Cleoapatra-Joan C. Lioliou – From road construction to skincare
It is 11 p. m. and Cleopatra is yawning. “It is already so late“ she sighs. She wants to go to bed – but she also knows she has to fill in this form before she can actually go to sleep. She shakes her head and mutters to herself in disbelief: “I can’t believe I chose this of my own free will. All these numbers, all these formulas. This endless homework that takes so much time but has to be finished on time.” She takes a small sip of the tea sitting on the desk in front of her, meant to keep her awake. “Ok. Pame! Just this one more job and that’s it for today.” And that’s exactly how it is. For the next 30 minutes, Cleapatra focuses intensively on her shimmering blue screen, filling the spreadsheet with numbers and formulas. In the end, this will form the basis of the business plan for her small company “Naucrate”, which she founded in 2021 and which she now intends to take to the next level.
(c) photo: Cleopatra-Joan C. Lioliou
“I never thought that I would spend so much time at my desk when I signed up for this online course,” Cleopatra complains a little to her husband Dimitri the next morning as they get the children ready for school. “So many numbers, so much to learn – my head is bursting. I want to focus on producing cosmetics, not on spreadsheets. And besides, I’ve hardly any time left for the family,” Cleopatra adds.
“It’s all right,” Dimitri reassures her, “it was our joint decision, and there are only three months left before you have all the certificates you need to expand ‘Naucrate’. That is crucial for your future plans. Don’t forget, you have a dream: in five years’ time, you want to participate at major cosmetics trade fairs in Europe showcasing your ‘Naucrate’ products – made on Ikaria.” Cleopatra smiles. Yes, exactly, that’s her crazy dream. That’s exactly where she wants to be. Never lose sight of your goal!
As Dimitri and the kids leave the flat, Cleopatra checks her to-do list for the day once more. There’s plenty to do; hopefully the appointments with her bank advisor, the accountant and her “chemist” will go smoothly, so that she’ll still have time to finish packing a few parcels of “Naucrate” cosmetics to be sent off tomorrow. But the most important appointment today is attending a school play in which her son will be performing, and for which they have been practising the lines together for days. He is so happy about it.
If Cleopatra were to look at her life from the outside now, one might think that her lifestyle is more similar to that of a young tech start-up entrepreneur in New York than to that of an Ikarian woman trying to fulfil her dream with cosmetics based on Ikarian plants and herbs.
“Actually, it doesn’t matter what you’re working on,” Cleopatra thinks to herself as she ponders the comparison, “it is always exhausting when you’re following a plan and want to succeed with it.” With that, she turns around and walks over to her desk, which she had left so tiredly the night before. She checks the spreadsheet once more and makes a few minor changes. When she can’t spot any more mistakes, she presses ‘Save with determination and then closes her laptop.
(c) Cleopatra-Joan C. Lioliou
Well, that’s it for today’s online course for business-women. She won’t be looking at the topic ‘How to scale up your start-up?’ again until the weekend. Now she needs to get on with preparing the orders that have come in over the last few days via her online shop and work her way through her to-do list. Her ‘lab’ will have to wait another day or two before she can get back to experimenting with various raw materials to develop a new skin cream.
She felt a bit unsettled at university back then, too: there were very few women in her class it took her a while to settle in. She had actually known what she was getting involved in; after all, she comes from an Ikarian family that makes its living from construction, where large machinery and precise technical planning are part of everyday business. Civil Engineering was therefore in her blood, and so it was almost a matter of course for Cleopatra to choose this subject at university after finishing her A-levels at the high-school in Agios Kirikos.
Yet her parents had not given her an “one-sided education”. As well as technical design, Cleopatra was also very knowledgeable about herbs and plants and their effects on the human body. Whenever she could, she had wandered the mountains of Ikaria with her mother from a very young age to gather herbs. Her mother was very patient and introduced her daughter to the art of making healing ointments, soaps and creams at an early age. For Cleopatra, this knowledge was and remains a great treasure, but back then, when she had to choose a career, ointments and creams were not enough for her. She therefore opted for concrete and engineering, as these fields seemed to offer better prospects for a secure income.
At first, her studies and her part-time job at the office for civil engineering ‘seemed to be working out well for her. She enjoyed her studies, got good grades, and the office job provided her with a relatively good income for a student. After graduating, she was employed as a as a full-time office member and Cleopatra was able to earn a decent living. But was that really all she wanted?
Although Cleopatra was now living in the city, she remained deeply interested in Ikarian herbs and their use in creams and ointments. So, she decided to pursue this interest and enrolled in various courses to learn more about the development of cosmetics based on natural ingredients. That way, she learnt various recipes and was able to develop a deeper understanding of how different herbs interact.
These courses and her job at the office kept her very busy – especially given the fact that she had met Dimitris G. Filippopolitis at an Ikarian panagyri in Athens and was now in the process of starting a family with him.
(c) photo Birgit Urban
Cleopatra had to make a decision: she knew that if you want to do one thing really well, your have to put your heart and soul into it to achieve results. And so she opted for natural cosmetics. She knew that her knowledge, inherited from her mother, already provided her with a solid foundation for the medicinal use of Ikarian herbs and plants. And now Cleopatra wanted to complement this knowledge with the experience gained from the various courses she had taken. Her aim was now to design an Ikarian cosmetics range that would make this historical knowledge of her homeland accessible to others.
It was a “big idea”, but Cleopatra started small. It was important to her that her products were effective and delivered good results. So she experimented a lot at home, using family and friends as testers, before taking the plunge and renting some premises on Ikaria to open a workshop and a shop for her company, which she named ‘Naucrate’ (Ναυκράτη = Mother of Icarus) in Oxé, on the South side of Ikaria.
(c) photo Cleopatra-Joan C. Liouliou
And this is where the real challenge began back in 2021: Cleopatra not only had to find people to work in the production, but she also had to ensure consistent temperatures throughout the production process despite the island’s unpredictable weather – hot summers and cool, damp winters – so that she could guarantee consistent quality across larger batches. Furthermore, the young entrepreneur needed reliable partners on the island who could supply her with high-quality herbs and oils. Although Cleopatra would now spend more time on Ikaria again to oversee production and the development of her small business, she would also have to spend a large part of the month in Athens, where Dimitris worked and her son went to school.
These different roles in Cleopatra’s life required a good balance, which could only be achieved through careful planning and the support of her family. As a result, Cleopatra now spends around 10 days a month on Ikaria, where she devotes herself fully to the production of her various products.
Cleopatra has substantially expanded the original range of a few soaps and creams. At ‘Naucrate’, for example, you can also buy a day cream with sun protection factor, and there are eco-friendly soaps for sailors to prevent oils from showers on their boats going into the sea.
Cleopatra’s cosmetics range includes products for the whole family: as well as cosmetics for women, there are also shaving soaps for men and baby powder for toddlers. And, of course, the traditional Easter candles are made by using local herbs from Ikaria.
(c) photo Birgit Urban
By collaborating with other local producers on the Ikaria, Cleopatra now also offers, for example, soaps made from red wine. This means: she obtains the grapes from local winegrowers and uses them in her soap-making process. She also works with local pottery makers, enabling her to sell her soaps and creams in her shop alongside with matching containers.
Cleopatra never runs out of ideas for new formulas and corresponding cosmetic products, yet maintaining high quality standards remains her ultimate goal. With this in mind, she has also secured legal protection for her cosmetic formulations – her aim is to prevent fake products bearing the ‘Made on Ikaria’ label from entering the market.
However, it is also important that Cleopatra brings her products to market. She is succeeding in this too; clearly, she not only has a talent for sales but is also filling a gap in the market. Somehow, she is able to capitalise on the widespread ‘longevity’ hype that Ikaria has been riding on for years. Products based on the island’s natural ingredients are in high demand. Against this backdrop, Cleopatra is in particular targeting customers outside the island. She has set up an online shop through which she can fulfil orders from all over Greece. On Ikaria, many shops have started stocking her products. In addition to her shop in Oxe, she opened another shop in Christos Raches in 2025. This one is open all year round and has become an integral part of the local community.
(c) photo Birgit Urban
After almost five years, Cleopatra has successfully set ‘Naucrate’ on a path to expansion and success. And now she is boldly embarking on the next stage… Her dream is far from over. That’s why she’s now taking this online course, which keeps her up late into the evening and means she is spending more time at the computer instead of with her family. She wants to learn not only how to take ‘Naucrate’ to the next level, but, in particular, how to ensure her small business still retains its authenticity whilst competing with large, well-known cosmetics brands.
To put this into practice, Cleopatra is currently touring Greece and – a bit outside the country – and to take part in various trade fairs and exhibitions – sometimes on her own, sometimes with her family. At these events, she is not only able to promote her own Ikarian products, but she can also learn from the other exhibitors how they market themselves. All of this provides a lot of input that she intends to incorporate – after careful consideration – into her own business concept. And, of course, into her financing plan.
That is why today’s meeting with her bank is so important. So Cleopatra is no longer dwelling on the past, but is focusing on the traffic and the upcoming discussion. Financial discussions are always tough, but Cleopatra hopes she can convince her advisor with her business concept. She stands on the shoulders of an Ikarian family of entrepreneurs and she wants to fulfil her dream… so hopefully the meeting with the bank will go well.
(c) photo Birgit Urban
Text and photos @Birgit Urban