Featured Maker: Brianna's Soap

Hi y'all!

The February 2020 yARNaBLE box included a few handmade items from small businesses.  We will be highlighting each of them this month.  I'd like to start with Brianna's Soap.  She hand-makes all natural soaps, body scrubs, face creams, etc.  She also has an amazing blog with all kinds of fantastic information such as "what is the difference between organic and natural?" plus details on oils vs butters and salt vs. sugar scrubs.  

If you'd like to know more, you can find Brianna in all the places: Facebook and Instagram.

We asked Brianna to share why she started making soap and to tell us more about herself.  Here are here words:

“My goal when creating Brianna's Handmade Soap was to offer high quality vegan soap and skin products that promote kindness over suffering. Brianna's Handmade Soap is not only cruelty free but actively strives to make a difference by supporting organizations that minimize suffering.  I support Maple Farm Sanctuary and Farm Sanctuary by donating 5% of profits to these two sanctuaries.

For my handmade soap, I only use plant-based natural ingredients.  I start with a base of organic olive oil, organic sustainably sourced palm oil, and organic coconut oil.  Olive oil is a great moisturizer, palm oil creates a rich lather, and coconut oil has excellent cleaning strength.  I then add essential oils and plant based special ingredients for their healing and calming properties.  My soap is long lasting and washes away cleaning due to the precise ratio of oils used in each recipe.  After use, skin feels moisturized, silky and clean.  No need for harsh, dangerous, synthetic chemicals!

I got into making my own body products about five years ago, at the same time I became a vegetarian after taking a tour of a farm animal sanctuary. I started noticing the animal ingredients that are present in so many skin care products. This experience also coincided with me researching not only the animal ingredients but ALL of the ingredients in the products I used. I found the Environmental Working Group (EWG) website which contains a large database of just about any mass produced bath and body product you can find. It assigns a health safety grade to each product based on the available scientific research data. 

This was very eye-opening as well as disturbing! I quickly began experimenting with making my own soap and lotions using only natural, healing ingredients. Once I started to make my own, I couldn’t stop!

Starting a new business is not easy! I work as an engineer during the week and when I decided to give this business a try, I had no idea how all-consuming it would be. I think the biggest challenge for me in starting this business has been the feeling of being overwhelmed ALL THE TIME. This feeling has not gone away! I'm realizing that there is SO MUCH to starting and running a small business and every time I learn something new, I find out there are 10 more things that I don't know and need to learn!”

Thanks for sharing Brianna!  

You're dedication and compassion shine!