April always gets me. Every single year.
It's the month we registered Sanbe Beauty, our organic vegan skincare brand, from right here in Okinawa. It's Earth Day month. And for me, it is the time of year when I go quiet inside and start looking back at everything we have and have not done.
This year felt different. I want to tell you why.
Seven Years Ago, I Just Needed Clean Skincare
I did not start Sanbe Beauty because I had a business plan or a mentor or a roadmap. I started it because I had a health scare, I was living in Okinawa, Japan, and I could not find products I trusted for my own skin. What started as a deep belief that skincare should be clean, safe, and actually work became Sanbe Beauty, an organic vegan skincare brand rooted in that same conviction seven years later.
I taught myself to formulate. I got certified through Formula Botanica. I figured it out, one small batch at a time, from my home in Okinawa where I have lived since 2009.
That has always been the foundation. Not a trend. Not a marketing angle. A genuine need, and a commitment to building an organic vegan skincare brand that I could actually stand behind.
That is still true in 2026.
What Actually Happened This Year
I will be honest. The last year has been one of the hardest stretches of this business. I have been running Sanbe completely solo since early 2025. No team. One woman, managing formulation, the website, customer service, content, and everything else in between.
That is not a complaint. It is just the reality of where we are.
But even in a year that drained me, we moved forward. Here is what actually happened:
We raised our prices. That was overdue and necessary. We launched a new product. We rebuilt and launched a brand new website alongside that price increase. We reduced our SKU count from 100 down to 20, which was one of the best decisions I have made. Fewer products, more focus, more intention.
A 2024 study published by the National Library of Medicine found that 40% of consumers are now aware of potential health impacts linked to toxic cosmetic ingredients. [1] That number keeps growing. The people who find Sanbe are not buying skincare on impulse. They are looking for something they can actually trust. Earning that trust takes consistency, even when running the whole thing alone.
That is what we showed up for this year.
Why This Anniversary Feels Different
Most years, April hits me with a wave of "I should have done more." That familiar spiral of comparing where I thought we would be versus where we are.
This year the feeling was different. More complex.
Part of it is the social media thing. I do not love it. I want to be transparent about that. As a founder, I understand it is part of the job. But there is real internal resistance when something feels forced rather than natural, and I have been sitting with that honestly.
Part of it is also the weight of doing this without the energy of other people around me. I function well when I am not carrying 100% of the operational load. I know that about myself. Knowing it does not always make it easier.
But here is what I keep coming back to: we are still here. Seven years. We have never compromised on what goes into our products. Not once.
That matters more to me than any milestone chart.
If you have been building something clean and honest without a lot of noise around you, you may recognize this feeling. I wrote more about what that kind of slow, steady consistency looks like in our post Why Skincare Consistency Is the Missing Link. It applies to building a brand too.
If You Are in Perimenopause or Menopause, This Might Land Differently
I want to talk to a specific group of you for a moment.
A lot of Sanbe's community are women in their 40s and 50s navigating real changes in their skin, and often, in their lives. If you are in perimenopause or postmenopause, you already know that this season asks more of you than most people see.
Research shows that estrogen decline during menopause reduces the skin's ability to hold moisture and weakens the skin barrier, making it more reactive, drier, and more sensitive to the products you use. That is exactly why the clean beauty conversation is not just a preference for many of you. It is a necessity.
The same way I needed products I could trust when my own health felt uncertain, you deserve a routine that is not adding more burden to skin that is already adjusting.
If you are in that season and are not sure where to start, the Anti-Aging Turmeric Cream and the Hyaluronic Acid Rose Toner are two of the most loved products among women navigating exactly this. Lightweight, clean, and formulated to help skin look and feel more balanced and hydrated.
What I Am Building Toward in 2026
Here is where I want Sanbe to be by the end of this year.
A full lineup of 10 well-defined products, each one clear on its purpose and packaged properly. We are working toward complete packaging across the range, which has been a long time coming.
A YouTube channel. Real content, not performance. I want to show the process, the formulation side, the real founder story.
An affiliate program specifically for women who want to share products they love and earn a little extra. Sanbe's community is full of women who care about clean living, and I want to give them a real way to participate in what we are building.
And eventually, the shift from fully in-house production to a partnership model, whether in the US or abroad, that lets me focus on the creative and strategic side of the brand rather than every single step of the physical process. That is a longer horizon goal, but it is a real one.
We are also actively looking to work with spas and wellness businesses, especially in the US. If that is you, or you know someone, reach out.
When I set out to build an organic vegan skincare brand, Earth Day felt like the right north star.
Earth Day is the right time to say this out loud.
Every choice we have made to use organic, plant-based, vegan ingredients is also a choice for the planet. Not because it was the trendy thing. Because it was the right thing, and because I believe what we put on our skin and what we put into the world are connected.
If you are new to Sanbe, the Bestseller Organic Vegan Skincare Set is the best place to start. It gives you the full picture of what we make and why. Or if you want something tailored to your skin specifically, take the Sanbe Skin Quiz and we will point you in the right direction.
Thank you for being part of year seven. Here is to building something that lasts.
Betty Founder, Sanbe Beauty Okinawa, Japan
