This 28 Y/O M’sian chose to leave her 9-to-5 to fill a gap in the local watercolour market

Cynthia is one of those people who’s always been good with kids. In particular, she’s very close with her beloved 2.5-year-old nephew.  

“One day, we decided to paint together using some old acrylic paints from my university days. He loves playing with colours and water. However, I noticed that these acrylic paints weren’t safe for little children.”

“Kids tend to touch their faces with hands full with paints and [it’s worse] if they have sensitive skin,” she pointed out. “That got me thinking about how to create safer paint for him using natural ingredients.”

Encouraged by that thought, she spent months experimenting with different methods, from beeswax crayons to oil paints.

But she soon realised those options weren’t ideal. Crayons involved tricky chemical reactions during the making process, and oil paints were just too greasy for little ones.

Finally, she discovered a breakthrough—using natural clays.

“My first try was with Red Clay, inspired by my oil painting experiments,” she said. “After lots of R&D, I eventually found the right plant-based medium (Arabic gum and locally sourced honey) for mixing the natural clay and colour pigments.”

So, she bought some premium clays from Australia, most of which are either food-grade or non-toxic, and that led to the start of her own watercolour brand—Pokok.

No paint, no gain

Initially, Cynthia had no plans to turn her watercolours into a business. The whole idea was just to create kid-safe art supplies for her nephew, after all.

“But after sharing the products with friends and some moms, I realised there aren’t many handmade, child-safe watercolours on the market,” she said. “I saw an opportunity to help more kids who are new to painting or who love painting, so I decided to turn this into a business.”

Today, running Pokok is Cynthia’s full-time focus. She does everything from shooting product photos and creating reels for social media, to setting up a website from scratch and designing workshops. And of course, developing and creating new colour collections.

This isn’t Cynthia’s first brush with business, though. Having studied finance and marketing from Monash University, she actually has seven years of experience working in two startups prior to starting Pokok.

“Even though this is my first venture, my experience working with startup companies has given me some valuable insights on how to get started,” she said.

One of the startups in particular was in ecommerce, and that experience bolstered her confidence in starting her own entrepreneurial journey.

Cynthia invested her own personal savings into starting Pokok. She’s also commited to reinvesting all the revenue generated back into the business, particularly to fund marketing campaigns and material costs while the company is still expanding.

Painting a bigger picture

To make her paints, Cynthia uses top-grade clay ingredients for their clay-based watercolours.

“Our unique medium, made from Arabic gum imported from Germany, locally sourced honey, and a plant-based preservative, is specially designed to work with our premium clays and colour pigments,” she added.

The entire process, including sun-drying, can take up to 10 working days.

While that might seem like a long time, the results are worthwhile to Cynthia. This is as the watercolours are kid-friendly, easily washable with water or a wet wipe.

And Cynthia wants to offer these high-quality paints at a price point that is accessible to a wide range of customers. Prices for Pokok’s products start at RM25 for a sample set, known as the Mini Dot Card, which already includes free shipping.

Meanwhile, the most expensive offering is the RM85 starter kit pack, which features a set of eight full pan clay-based watercolours, a watercolour pad, a ceramic palette, and a painting brush.

“We believe in transparency, so the price you see is the price you pay—no hidden fees, with free shipping included,” she said.

Currently, Pokok offers two collections—the Earth Collection with rich, earthy tones, and the Batik Collection, featuring beautiful pastel hues.

Paint the town

Launched just this year, Pokok has built a small but sizable community of customers online.  

Cynthia shared that she’s quite pleased with the reception her products have received.

“Our past campaigns have received very positive feedback; for instance, our second campaign garnered over 700 entries, 1.2K comments, and a total reach of 13.9K unique individuals in just 14 days,” she said.

Having created the products for her own nephew, Cynthia initially focused on targeting young children aged 2.5 years and older.

However, she was pleasantly surprised to find that a sizeable number of purchases have mainly come from young adults and even local artists.

“While we still see parents buying our products for their kids, we’ve garnered significant support from watercolour artists as well,” she shared.

Currently, their outreach methods include digital marketing and word of mouth.

“I recognised that offline presence is equally important since our products are all about seeing, experiencing, and interacting with colours. Therefore, I plan to set up a pop-up shop in Q4 2024,” she said.

Aside from pop-ups, Cynthia is also planning to host workshops for young kids twice a month.

“I want these workshops to be experimental and playful learning experiences, rather than just a simple come-and-go event,” she said.

With that in mind, she aims to partner with cafes that offer a natural kampung vibe or collaborate with professional artists to run these classes.

Going forward, Cynthia is excited to expand Pokok’s product range with more colour collections.

The next one, set to launch in September, will be the Wild Flower Collection, showcasing the enchanting shades of forest leaves and wildflowers.

“I’m also focused on ongoing research and development to explore even more stunning colour possibilities in the future,” she added.

It’s fascinating to see what started as a project for her own nephew has made Cynthia a paint-making “aunt” to many other artists of all ages.  

Featured Image Credit: Pokok