STAY at home Cwmbran mums have turned into business women after inventing a new sun cream applicator.

Mother of four, Kelli Aspland, 36, and mother of three, Laura Griffin, 32, have started their own company, Auriella, after inventing a new sun cream applicator called Solar Buddies, which helps children apply sun cream.

Mrs Griffin explained that they noticed that when their children were in primary school, they would make a mess when trying to apply their own sun cream, with little concept of how to control the flow leaving the bottle and then finding it difficult to rub in.

The stay at home mums felt that there must be a solution, but with no business experience, the pair say that they have surprised themselves and are now preparing to run a pilot scheme at two Torfaen school with their prototype.

Mrs Griffin said: “After we had the idea in March 2012, we set about doing research and found lots of unknown facts about sun cream application and the effect that the sun has on the skin, which we would like to highlight as part of a campaign.”

The pair thought about why children struggled when using a conventional sun cream bottle, and hit the shops to buy a range of different bottles to examine.

Mrs Aspland said: “We really liked the thought of a sponge applicator but we soon realised that the cream was too thick to come through.

“Then Laura thought of a roller ball as used on some deodorants and we decided to combine the two.”

The shape of the bottle is chunky so it is easier to grip for children; the roller ball controls the flow of the cream, while the sponge helps children to rub the lotion in.

“The bottle is refillable so parents can choose a product most suitable for their child and we hope to develop an adult range of applicators that could also be used for moisturisers,” Mrs Aspland added.

The pair said that it had been a long but worthwhile journey, and that despite the hard days, they have kept each other motivated, and found plenty of advice and help along the way.

The turning point, to take the concept from an idea to a prototype, was when they contacted Gareth Barham of Cardiff Met, who, along with his product design students, agreed to help them.

After months of work, the final applicator was created, and the mums are currently looking at UK manufacturers to create the first 2,000 applicators to be used as part of the pilot scheme.

Their business has been funded from personal money, and backing from family and friends, and they estimate total costs around £13,000, with filing a patent taking up a large chunk of the funds.

“We are not business women, we just wanted to solve a problem and we hope to inspire our children that if they want to achieve something then they can,” Mrs Griffin added.

For more information, visit solarbuddies.co.uk, email kl@auriella.co.uk, find Auriella ltd on Facebook or follow @KL_auriella on Twitter.