Mrs Martin’s Microbes and More is a family owned business in Pretoria East. Martin is our MD. He oversees packing and sending and the myriad other operations that come with an online store.  Lize is Mrs Martin. She tests all the soaps and writes all the welcome notes, blogs and newsletters. The kiddos? They help out during school holidays.

Our family was formed in the rolling hills of KwaZulu Natal. We lived in a double storey rondawel on the edge of an avocado orchard for seven years and we were extremely happy. You can read about it on the blog.

It was in KZN that Lize was first called Mrs Martin, probably meaning the missus of Martin.

And then we moved to Pretoria. Martin rejoined his dad in the decades old carpet cleaning business he had helped found. Thinus and Martin used to spend hours every day inhaling fumes from the soap used to clean carpets. They felt their lungs burn after a day’s work, and Thinus developed a chronic cough. Martin soon realised that the soap they were using would literally kill them if they did not make a change. 

Around this time it was discovered that Thinus had developed Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) from the many years of chemical inhalation. Martin went to work to develop the safest soap he could. He approached Dr Raj Lalloo, a bio-engineer with a proven track record for developing premium quality green products. The technology Raj introduced us to was revolutionary. He explained how they had taken years to isolate specific bacteria that release enzymes in nature to clean the environment. They had just started to incorporate this new technology into soap that would not only be safe for people, but positively beneficial!

The combination of Raj’s research expertise and Martin’s years of experience in cleaning carpets, worked like a dream. They developed a soap for cleaning oriental carpets and when Martin and Thinus tested it, they were stunned by the results. Martin had never worked with any soap like this in almost thirty years. The carpets came out wonderfully clean, while their hands, lungs and eyes felt no ill effects.

Other products were developed and Lize was just as impressed with how easy it cleaned our home. Even Chuffed, our LabHusky and Tiger, our cat, thrive.

We could simply not keep this great discovery to ourselves. Mrs Martin (and company!) had found an effective, beneficial soap that did no harm to anyone! We simply had to share it.

Feel free to browse through our collection of soaps that have all been designed to the same health standards, and were tested in a real life busy household. We are sure you will be impressed.