Sparkle and Shine
Lather Up with Hand-Crafted Rhody-Made Soaps
These days, many Rhode Islanders are springing for the sudsy satisfaction of Rhody-made hand-crafted soaps (and body-care products). Here’s a selection of local hand-crafted soap makers, plus one well-known traditionally milled soap made at the historic Bradford Soap Company, to highlight this season of spring cleaning.
The soap-crafters stress the absence of harsh chemicals plus their attention to environmentally sensitive practices. Most of these soap-makers are small-business owners or small-farm owners, using their knowledge, their creativity and their concern for body-friendly products to concoct a wide variety of soaps: colorful, aromatic, soothing and protective. Give them a try!
To find the many additional retail outlets where these bars can be found, plus info on other products (like lotions and salves), check individual websites, too.
SILK TREE FARM
Cathy Bardsley at Silk Tree Farm utilizes moisturizing goat milk to make hot-process herbal bars (one raises funds for an autism organization) or liquid soap in glass jars. She also raises pastured heritage breeds of goats, hogs, chickens and turkeys. School mentoring programs and farm visits by appointment. At the Wintertime Farmers Market in Pawtucket and Hack & Livery General Store, Hope Valley. From $6.
401.360.7004; On Facebook at SilkTreeFarm.RI
LEGEND’S CREEK FARM
“Handmade soap from happy goats” is the logo on each box of Legend’s Creek Farm goat-milk soap. Most popular is the antiitch, sunburn-soothing Black Coal Tar bar; Coffee Scrub is another. Owners Aden Mott and Jon Restivo offer herbal skin salves, balms, aromatherapy candles, bath bombs, CBD (added to their own homemade salves) and raw Rhode Island honey. At Frog & Toad in Providence and Green Line Apothecary, Wakefield. From $6.
401.400.2889; LegendsCreekFarm.com
THE REYNOLDS BARN
On a small family farm, The Reynolds Barn residents, along with head farmer Melody Reynolds, all pitch in to milk the goats, make the cheese and shape the soaps. Their goat-milk cheeses come in many alluring flavors. And their free-form soap blocks feature oatmeal and lavender variations; also cinnamon, spearmint and organic wheatgrass. At their farm store in North Kingstown and Beauty & Bath in Wickford. From $5.
1240 Tower Hill Rd., North Kingstown. 401.294.6972; TheReynoldsBarn.com
STELLA MARIE SOAP CO.
Hand-crafted cold-process soaps, with vegetable oils plus ingredients such as fresh fruit and vegetable purées, essential oils, activated charcoal, French clay, coffee, yogurt and coconut milk yield bars that are both conditioning and lathering—in colorful, abstract shapes. Owner/soap-maker Kim Gonzaga emphasizes green policies, including limited-to-no packaging, and no palm oil. At Whole Foods Markets and the Christmas Tree Shops. From $6.
617.803.8622; StellaMarieSoap.com
SHORE SOAP CO.
Cold-process soaps by Shore Soap Co., in an elegant Newport retail store (and in retail stores nationally); sea salt for exfoliation; marine names for fun (Mermaid Kisses, Warm Sand); plus many other body-pampering products, including scrubs, lotions, shampoo bars, soy candles and shaving oils. Owners Jake and Steph Kopper stress no sulfates, parabens or microbeads (tiny plastic particles) in their olive oil/shea butter products. At their retail store. From $8.
302 Thames St., Newport. 401.846.0305; ShoreSoapCo.com
RHODE ISLAND NATURAL SOAP CO.
This small family business is headed by soap-crafter Elizabeth Sylvia, who strives to use organic, sustainably sourced and/or Fair Trade ingredients and no chemical preservatives in her soaps (from her grandma’s recipe) and other body-care products, including lotions and beard oil. The culinary-inspired chef soaps are carried by Stock Culinary Goods, Providence. Other products at Simply Natural, Narragansett and Flipp Salon Apothecary, Providence. From $6.75.
401.437.5666
WASCHBAR SOAP
Soap-maker Ursula Brandl draws on unusual sources to craft her Waschbar Soaps: detoxifying activated charcoal; jojoba oil (as an emollient); home-grown calendula and rosemary; foraged seaweed off Beavertail in Jamestown; sulfatefree glycerin; local goat milk; cucumber and aloe juices; and more. Customer favorites are ground lavender flower soap and clear glycerin bars with tiny ducks or frogs within. At the South Kingstown Farmers Market. From $5.
401.374.5238; UrsulaSoap@gmail.com
OCEAN STATE SOAP CO.
Nicole Demers, a cancer survivor, founded Ocean State Soap Co. to make carcinogen-free personal products: herbal soaps, liquid pump soaps and lip balms; six products with a Del’s Lemonade scent; four more named Scarlett’s Dream, for a little girl with Down Syndrome and a heart defect—a portion of Scarlett sales go to a summer camp for children like Scarlett. At Beauty & Bath in Wickford and Harbor Bath & Body in Bristol. From $7.
401.365.8705
RHODE ISLAND SPA PRODUCTS
Hand-poured, hand-cut and cured for several weeks, Rhode Island Spa Products’ soap bars use local products, including honey, goat milk, yogurt, herbs, flowers, grains and vegetables, plus natural clays for texture, essential oils for fragrance. A line of body-care products made by Donna Dunn runs from face to feet: Carrot Complexion Bar to Seafoam Foot Scrub. At the Wintertime Pawtucket and Hope Street Summer Farmers Markets. From $8.
TheMixtress@ButtonwoodsBathworks.com ; ButtonwoodsBathworks.com
LIGHTFOOT’S PINE SOAP
This hard-milled, pine-scented, long-lasting soap was created by William Lightfoot Shultz in Brooklyn, in 1915. He later moved operations to Hoboken, New Jersey, but the company changed hands several times before the brand was sold to the Bradford Soap Company, in West Warwick, where it has been made since 2009. Wholesale and retail through Kenyon’s Grist Mill (and sold widely across the U.S.). From $3 online; $7 retail.
21 Glen Rock Rd., West Kingston. 401.783.4054; LightfootsPineSoap.com
RHODE ISLAND SOAPWORKS
“Cleaning up America, one body at a time” is soap-maker Joy Schuyler’s mission for her head-to-toe body-care products, from “whisker grease” to “tootsie balm.” She turned her family’s 18th-century house into a colorful shop for her Rhode Island Soapworks; she harvests homegrown herbs for her soaps, soaks, salts and salves. At the home store in Chepachet and Frog & Toad in Providence. From $4.
12 Dorr Dr., Chepachet. 401.568.5472; RI Soapworks Inc. on Facebook; Etsy.com/shop/RISoapworks
