Winning an international startup award with lotus products

Winning many startup awards

Previously, Mai Huong received many different awards in startup competitions, including Student Startup Champion 2022 and Runner-up 2023 at Can Tho University. In addition, she also won the Second Division award at the Innovation Talent competition and the Third Division award at the startup competition at APU Malaysia University in 2023 with products such as lotus essential oil, lotus sanitizer, soap made from lotus, and a pennywort-lotus mask.

Talking about the reason for choosing this rustic plant to start her business, Mai Huong confided: "I was born and raised in Dong Thap, the land of ‘Pink Lotus’. Right from a young age, I witnessed the ‘weather-worn’ scene of lotus growers, so I wanted to develop a project from Dong Thap pink lotus."

In Grade 11, Huong began researching and deploying a project to extract essential oils from lotus flowers using the steam distillation technique. Immediately after that, the project won the third prize in the "Science and Technology Innovation Contest" and the consolation prize in the "Startup Project in Dong Thap Province."

Mai Huong's lotus essential oil product was the premise for subsequent products to win many awards at startup competitions. Mai Huong shared that to produce a complete set of lotus essential oil products, it must go through many stages. First, prepare the raw materials, including lotus flowers, alcohol, purified water, aloe, glycerin soap base extracted from natural plants such as palm oil and olive oil, and finally essential oils. Then mix according to the specific ratio and formula for each product.

Lotus products are characterized by being thinner than other types on the market without the use of fragrances and preservatives but retaining their natural flavor for a long time. The most difficult step is separating lotus essential oil by steam distillation to get the most essential oil from the lotus flower to use as a fragrance for the product. According to Mai Huong's calculations, from about 20 lotus flowers, after using this method, only 10 ml of essential oil can be produced.

According to Huong, depending on the type of product, the implementation process has different difficulties. However, the top quality assessment factor is how to evoke the natural flavor of the lotus flower. "Regulating, balancing, and harmonizing ingredients is considered the "secret" to the success of most products. For example, for a 200-gram scented candle, we need about 10 ml of lotus essential oil. But with scented wax, the amount of ingredients will be different," Huong said.

Opening her own company

Recently, within the framework of the StarUp Wheel start-up project, an international competition took place in Vietnam, attracting more than 2,000 projects from 43 countries around the world. Student Mai Huong's lotus product project was honored to win the Talent Hub Champion award of Starup Wheel 2023, also with lotus products.

Mai Huong's products are highly appreciated for her ability to innovate and create, especially under limited laboratory conditions. Besides, the female student did not major in laboratory science, but excellent results were achieved thanks to the efforts and creative spirit of the individual and research group.

Nguyen Thi Mai Huong said that she has now opened her own company for two years and is actively promoting products on social networks. After graduating, she will expand distribution channels. Currently, the female student is spending her evening time researching and preparing to launch some new products from lotus. It is known that more than 20 lotus products in Dong Thap concentrate mainly on fine art products. It is hoped that Mai Huong's unique products contribute to enhancing and developing the Dong Thap lotus plant.