Let's start a soap business as a stay-at-home mom of 3... yeah that sounds good...

Soap making isn’t exactly the type of thing you just stumbled into. Not that it’s terribly difficult but that it’s not something I had ever heard anyone talk about. I knew about melt and pour soap having worked at Michaels for ten years but that was the extent of my soaping knowledge. When I did stumble upon soap making it never even occurred to me that you could MAKE soap. That there were still people out there doing this by hand amongst all the corporations with their “soaps”. Soap just kinda existed before I started learning about it. In all honesty, I was always a body wash and loofah girly. Soap was definitely not something I ever put any thought into and yet here I was in a true ADHD rabbit hole all about cold process soap making.

I should back up just slightly as soap making wasn’t the first skincare product I started with. I first started with body butter. Whipped anhydrous (meaning all butters and oils-zero water) body butter was the first product that led to my journey of handcrafted skincare. Now, to back up even further you may ask “why” I was diving headfirst into the white rabbits hole to learn about making body butter.

Ah! The very, very beginning was because I was a second-time mom to a baby boy who was covered in scaly red patches. At one year old my son was having a ridiculous outbreak of eczema and like any good mama bear I started researching the ever-loving bajesus out of it. My eldest had eczema as a baby too but hers was well managed as long as we stayed consistent (cream at every diaper change, scent-free color-free detergent, gentle baths, emollient baby wash). My sons, his was a whole new ball game. No matter what lotion, cream, or balm we put on him it laughed and then got worse. A steroid cream after a bout of staph helped clear most of it but I knew I needed a long-term solution. I made the appointment with an allergist but that was almost two months. So, I started monitoring EVERYTHING he ate hoping that the outbreaks were due to some type of allergy. He’s a year old; he’s eating all kinds of new things and discovering new things. He started walking at 11 months so he’s in and on everything. After careful analysis of my data, I discovered a pattern. Goldfish, cheez-its, mac n cheese, anything containing Annatto. I deep dived some more and long story short (cause I could go on forever), I suspected an allergy or a sensitivity to this NATURAL colorant being used to make cheese orange (it’s also in some other random things). The research I was finding was a bit shocking honestly as an allergy to Annatto in young children can trigger some other frightening behaviors. By cutting out Annatto his flare ups decreased SIGNIFICANTLY. And the rare occasion that I didn’t check for it (instant mashed potatoes WTF) he would have an immediate reaction (I’m, talking burning red all around his lips). So, we stuck to pizza flavored Goldfish and pretzels. And like every parent of an allergy child, reading labels was just part of the everyday process. When that allergist appointment finally arrived, I told him about my findings and when asked, “Could that be the allergy?” he shrugged and said “Maybe.” Nothing more. Nothing less. Two more steroid creams were prescribed to clear what remaining spots he had and once they did, we slowly stopped (no thank you steroid withdrawal!). We never went back. That was probably the biggest waste of a $70 copay but now I needed an actual solution. We kept checking labels to make sure there was no Annatto but in the meantime his skin still needed daily upkeep.

Thus, the first little divot of a hole formed. From searching websites, blogs, and mostly YouTube videos I dove headfirst into all things handcrafted skincare. Body butter quickly led to cold process soap. I was hesitant at first because you use sodium hydroxide (aka Lye) a very dangerous caustic soda but if handled correctly with safety precautions taken, it can be less scary. I learned how to make soap from Katie Carson from Royalty Soaps on YouTube. She GENEROUSLY provides a recipe and has a whole series on how to make soap. She is my angel. I love her and she doesn’t even know it and that’s ok. If you are considering this journey too, I HIGHLY recommend her videos.

Now, I have my starting point. The basics of cold process soap making. Next, my craft evolved. I’ve always been crafty and I’ve always been a researcher. I will deep dive until my heart is content. I must know everything about one thing before I can move on. I felt confident. I had the recipe that I ran through a soap calculator (yup that’s a thing), I had invested in the tools (most of which I had from making body butters), and I went for it. And it was love. Or history. Or whatever cliché they say. What started as a way to help my son turned into a passion I never knew I needed in my life. And because I am perpetually trying to make money in everything that I do, I decided to take this passion and turn it into Fairytale Suds. I love making skincare. I love researching skincare. Formulating skincare products is something I could easily do all day! And as a mom, skincare also became my escape. A way to calm and relax myself and a way to find myself again during a time when I felt (let’s be honest, still feel) so lost. 

I love that I can now pick up a bottle in the health and beauty aisle and read the labels and decipher (mostly) what is in it and if it could help and if it’s worth the price tag. I love that I am constantly learning but I also love that I get to share what I make with others and know that they will love it too. This knowledge of handcrafted skincare vs. commercial skincare makes me want to throw bars of soap at everyone I see because I know it will be so much more beneficial to their skin!  

In lieu of pegging people with soap bars, I decided to take a less aggressive approach and combine my passion of skincare with something fun. Because everyday tasks don’t have to be mundane.  What started as a way for me to help my son turned this stay-at-home moms new passion into a business. My mission with Fairytale Suds is to excite customers and transform their daily routines into an experience. To bring back memories of vacations and happy places. To transport you through scent. To have fun and to remember how important it is to take a few minutes for yourself.