Jesse Brajuha turned to entrepreneurship during the Covid-19 pandemic when he saw a gap in the market, launching Triton Soap & Skincare last November. The queer and trans-owned brand is focused on creating inclusion for those who identify similarly.
Brajuha's foray into business may have been new, but his choice to pursue something in both hygiene and for the LGBTQ community wasn’t. After earning a master’s degree in public health from Drexel University and before launching Triton, Brajuha worked at the Temple University Risk Communication Laboratory, which focuses on public health.
He was also involved with LGBTQ youth through the Attic Youth Center in Philadelphia, prior to which he worked as a physical education teacher for those with special needs. The through line, he said, is creating space for and “bringing a body-positive approach” to the forefront.
After his mom passed, Brajuha discovered soap making and the first seeds for Triton were planted. “I just fell in love,” he said. “It was kind of like a lightbulb moment.”
In conceptualizing the business, Brajuha wanted to create products that were neither “hyper-masculine” nor “fruity and floral.” The market, he said, lacked appealing products in between.
Triton, based in Lansdowne, looks to fill that gap. With his products, Brajuha said he wants “queer and trans people, particularly trans people and trans masculine people who are never paid attention to, to feel seen.”
While that comes by way of the products, he said it’s also important to see business owners like himself.
“When you see yourself in a business, it opens up your eyes and mind a little bit more,” he said.
In a nod to queer culture, Brajuha’s soaps have tongue-in-cheek names like the best-selling Leather Bar, as well as the Drag Bar, Sand Bar, Lemon Bar and Granola Bar.
“My staple bars have coconut oil, sustainable palm oil, olive oil and castor oil,” he said.
Building off a similar base, he then adds certain ingredients to each soap type such as shea or cocoa butter, different scents, and in some cases an exfoliator like pumice powder, walnut shell or poppy seeds. He also uses colloidal oatmeal and coconut milk powder to create a soothing effect.
In keeping with his original goal, the scents and colors are neither hyper-masculine nor feminine, though requests for something with more color led him to launch the Drag Bar. The marbled soap has pinks and purples mixed with blacks and whites and is scented grapefruit and lavender.
Brajuha has also dabbled in other skincare products, including a face mask, serum, beard and hair oil, and body scrubs. Currently focused on his signature soaps, Brajuha said he plans to bring body and face scrubs to market soon.
Entirely self-taught, Brajuha also self-funded the business.
Not yet a year old, demographic pockets have already emerged, with sales coming from across the East Coast and cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco, though a heavy concentration is in the Northeast.
Sales are a mix of e-commerce and retail – currently through in-person markets – and Brajuha said his goal is to make business “80% online, 10% in person and 10% wholesale.” Bars retail for $9 each.
To achieve that goal, he’s worked on streamlining the process and building up inventory. Brajuha estimates he’s had about 400 orders, or the equivalent of about 1,000 bars of soap so far. He expects that number to climb in the fourth quarter.
With the business established, Brajuha is looking for alternate sources of funding, including funding geared specifically towards those in the LGBTQ community so that he can scale.
What’s the meaning behind the name?
I wanted to capture masculinity and femininity — some mix of that — and I was like, oh, a merman fits that really well. I researched more into Triton. He's the son of Poseidon, but commonly I know him from “The Little Mermaid.”
What other products are you considering?
I may add some more olive oil soap. That's popular and some people might want that sensitiveness, but they might also want a scent with it, I think that's sort of on the agenda to make a castile soap with lavender, with peppermint or different varieties. … If I had all the time and energy in the world, I'd have a shampoo bar, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, everything.
