Clean - Calm - Consistent
Camilla was raised by a mother that lived by these words. Later in life Camilla came across a book that left a huge impact on her. This was a soap recipe book from the 80's, which described the main components that should be present if a child is to have a good upbringing. The same three words, clean, calm and consistent. The words are part of an old ad from 1925, shown in the soap recipe book. These words intensified Camilla’s love for cleaning and creation of soaps, and the book is something she keeps returning to even after all these years. They inspired her in her own life, not only in relation to the upbringing of her own children, but also in relation to her company Humdakin.
Humdakin is over two years old now, and even though we’re still pretty young, Humdakin has grown exponentially. A lot has happened these two years, so in this post we’ll be looking back on the start!
Previous to the start of Humdakin, Camilla owned her own cleaning company, which helped her gain experience and knowledge within this area. With her passion for cleaning and her interest in developing her own products, like she’s been doing with soap since she was young, it meant that she had to follow another dream.
The dream started with brainstorming products that she felt were missing in the industry and in her own home. Cleaning products that were effective, allergy-friendly and gentle on the environment. Camilla spent a lot of time in the lab and at home testing the product samples that lived up to her high expectations.
Along with the first liquid products, Camilla also started the first textile collection to complete the modern household range. She was inspired by her grandmother’s kitchen textiles from the 50’s, which she kept safe in a drawer. The danish textiles represented that generation’s knitting techniques which created absorbent textiles. The 1950’s was in general a time that Camilla finds inspiration in, for example the housewives in the 50’s that were proud to keep a clean and polished home.
Besides developing the products, Camilla also needed to think of a name for her brand. She had taken an innovation class while studying, which assisted her in the creation of a name. Humdakin is built up of the names of her only 3 family members back then. Her daughter’s Danish name, “Nynne”, translates to “hum”, her partner’s name is “Dan” and her little French bulldog is called King. Together, those names constitute the name we know today - Humdakin. Today her family of three has grown to six, because other than being an innovative businesswoman, her heart beats for being a mother and wife.
After almost five years of developing products and the brand concept, Humdakin launched in November 2016.
The first collection was stored in a 15 square meter warehouse, which was at the time part of the showroom, where she also worked from. However, not long after Camilla had to expand and today we have a separate warehouse of around 350 square meters.
However, the dream that started it all did not only consist of allergy - and environmentally-friendly household products. Camilla also had a mission to teach the world to love cleaning! To keep on growing and living up to our mission, we now focus on communicating with our customers to inspire them and inform them. This can be by sharing inspiration for a mindful cleaning, how you organize, how to style with flowers, etc. We believe that if you’re inspired and motivated to clean, then it will become a ritual to learn to love!
This inspiration and motivation was what Camilla experienced years ago, when she was cooking soaps for fun, working part-time as a florist to learn to style homes, and when she spent almost five years developing a brand, that was built upon her most important values. It is the same inspiration and motivation that drives her to this day!
