We just got back after a fantastic weekend trip to Langkawi (we closed the office on Friday because everyone was travelling, yes, even staff).

Among other things, we paid a visit to the Paul Penders Company.

This has been something I had wanted to do for some time now, except that each time either I was busy here in Penang or that Paul, the founder and CEO of Paul Penders, was away travelling.

Finally after meeting Paul twice in Penang (and both times at his fave hangout, Starbucks), we decided that we had to sneak a peek at his new office in Bukit Tekoh, Langkawi.

View from Paul Penders' new office

After all, we’d be working closely with them for the next 6 months in a blogging consult project. I’ll be helping them on both technical and writing aspects of the blog project.

This has to be one of my pet projects so far. This is something which I’m really excited about. Teaching is probably in my blood despite my resistance towards teaching (I mean, teaching in schools is not something I’m mad about and you probably know why. I did a stint as a temporary teacher when I was waiting for my STPM results many moons ago but it wasn’t superb or anything like that.)

Anyway, Nic and I met Paul twice already here in Penang over coffee and tea in Starbucks, Borders. At first glance, he’s like this big bear of a man but highly approachable with a twinkle in his eye. He’s always busy (meeting business partners, overseeing his international branches etc) so we were quite fortunate to be able to meet and talk to him.

What I liked immediately is that Paul is an animal lover at heart and extremely passionate about his business and skincare products. His natural herbal skincare products are NOT tested on any furry friends (he pointedly refused to test on animals in an industry where animal testing is a norm). He’s also vocal about what he doesn’t put into his skincare products - no chemicals, just all natural ingredients so they’re safe and gentle on skin and hair (check out his long list of satisfied clients).

It’s fascinating and refreshing to listen as Paul speaks about his lifelong passion (mixed with a good dose of rebelliousness). He’s not afraid to upset established practices especially those which run counter to his sense of ethics. Kudos to you Paul because I’ve always believed that there ARE ethical businesses around.

You’ve proved that you can be ethical and you can run a solid business! We need more people like this.

Really and truly.

Anyway, the four of us arrived last Friday afternoon at his new 4-storey office overlooking the fabulous Langkawi sea.

You may be asking, why is an international brand located in Langkawi? He re-located his R&D office to Langkawi in 2003 when he fell in love with the lushness of our tropical island. (Now why is it that mat sallehs are the ones appreciating what we have while we go gallivanting elsewhere?)

Paul himself met us at the door. We next met up with the rest of his team - Jarina, Hasnah, Hong and Katja (his daughter, model and muse as she appears in the brochure and website too) at the conference room. We spoke mainly about ideas for the company blog and how each person could contribute to the blog and how the blog could be used more actively for PR activities.

What I found endearing was a framed poster of a little girl hugging a rabbit with the words “My Daddy makes Dutch herbal cosmetics which have not been tested on animals.”

That little girl was Katja, when she was a child! And now she’s also helping her father’s international business!

Paul was kind enough to bring us around to show us the rest of his new office building - a room right at the top built for his team to ‘get away for a while’ (definitely a room with a view) and a meditation room.

What’s even better is that this man does not believe in holding back secrets. He says that it was OK for me to snap a photo of the herbs used in his products. Which was totally cool as most people would baulk and say no.

Dr Gatot tells us more about extracting active ingredients from herbs.

We were then introduced to Dr Gatot who explained the difference between distillation and extraction for the active ingredients in herbs (which are used for their LevensEssentie found in the Paul Penders’ skincare and hair range).

Nic, Paul and Dr Gatot

22 Eastern and Western herbs which becomes their trademark LevensEssentie.

Short visit though it may be, it was incredibly educational as we learnt about the use of Western and Eastern herbs and what makes Paul Penders’ organic products safe and gentle for skin and hair!

The best of East and West - in a bottle!