About Us
My mission is to create from scratch, products that soothe the skin along with the spirit, and to honor those that have come before us.
MoSoap® is dedicated to MaeErma Jane, and all the other family members that taught me everything I know about soap making, herbs and life in general.
Quite honestly, MoSoap was started as a dare. You never tell a soap maker they don't know how to make "real soap". But I'll start at the beginning......
How did we start and who are we?
Most soap makers talk about how they started making soap as a hobby or a desire to handcraft natural products for their families. It was never that romantic for me, instead it was something that was expected. Coming from a family with a long history in crafting herbal products for others, learning to make soap was right up there with learning botany and aromatherapy. I may have learned science in school but when I worked with my grandmother (shown above in 1938) making soap and gathering plants, I saw and studied science in action. But handmade soap was not thought of as it is today, a trendy natural care item. Back in the 70's, most people that made liniments, salves and soap were considered the "backwoods" sort or just plain ignorant, not terribly respected. But times do change along with opinions luckily.
For over fifteen years, I privately worked for individual and companies handcrafting personal care products in between working as a flight attendant. I made everything from laundry soap to pet care items as I gradually absorbed my grandmother's original soap making customers and their families. MaeErma Jane stopped making soap at age 82 and turned things over to me, though she still held on to some recipes! I still to this day, handcraft the products for two of the original families my grandmother started with 65 years ago.
Then on a fateful day in 2001, I was told I didn't know how to make "real" soap. I had been attending a local Missouri art show and was told by a gentleman that I needed to make real lye soap because everything else was just fluff. I was absolutely shocked by his comment. I had 16 different handmade soaps in front of him, made with the finest of ingredients from around the world and care in crafting. All he wanted was unscented, white crumbly lye soap! I had grown up making traditional lye soaps with my grandmother and had been talking to a local woman about making her some pine tar soap only a week before. With the thought that people might want simpler soaps and balms that what I had been creating , I began to put together vintage recipes from my family and from rural folklore medicine that friends shared. Within a few months, everything had come together and Missouri Soap & Bath was launched in 2001 as a division of my first soap business. I will be forever grateful to the crabby craft show gentleman on that cold December day.
Now, MS&B has been renamed simply MoSoap® and I am thankful everyday for the inspiration and motivation from customers and fellow soap makers. I've decided to slowly grow MoSoap® instead of taking every retail opportunity offered - and there's been some fine offers. Since we began, I've formed several other soap businesses and have formed Arcadia Valley Soap Co. which is the parent company of MoSoap. But really, no matter how many different types of soap I make, under different labels, MoSoap will always be closest to my heart as it is family. So the people that buy my MoSoap brand products in my view, are like my family! And I appreciate each and every one of you.
If you have a question about our products here at MoSoap®, drop me a line. I try to respond as soon as possible. Feel free to call our store in Ironton, Missouri if you have a question or problem. Or better yet, come visit the little pink granite shop just 2 blocks up from the historic Iron County Courthouse!
Thanks for reading,
Debra
MoSoap® is dedicated to MaeErma Jane, and all the other family members that taught me everything I know about soap making, herbs and life in general.
Quite honestly, MoSoap was started as a dare. You never tell a soap maker they don't know how to make "real soap". But I'll start at the beginning......
How did we start and who are we?
Most soap makers talk about how they started making soap as a hobby or a desire to handcraft natural products for their families. It was never that romantic for me, instead it was something that was expected. Coming from a family with a long history in crafting herbal products for others, learning to make soap was right up there with learning botany and aromatherapy. I may have learned science in school but when I worked with my grandmother (shown above in 1938) making soap and gathering plants, I saw and studied science in action. But handmade soap was not thought of as it is today, a trendy natural care item. Back in the 70's, most people that made liniments, salves and soap were considered the "backwoods" sort or just plain ignorant, not terribly respected. But times do change along with opinions luckily.
For over fifteen years, I privately worked for individual and companies handcrafting personal care products in between working as a flight attendant. I made everything from laundry soap to pet care items as I gradually absorbed my grandmother's original soap making customers and their families. MaeErma Jane stopped making soap at age 82 and turned things over to me, though she still held on to some recipes! I still to this day, handcraft the products for two of the original families my grandmother started with 65 years ago.
Then on a fateful day in 2001, I was told I didn't know how to make "real" soap. I had been attending a local Missouri art show and was told by a gentleman that I needed to make real lye soap because everything else was just fluff. I was absolutely shocked by his comment. I had 16 different handmade soaps in front of him, made with the finest of ingredients from around the world and care in crafting. All he wanted was unscented, white crumbly lye soap! I had grown up making traditional lye soaps with my grandmother and had been talking to a local woman about making her some pine tar soap only a week before. With the thought that people might want simpler soaps and balms that what I had been creating , I began to put together vintage recipes from my family and from rural folklore medicine that friends shared. Within a few months, everything had come together and Missouri Soap & Bath was launched in 2001 as a division of my first soap business. I will be forever grateful to the crabby craft show gentleman on that cold December day.
Now, MS&B has been renamed simply MoSoap® and I am thankful everyday for the inspiration and motivation from customers and fellow soap makers. I've decided to slowly grow MoSoap® instead of taking every retail opportunity offered - and there's been some fine offers. Since we began, I've formed several other soap businesses and have formed Arcadia Valley Soap Co. which is the parent company of MoSoap. But really, no matter how many different types of soap I make, under different labels, MoSoap will always be closest to my heart as it is family. So the people that buy my MoSoap brand products in my view, are like my family! And I appreciate each and every one of you.
If you have a question about our products here at MoSoap®, drop me a line. I try to respond as soon as possible. Feel free to call our store in Ironton, Missouri if you have a question or problem. Or better yet, come visit the little pink granite shop just 2 blocks up from the historic Iron County Courthouse!
Thanks for reading,
Debra