Changing the way you do your business one drop at a time. Saving relationships by eliminating smells.

Yes, these statements come from different Hawai'i businesses selling products that definitely involve some bathroom talk.

Several women entrepreneurs in Honolulu are running businesses dedicated to something we don't usually talk much about in public — bathroom smells and how to battle them.

They sell tiny but powerful deodorizer drops that have gained in popularity in recent months, nosing out bathroom sprays in the fight to control unpleasant and potentially embarrassing smells. Who hasn't gassed themselves with some nasty potpourri or sickeningly sweet pseudo-floral while striving to be a considerate bathroom user?

Our unscientific tests and informal surveys among friends and relatives showed that these drops significantly reduce odor without the cloying scent that often comes with masking products. Do these drops eliminate all odor? Not entirely, but they do a better job than anything else we found.

The most widely distributed of the drops is Kobayashi Powerful One-Drop Deodorizer, which can be found at many stores for about $5 for a 0.67-ounce bottle, but was recently on sale at Longs Drugs for $3.37.

The packaging says the product is made in Thailand despite the Japanese name. The ingredients say it contains "fragrance, plant extract, glycolic ether."

Three Honolulu women who call themselves "the Geek Moms" market the Kobayashi product on the Mainland via a Web site called www.mybathroomninja.com. One of the moms is Mickey Uyehara, a Waikele resident who is an adult education teacher and is working on her master's degree. As the mother of six children, she has pretty much seen and smelled it all.

"The bathroom is going to be sort of a you-take-your chances zone," she said. "Sprays don't work. Candles don't work. They mask the smell, which makes it worse."

Uyehara said her ex-husband told her about the Kobayashi product. She said the drops work better than conventional sprays because they chemically break down the odor. "It's like a ninja, like you were never there," she said, hence the name of their Web site.

She and her partners run the Mainland distribution, not local sales. She didn't provide sales figures but said business is gaining as more people hear about them.

STIFF COMPETITION

Next to the Kobayashi drop-shaped squeeze bottle, a competitor has shown up on local store shelves: Toilex, made in Valparaiso, Ind., in a short cylinder-shaped bottle with 0.41 ounces. The company recommends using three to five drops versus one or two of the Kobayashi product.

The Toilex Web site (www.thedrops.com) also says the product is not available in stores but can be purchased through the Web at $6.99 a bottle. Well, maybe in Indiana, but we found it at Pali Longs in two scents, original lavender and newer citrus bubble, priced at less than $5. (Ingredients list "fragrance and glycol ether.")

The other deodorizer drops on the market come from two Honolulu-based women who studied the existing product more than two years ago, then worked to create a product they liked even better.

This one is called Poof Toilet Deodorizer Japanese Mint and can be found at www.poofdrops.com. It retails for $10 and comes in 0.5-ounce bottles with higher-end packaging, a printed box and a mint-green ribbon. In Honolulu, the drops also are sold at Salon Nanea on Ward Avenue.

The Poof Drops ingredients list: dipropylene glycol, fragrance and isopropyl myristate. It's marketed "with the bathroom conscious in mind."

The Web site spells out the philosophy: "Changing the way you do your business, one drop at a time." These drops are the creation of two Honolulu women — Jamee Kunichika and Sherilyn (Kusuda) Luke, who were roommates in college in Los Angeles in the 1990s already brainstorming about starting a business someday.

Both went to public high schools, Kunichika to Moanalua and Luke to Mililani. By 2004, both were back in Hawai'i after college and still thinking entrepreneurial ideas. Kunichika is a licensed attorney who works for the University of Hawai'i Foundation and Luke is a finance manager.

They decided they could make a better deodorizer if they created their own. "We didn't like the smell, we thought it smelled like bathroom cleaner," she said.

MODEST START

At that time, the Kobayashi packaging was printed only in Japanese and the product was not very widely known. After months of research, getting friends and family to test the samples, they hired a lab to create their Japanese Mint drops.

They got the first samples and learned about marketing when the product debuted in 2006. Word started spreading and a spa in the Hamptons picked up the drops.

But the business ran into some trouble because the Kobayashi product had become more commonplace and the package translated into English. "By the time we came out with the product, the market was saturated," Kunichika said.

They reassessed and realized they could focus on customers willing to spend a bit more.

While the Kobayashi product has a kind of evergreen scent, and the Toilex is somewhat lavender, the Poof drops come across more minty fresh. "We're at some high-end spas and boutique stores and personal hygiene stores and catalogs," Kunichika said. "Last year we grossed about $40,000 to $45,000."

Kunichika said they haven't marketed the product here much because the other drops have become so common. But they've heard from customers who prefer the smell or those who like them as a niche gift.

One client told them it's a perfect bridal shower gift for couples who haven't lived together and didn't want to face embarrassing smells.

She and her partner are still exploring other ideas and planning to debut a new scent soon: "Tuscan orange, which smells like fresh-squeezed oranges."

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.