Ann Marie Sharoupim has manufactured above 15,000 jewellery items with her company “Mamma’s Liquid Love” by encapsulating just one of the most priceless presents a mother can give to her little one: breast milk.
“Breastfeeding is bodily and mentally draining,” Sharoupim, a 35-calendar year-aged mother of 3 from Rutherford, shared with NJ Progress Media. “When moms get their piece, I’m usually instructed, it is their most prized possession. I’m so blessed to operate a organization that can make this sort of distinctive keepsakes.”
Sharoupim begun her on the internet jewelry company in 2016 and makes her special keepsakes from her household. In 2015, Sharoupim had her next daughter, Gabriella, and was having difficulties to generate more than enough breast milk though also dealing with postpartum melancholy and anxiety.
“I had my very first daughter, Rebecca, in 2013,” she explained. “Motherhood modified my globe. What I the moment believed was tough, paled in comparison to nursing a little one eight times a working day and pumping for her 10 instances a working day to maintain her alive.”
Inquiring for enable, Sharoupim’s shut pal gave her a two-7 days provide of breast milk, which not only offered her with some reduction but motivated her to produce a priceless gift.
“I consistently believed of how to repay her and by Christmas time of that yr, I perfected a chemical formulation that would be ready to preserve breast milk,” Sharoupim stated. “I gave her a necklace designed from her son’s milk and she broke down and cried. She pushed me to start Mamma’s Liquid Appreciate. I experience so privileged to be equipped to convert my enthusiasm into a company.”
Sharoupim graduated from Rutgers University’s Ernest Mario University of Pharmacy in 2011 and labored as a entire-time pharmacist for nearly 10 a long time ahead of she focusing on her small business fulltime. Making use of her history in chemistry, Sharoupim explained she was in a position to perform many trials to effectively produce a chemical and mechanical method that solidifies breast milk.
Expanding up, Sharoupim would make bead jewellery and liked gifting her items to her pals and viewing their reactions. “There’s anything so fulfilling about producing some thing that individuals discover to be wonderful. That emotion I had as a baby was reignited when I started off Mamma’s Liquid Appreciate,” Sharoupim explained.
Sharoupim claimed currently being a working mom and starting off a new enterprise was no quick feat.
“I did not go total time with my enterprise right up until 2020, so I was doing work my pharmacy work, using treatment of two young children, and striving to operate a business enterprise,” she mentioned. “I was surviving on two-3 several hours of slumber a night time. My spouse and children truly held an intervention to consider to get me to near my company.”
By 2019, Sharoupim thought she could possibly have to shut down her business enterprise, but located another person to assistance her run it. “It was as if God was telling me, ‘You’re not done. You’re meant to do this,’” she said.
Sharoupim has marketed above 15,000 jewellery items and has expanded her business enterprise to incorporate building one of a kind pendants and gems out of clients’ breast milk, hair, placenta, ashes, umbilical cords, and even baby enamel.
“After making breast milk pendants, I began experimenting with my placenta capsules,” she claimed. “Placenta capsules produced a wonderful amber coloration. I started off getting additional requests this kind of as umbilical cords and hair. Women of all ages intend on acquiring just one piece, but it gets to be their most prized possession. It symbolizes their tricky do the job and their sacrifice.
“Over the many years we’ve had additional adult men purchase for their associates. It is not only a gorgeous reward but is also a image of appreciation. They get a ton of brownie points.”
Sharoupim received her initial ashes request from a client who had purchased a breast milk piece previously.
“She tragically shed her partner and asked if we could make her a memento with his ashes,” Sharoupim reported. “She liked the piece we built many years before and explained to me we ended up the only business she dependable with her husband’s ashes.”
Orders declined for the duration of the top of the coronavirus pandemic, Sharoupim discussed. “I took that time to remake my site, change platforms, structure and launch 50 new goods, and redesign my packaging,” she explained. “Making all those modifications were being sport changers for my company. The second fifty percent of 2020 resulted in two moments the product sales of 2019. You have to understand to shift your mindset and not acknowledge failure.”
Sharoupim donates a part of her income to the Littlest Lamb, a non-revenue that allows deliver meals, shelter and education and learning to hundreds of orphaned kids in Egypt.
“Growing up, my dad and mom always reported ‘Money is critical, but not for what it can buy, but for what it can do’,” she claimed, “I carried that with me in the course of my daily life and charity is an integral element of my enterprise. My mother was orphaned at the age of 5, so Littlest Lamb is dear to my heart.”
In Egypt, adoption is illegal, leaving a lot of kids in perilous situations, she said. Quite a few orphans are physically and sexually abused, she explained. “We partnered with littlest lamb in 2021 and have lifted (and) donated more than $120,000 considering that,” she Sharoupim explained. “Littlest lamb is growing their property and are awaiting permits to construct. My hope is for Mamma’s Liquid Adore to fund their challenge and rescue around 100 orphans.
“We’ve also donated to many companies encompassing toddler reduction. We generate keepsakes for parents that have long gone as a result of the unimaginable loss of a boy or girl. I hope to do a lot a lot more in the future.”
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Vashti Harris may possibly be reached at [email protected].
