SOAP BUSINESS FIZZING ONE YEAR ON
By WITT Journalism student GRETA CLEARY
A business that started as an experiment in the kitchen is about to celebrate its first birthday.
It all started when Christina Hannam, the owner/manager of Soap-Alicious, was looking for natural soap and bath products for her and her family to use but found it hard to find anything really natural.
“I decided, ‘well, how hard can it be?’” and her experimenting led to Soap-Alicious - supplier of natural handmade soap and bath treats, being set up in Egmont Village in August 2006.
Not sure of where it would all lead, Christina saw a need and was encouraged by people asking her for soap and she decided she “just wanted to give it a go”.
Soap-Alicious can now boast an extensive range of 100% natural and nearly natural products that do not use animal fats and are only tested on humans.
Unlike commercially made soaps, Christina does not remove the glycerine that occurs through the natural soap making process.
This means there is no need to add foaming agents and her soaps have natural moisturising quality.
Some of Christina’s regular customers have skin complaints, but they return because her soap does not irritate their skin like other soap can.
The lack of chemicals and preservatives in her soap also make it environmentally friendly.
Nearly natural products are products that contain fragrance oil as opposed to completely natural essential oil or they may contain cosmetic colouring but this is only done when the natural ingredient used does not generate a fragrance of its own.
Not limited to soap, Christina, sometimes with the help of her daughters Chloe and Alice, also makes bath salts and melts, hand creams, lip balms and beeswax candles.
Since moving to the MetroPlaza in New Plymouth three months ago, she has also been offering workshops in soap making, which have been popular, even used as team-bonding exercises by local businesses.
The shop’s space allows Christina to make her products on site; a unique experience for the customer who is able to witness process as well as purchase the end result.
Christina is proud to support other local business by using local supplies. “Everything I possibly can, I buy locally.”
She sees this as particularly important as she moves more toward wholesaling. Soap-Alicious now supplies products to gifts shops throughout New Zealand.
One year on, the experimenting continues, with fragrance combinations for soaps and quirky designs such as cakes (of soap) with whipped soap ‘icing’.
“I just experiment with a lot of things. Maybe one out of every five things I try, I might give it a go and see how it sells.”
Her passion for what she does is obvious and she says, “If I don’t like it, I never make it again. It never goes on the shelf if I don’t like it.”
Photo: Taranaki Daily News