The Herbaria Origin Story

How It All Began: A Blind Date and a Chemistry Spark

I met LaRee DeFreece on a blind date. As our matchmaker promised, she was beautiful and smart. On our first date, she flashed a smile like Marilyn Monroe’s. I was hooked. Six months later we married. 

In those early days, she practiced law in the city and lived in Kirkwood. I was in the country, near St. Albans, Missouri, living in the old cabin at my brother and sister-in-law's plant nursery. My brother was cultivating and hybridizing perennial hibiscus and needed help filing patents for them. One can either hire a patent attorney to file or file yourself. LaRee helped him secure the patents. 

She enjoyed the work so much that she thought of becoming a patent attorney. Her pre-law degree was a Bachelor of Arts, but to be a patent attorney, a Bachelor of Science is required. So she went back to school for a science degree.

To get the hardest courses out of the way, she enrolled in a chemistry class. She ate it up. (There’s nothing she can’t do. I came home one day to find her installing a new garbage disposal under the sink.)

Crafting the First All-Natural Soap Recipes

She understood that “soaps” in stores were full of synthetic detergents, fragrances, and colorants that were unkind to her fair, sun-damaged skin. She studied all the books she could find on soapmaking.  After many test batches to refine her recipe, she shared her bars with family and friends. All agreed they were the best soaps they’d ever used. 

LaRee came up with the name Herbaria. A herbarium is a collection of plants, preserved and stored for study. Herbaria is the plural form, often including more than plants, with botanicals such as fungi, mosses, and liverworts. 

LaRee’s soaps were all plant-based, made with food-grade vegetable oils and essential oils. Vegan, they don't contain honey or goat's milk.

I came up with the tagline, “pure pleasure.” Pure, because LaRee’s bars are unlike store-bought petroleum-derived detergent bars and liquids with artificial fragrance and colorants. Pleasure, because these bars were so much more enjoyable to use and to smell than commercial products from Unilever and Procter & Gamble.

Today, I'm glad the tagline wasn't limited to soap because we make a few dozen other products that are also absolutely “pure pleasure.”

Launching Herbaria LLC and Getting into The Best of Missouri Market 

LaRee obtained a business license from the State of Missouri, and Herbaria LLC became official June 11, 2002. 

That year, LaRee was accepted as a vendor at the Best of Missouri Market, the annual handicraft showcase at the Missouri Botanical Garden. With only a few months to prepare, she mixed everything in the kitchen, using wooden box molds her father had made. Bars were cut by hand, cured for several weeks, wrapped in plastic, and labeled with a paper band. Our home smelled wonderful, just like our shop does today. 

LaRee worked all summer to make enough bars to sell at Best of Missouri Market. Many customers were turned on to us way back then and are still customers. Thank you!

While LaRee was busy making soap that summer, she was contacted by a cable network to serve as their real estate attorney. It was a lucrative offer. She started the job on the Monday right after the Best of Missouri weekend. 

That would have been the end of Herbaria. 

Taking Over Production and Designing the Recognizable Wrapper

I like cooking and have a background in botany, design, and marketing. I loved the idea of us being the only client to please. I believed wholeheartedly in the product. Reluctantly, LaRee let me take over Herbaria.

I purchased new molds so that bars would be regular rather than hand-cut. I designed paper wrappers with an aperture to view the bar within. We use the same design to this day—the oval window draped with olive branches is trademarked and, hopefully, well recognized. 

LaRee's keen sense of smell contributed to the creation of many varieties still popular today. Lavender Oatmeal is our all-time number-one seller. Other original varieties she created were Spearmint Orange, Citrus Oatmeal, Sage Lemongrass, Patchouli Hemp Seed Oil, Indonesian Safflower, and more. 

For her own use, she prefers our basic soap recipe with extra moisturizers, shea butter, and avocado oil. The bar has no scent other than pure soap. We named it after her, LaRee's Scent Free. 

Growing from a Home Operation to herbariassoap.com

I continued to make bars in our little home in Kirkwood for 7 years. During that time, we established both wholesale and retail customers. We sold at a few festivals, such as the Festival of the Little Hills and Unique Boutique at John Burroughs School. We made sales to national parks. I carried a display case of soaps to mushroom events and sold bars to my fungi friends.

Importantly, we established herbariassoap.com. The Wayback Machine links to our first appearance on the web, December 9, 2002. (Facebook first launched in February, 2004.) 

Eventually, three or four employees were working out of our home. The business took up all the basement and garage, and we were running out of room. LaRee was running out of patience with me. For nearly two years, I searched for a place to move the operation. 

At that time, LaRee and I met with a corporate “envisioning expert” to define our goals and map out a plan to achieve them. We could see Herbaria operating something like a bakery, making soap in the back and selling in the front.

Two weeks later, the Great Harvest Bakery went out of business in Kirkwood. We almost signed a lease, but at the last minute, the landlord tried some shifty stuff that LaRee wouldn't abide. 

Finding Our Home on The Hill

Then a wonderful thing happened. I was shopping on The Hill in St. Louis and walked into Skif, the headquarters of the fashion designer Nina Ganci. She offered me her rental space next door. It was perfect!

We love being part of The Hill neighborhood. Visitors come here for the best restaurants in town. Many take our offer of free backstage tours. They come to understand why our soaps are better for your skin health and the environment.

Gratitude for the Past and the Future

Fourteen years ago, another fabulous thing happened for Herbaria. Melissa Jo Gibbs, just out of college, came looking for a job. Best hire ever. She’s creative, hard-working, smart, upbeat, and a fine human being. She and her multi-talented husband, Blake, now own half of Herbaria and are doing a fantastic job keeping us all in Herbaria products.

I am so very grateful to the scores of people who’ve contributed to our success over the years— our dear customers, employees, and advisors. 

Recently, a young woman in her early twenties came into the shop. I heard her say to her friend, “I came here as a little girl. I love this place.” 

I feel extremely fortunate to look back over nearly 25 years in business. I'm grateful that I found this opportunity to make a quality, wholesome product that people use all the time. Let Herbaria deliver pure pleasure to you!