand washes have the right balance of oils for the job at hand. For cooking, too much oil in the wash makes it harder to remove grease from your hands; too little oil and your skin ends up dry.

Martie: What has been your biggest “aha” moment when building Naomi?

Preston: Early on, we weren’t sure if we’d have to choose between being a luxury product and a functional one. 

But two things happened around the same time that helped us get out of our own way: customers started sending photos of Naomi in styled guest bathrooms, and restaurants started asking for bulk packaging for their teams. The “aha” was realizing the distinction between luxury and practicality wasn’t helpful, because makers want high quality products, too. We show up for people who value care and craft and the rest falls into place.

Martie: What’s your relationship with World Central Kitchen?

We donate 2% of sales to World Central Kitchen, an organization that provides chef-prepared meals to people in crisis. We were inspired by how they showed up during the Los Angeles fires — some of the biggest heroes in the food industry.

Martie: What’s next in the pipeline for Naomi?

Preston: Next is a new After-Cooking Hand Scrub with a fragrance we’re calling Wood & Yuzu. Real yuzu essential oil is expensive, so nearly every company selling yuzu fragrance uses grapefruit and other proxy oils to simulate yuzu. But we’re cooks — we can tell the difference! We’re making the fragrance with essential oils extracted from YUZUCO yuzus. 

We’re also launching a luxury bathroom hand wash called Los Angeles Terroir. The fragrance is inspired by foraging in LA and uses essential oils from plant species native to the area.

Martie: Any plans beyond soap?

Preston: Definitely. The line between pro and amateur makers is thinner than ever. Whether you’re cooking dinner, throwing pottery, or building furniture in your garage, there’s real value in functional luxuries: products that feel great to use, perform well, and respect the work you're doing with your hands. We think we’re in as good a position as anyone to create those sorts of products. The first one will be an odor-neutralizing hand balm.

Martie: Why is working with Martie important to Naomi?

Preston: Seasonality is such a powerful force in the culinary world, but it’s nonexistent in personal care. If all goes well, we’ll grow to a point where we can produce hand washes that represent a given season in a given location – something super representative of the time and place. That sort of high-risk, limited-run production isn’t possible without a partner like Martie.