All-Natural Soaps
Guaranteed to Soothe and Smooth the Skin
By Barbara Perry Lawton
“Our
soap making business began when I tried to find a mild natural soap
that would moisturize my skin rather than dry it out,” said
LaRee DeFreece. “I was looking for a soap made with one hundred
percent natural plant-based ingredients and enriched with emollients.”
In late 2000, she decided to make her own soap. She had discovered
that even the mildest of soaps was made of petrochemicals rather
than natural ingredients. Searching the Internet, she came upon
soap recipes and began testing them.
“That first recipe resulted in a soap that was truly disgusting,
but I soon found one that would work much better,” she said.
LaRee, a real estate attorney, had returned to college to study
chemistry to become a plant patent attorney as well. She came to
understand the chemistry of soap making.
She
learned that coconut oil or palm kernel oil would produce a hard,
long-lasting bar with a fluffy lather and that soy oil would create
a stable lather with conditioning qualities. 
She learned that olive
oil, a natural skin softener, would moisturize the skin. She found
books that taught her the chemical equations for formulating soap
recipes that would result in different desirable characteristics.
She researched the sources of natural ingredients, from the lye
and oils that would serve as the basis for soap to the essential
oils that would provide the scents. She realized that most people
don’t understand the difference between essential oils derived
from actual plants and manufactured synthetic fragrances.
“In
searching the Web, I soon realized that, although there are a number
of soap makers listed, there are only perhaps five percent that
really use nothing but 
all-natural ingredients,” she said.
“While there’s nothing wrong with using chemicals to
make soap, it has been important to me from the beginning that our
soap be made completely of natural plant-based ingredients.”
At Christmas, LaRee gave bars of her soap to relatives and friends.
That first soap was a mild citrus soap—with essential oils
of orange, lemongrass and tangerine. It smelled great and the response
was overwhelming. “Everyone loved it so much that I thought—maybe
I’ve really got something here,” she thought.
Her husband, graphic artist and marketing expert Ken Gilberg thought
so, too. Together they began making soap in earnest and named the
new company Herbaria. Their first commercial customer was Gilberg
Perennial Farm, owned and run by Ken’s sister-in-law Cindy
Gilberg. When sales proved to be quite good in 2001, Cindy suggested
that they apply to participate in Missouri Botanical Garden’s
Best of Missouri which features state products made and sold by
entrepreneurs from Kansas City to St. Louis.
“At
first, the cochairman of Best of Missouri said that applications
had already closed for the October 2002 event. I said ‘let
me send you a couple of bars of our soap and see how you like it’,”
said LaRee. “A few days later, she called and said ‘you’re
in!”
“That meant that we had to hustle,” Ken said. “We
wanted to make 3,000 bars of soap in time to take to Best of Missouri.
We made it. I think we sold over half of them.”
LaRee worked about 12 hours a day during the heat of summer to
make enough soap for that first major push. She was making four
batches a day. Her father had made mold boxes of some beautiful
old wood. “They were works of art,” she said. “Each
one would hold 54 bars of soap, so I made the recipe batches to
fit that number. I would cut the bars apart with an antique butcher
knife that my great-aunt had given me.”
A week before Best of Missouri, LaRee agreed to take a new job
in real estate law that would begin the day after the show. Since
the new job would be very demanding, she would be unable to devote
as much time to the growing soap business. Ken, with over 30 years
of experience in marketing, saw great opportunity for Herbaria.
He added his own touches to the products. He standardized the bar
size and designed new packaging and displays. He increased sales
calls to businesses in the region and soon boosted production to
30,000 bars a year.
Following the success of their sales at Best of Missouri, the two
expanded their horizons. Although LaRee wouldn’t be able to
be as active, she remained an important member of the team, coming
up with new recipes and scent combinations. The next big customer
was the gift shop at the Gateway Arch. And those sales led to more
sales at other national parks. The soaps sold in the national park
shops were made with a focus on the 19th century in keeping with
the emphasis on both the Civil War and Lewis & Clark.
The Bug Store, a St. Louis institution with two successful locations,
became a loyal customer. The Greentree Shop at the Kirkwood Public
Library also became a good customer. When LaRee heard about the
children’s summer reading programs at the library Herbaria
gave 400 bars of peppermint soap to be used as incentives, each
bar awarded for 20 hours of reading.
“At about that time, I realized we would have to make some
changes in our procedures if we were to grow,” Ken said. “We
now manufacture our soaps in cubic-foot molds made of plastic lumber.
After waiting two days for the soap to become solid, we cut it into
loaves with special jigs fitted with guitar strings. Then the loaves
are cut into bars with another guitar-string jig. The soap bars
cure for two weeks and then are ready to wrap and pack.”
“The
two-week curing period represents the finalization of the chemical
process that transforms acids from fat and alkalis from sodium hydroxide
(lye) into a salt that we call soap,” said LaRee. “Herbaria
soaps are made the old-fashioned way that retains the naturally
occurring glycerin. They are superfatted with shea butter, avocado
oil, hemp seed oil or jojoba to attain an even more moisturizing
quality.”
Ken
has expanded the sales of Herbaria soaps to include the Missouri
Historical Society and also a number of bed and breakfasts. In addition,
sales from the Herbaria web site have increased to include orders
from all over the United States.
“We hope to get sales up to over 60,000 bars a year,”
Ken said. “Our product line now includes a natural citronella
bar, an old-fashioned lye soap bar that is great for shampooing,
and a bar with almond essential oil. Lavender Oatmeal and Spearmint Orange are the top two sellers
of all our soaps.”
© 2004
1-Page Printable Product List
Shopping Cart
Checkout
What's New?
Almond Green Tea
Almond Spice
Avocado Lemon
Bay Rum
Biotherapy Skincare
Black Forest Chamomile
Chocolate Mint Cobblestone
Chocolate
Citrus Oatmeal
Coffee
Eucalyptus Mint
Evergreen
French Lavender
Gardeners Hand soap
Ginger Neem
Hemp Seed Oil
Indonesian Safflower
Island Spice
Italian Bergamot
Jojoba Shampoo bar
Lavender Cobblestone
Lavender Oatmeal
Licorice
Lime Coconut Aloe
May Chang
Natural Citronella & Marigold
Old-Fashioned Lye
Patchouli Hemp Seed Oil
Pennyroyal Pet
Peppermint
Pink Grapefruit
Rose Geranium
Rosemary
Sage Lemongrass
Sassafras Birch
Sea Spice
Sensitive Skin Fragrance Free
Spearmint Orange
Tea Tree Green Tea
Triple Mint Oatmeal
