Every year, Mother’s Day rolls around, and suddenly everyone is panic-buying flowers and fighting for a restaurant reservation. We mean well. But somewhere between the overpriced bouquet and the generic card, the real point gets a little lost. Because if you actually stop and really look at the woman who raised you, there’s a whole story there that no cheesy card comes close to capturing. The quiet work, the constant showing up, and yes, sometimes, the very real physical toll of doing it all, without complaint.

 

For this Mother’s Day, I sat down with Phoebe Yew and Sharmaine Lau, the beauties with brains behind the Malaysian cleaning brand Riinse. They aren’t mothers themselves yet, but they’ve spent the last few years thinking deeply about a quiet kind of love: the moment a daughter realises how much her mother has silently endured, even in something as routine as washing the dishes.

 

A Mom’s Invisible Toll

 

 

Phoebe is a classic first daughter. If you know, you know. Often the unpaid project managers of the family, they notice the smallest things and for Phoebe, watching her mom do dishes in the kitchen for over two decades, quietly dealing with sensitive skin after every chore was her breaking point.

 

“Every time she washed the dishes, her skin would itch, the skin around her nail beds would peel,” Phoebe told me. “She just thought it was dry skin and would just put on some lotion. But it never went away.”

 

 

That’s just how it is with our mothers, isn’t it? Always just “getting on with it” and brushing things off. But Phoebe wasn’t having it. The more she looked into the dishwashing products lining the supermarket shelves, the angrier she got. Angry enough that it pushed her to set up a makeshift lab on an IKEA table, enrol in a formulation course, and start building a solution from scratch.

 

Her co-founder and university friend, Sharmaine, heard the story over coffee and didn’t need much convincing. Sharmaine was no stranger to the ‘hustle’; as she was the type of person who’d spent her weekends experimenting in agriculture with everything from vertical farming to packaging banana chips. While they both eventually walked away from stable corporate careers, they were finally leaning into a shared obsession they’d discussed for years: building a brand with actual heart.

 

All that over a few coffee sessions! Honestly, I am starting to question exactly what my friends and I are doing during our coffee talks. Tsk. tsk.

 

More Than a Pretty Bottle

Interestingly, Riinse is not just a feel-good story in nice packaging, although the packaging is genuinely lovely. Minimalist, aesthetic, and rooted in local flavour, the bottles were inspired by Malaysia’s own backyard. The scents draw from local fruits like the grapefruit and orange, warming up the lineup, and a soft green variant inspired by Ipoh’s signature fruit, pomelo. Plus, with its clear, transparent packaging, it looks like something you’d actually want on your kitchen counter, not hidden under the sink.

 

But the real story is what’s inside, or more accurately, what isn’t. Riinse is Halal-certified, dermatologically tested, and formulated specifically for sensitive skin, skipping over a thousand ingredients deemed unnecessary or harmful. No parabens, no SLS or SLES, and most definitely, no artificial colouring. That last one is a subtle dig at an industry that spent decades dyeing dish soaps bright green and yellow to signal toughness. Turns out, colour has absolutely nothing to do with cleaning power.

 

Who knew? Well, now you do.

 

The double “I” in Riinse is intentional, and it runs deeper than you’d think. It stands for five values the brand lives by: inclusive, ingredients, innovation, impact, and individuality. From babies to grandmothers, every decision they make traces back to those five words. A whole philosophy in a single letter, repeated.

 

 

The Superwomen Behind the Founders

While the product solved a physical problem, the courage to build the brand came from the founders’ mothers themselves.

 

Sharmaine’s mom was a housewife who set aside her own dreams to provide a foundation for her children. “She didn’t get the opportunities we have today,” Sharmaine says. “Her quiet strength is my motivation. She tells me, ‘I didn’t get to do it, so I want you to take every opportunity you can.’”

 

That’s a specific kind of strength, cheering for your daughter to go after her dreams because you were the one who worked so hard to give her the foundation even to have them. For Sharmaine, Riinse was the “bet” she was willing to make because the reason behind it felt safe. More than a business, it felt like a shared purpose between her and Phoebe to protect the women they love.

 

 

Phoebe’s mom was equally instrumental. “When I was 12, I wanted to make jewellery and sell it,” she recalls, smiling. “Without any hesitation, she just drove me straight to the craft shops at Petaling Street. She sat with me, figuring out how to attach earrings, how to tie bracelets. She never shut me down. She always created space for ideas.”

 

Without her mom’s unwavering belief, Phoebe says she genuinely does not think Riinse would exist. In a lovely full-circle moment, Phoebe’s mom has gone from the inspiration behind the brand to its biggest cheerleader, even appearing as the ‘talent’ on the Riinse homepage.

 

 

The Ripple Effect

Today, Riinse sits on shelves in Jaya Grocer outlets nationwide, with expansion beyond Malaysian shores already underway. But what moves both founders most isn’t the shelf space. It’s the messages. Daughters and sons buying Riinse for their mothers. Customers writing in to say their hands have finally stopped peeling. A young person moving out for the first time, clueless about keeping a home, writes in to say that one bottle of Riinse made them feel like they had it together. Moms who find one less thing to worry about in an already full day.

 

“It makes me emotional every time we get a message from a stranger,” Phoebe says. “When a customer writes in to say their hands have finally stopped peeling after years of discomfort, it brings me right back to that IKEA table. I realise that the solution I built for my mum is now the same relief for someone else.”

 

 

A Message for the Women Who Noticed

Even with Riinse thriving, the emotions behind it are still raw. During our interview, Phoebe became visibly moved when talking about her own mum, who had just left for Australia that very morning.

 

“She’s taking Riinse back with her,” Phoebe said, her voice cracking as she wiped away tears. “It’s like a piece of me is there with her at the sink.” She had a simple message for her own mom: “Thank you for being so supportive.”

 

But she also had a word for the mothers she hasn’t met yet. “For all the other moms out there, I hope our brand is a reminder that you are seen. We noticed the quiet struggles, even the ones as small as peeling hands, and we built this for you.”

 

Sharmaine echoed that sentiment with a final message that hits home for any child and any parent. To her own mom, she says: “Thank you for giving me the space and the courage to be who I am. I love you.” And to the mothers picking up a bottle of Riinse after a long day? Sharmaine wants them to know they aren’t just buying soap. “Riinse exists because a daughter noticed her mother’s quiet pains. We hope that every time you pick up a bottle, you are reminded that someone cares about you.”

 

It’s easy to get lost in the daily grind, but this Mother’s Day, let’s look closer at the women who made our lives possible. Phoebe and Sharmaine remind us that the truest way to honour our mothers isn’t with a once-a-year card or some lavish bouquets, but by noticing their quiet struggles. First daughter or the youngest, the message is clear: the best gift we can give back to our mothers is the assurance that, from now on, they are the ones being cared for.

 

Happy Mother’s Day to the women who raised us, and to the daughters who noticed.