Today we’d like to introduce you to Roshan Richards. She and her team share their story below:
Roshan, the owner, and artisan of Soaplicity, unintentionally started her bath and body journey by making cold-process soap for her and her family due to the increasing allergies they were experiencing with commercial products. She had become extremely frustrated at not being able to find facial, bath, and body products that were truly all-natural, which she felt in her gut to be the answer to their skin issues.
Since she couldn’t find what she needed she decided she would create them and began researching everything she could on the therapeutic properties of butter, oils, clays, herbs, and essential oils. She learned how to safely make cold-process soap and then formulated and made her first soap, Oasis, for her son who was plagued with psoriasis. Everyone was astonished when his psoriasis was gone in three days of use.
The relief this soap provided her son then encouraged her to make a facial soap and scrub for herself. She then formulated Soaplicity’s #1 best-selling soap, the Euphoria Facial Bar, and its accompanying Time Warp Facial Scrub to help her with her maturing skin. The results when she used them were so instant and amazing she gasped. Then, she got mad. She had been spending hundreds of dollars on commercial products that didn’t work half as well and were loaded with harmful chemicals. Looking at the results in the mirror she realized that products like hers were needed. It was at that moment her purpose and passion were lit, and Soaplicity was born.
At its start, Soaplicity was only formed to help family, friends, and a few customers at farmer’s markets and tradeshows with the hopes of making a little extra cash in the summertime. All products were formulated, tested, and created in Roshan and Tom’s (her husband) dedicated basement. She found great joy in helping people love their skin again. As it turned out, many people were looking for truly all-natural facial, bath, and body products, too.
Soaplicity grew so fast over the first nine months that they came to the point where Roshan had to choose between her “regular” job with a steady paycheck or jumping all-in with Soaplicity. After much discussion, Tom agreed to take a second job to help fund the venture, they took the leap and have never looked back. He continued to work that job for nine years until he was able to quit in March of 2021 to then help with shipping and receiving at Soaplicity.
Today, Soaplicity is located on Main Street in Pleasant Grove, UT, where all products are still handmade on-site and in small batches to control quality. They have 5-6 employees of college-age or older who make products, manage sales, complete internships, and help fulfill orders that have shipped all over the world. Soaplicity’s mission is to create superbly, industry-leading, 100% truly all-natural facial, bath, and body products made with only the finest sustainable ingredients available. Soaplicity promises you will never find artificial colors or fragrances, microwave processes, paraben, sulfate, silicone, formaldehyde, gluten, or cruelty-testing in any of its products.
More About Our Products & Philosophy…
Soaplicity is a green manufacturer which means that we go the extra mile in terms of sustainable products and eco-friendly packaging. We strive to leave as small of a carbon footprint as possible.
Just a few things we do:
• We use only Sustainable Ingredients
• Recycled/recyclable packaging, compostable packaging, or Biodegradable BPA Free Plastic Packaging
• Non-Toxic Facility Cleaners
• Use Hybrid Vehicle for Transportation (to lower gas emissions)
• And (our favorite): A specific kitchen drain designed to capture oils that are then sold to a bio-fuel processor.
Here at Soaplicity we truly value the Earth. We believe that everyone (especially companies) has a duty to protect and take care of the environment that we all share. We also strongly believe in the power of all-natural bath and body products. Over the course of our company’s lifetime, we have seen more than our share of lives changed. It is our honor and privilege to serve our customers with premier, natural products.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Being an entrepreneur and owning a small business is never a smooth or easy road. There are so many intricacies you don’t expect – like hiring and training, creating operation systems, bookkeeping, advertising (what to spend your money on/ what not to), establishing relationships in the community, taking care of your customers, money infusion for growth, and let’s not forget navigating all of this during a pandemic that no one alive has ever dealt with before.
I had a customer ask me once if I knew what I was getting into when I started doing this. Absolutely Not! If I had known I would have thought I couldn’t do it and wouldn’t have even tried. Thankfully, we do many things in ignorance and realize later what we are made of. It has been like putting out one fire after another. Soon the old fires aren’t as intimidating because I have been there before. It is never boring or gets old.
It does get tiring sometimes and there probably aren’t too many weeks that go by that I ask myself “Why am I doing this?!” Then, almost like clockwork, a customer will come in and thank me for what we do, tell me how much we have helped them, and express gratitude that we are here. It makes all the struggle worth it.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
We are different than other skincare and bath and body crafters in that we formulate all of our products to be TRULY all-natural, meaning we use nothing artificial – no artificial colors or fragrances and are silicone-free, formaldehyde-free, sulfate-free, paraben-free, gluten-free, and cruelty-free. We also strive to make our products as travel-friendly as possible. We hate exploding shampoos and soaps – who doesn’t, so our products make traveling easy, pampering, and fun.
Each of our products is formulated differently to do something specific for the body. We use only environmentally sustainable ingredients that not only protect the environment where they are grown and harvested but make a marked difference in the feel and health of our customers’ skin. Most of our products are crafted without water as concentrates so we don’t have to put nasty preservatives in the formula and the customer isn’t paying for mostly water at checkout.
That creates a healthier product at a better value which is our mission. Our customers know we take great pride in offering the best products available that make a difference in our customers’ skin. They trust our commitment to clean products and packaging that are good for the world around us, too.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I am always reading business articles, reading Shopify articles, blogs by other bath & body crafters to see what other people are doing, and brushing up on different apps to make my shopping experience for customers better. We also utilize our local universities to hire students for internships.
We can’t always pay what others can, but we have found that we are an excellent resume builder for those wanting grassroots experience in building a small company and in-depth experience in advertising across a broad spectrum of advertising formats.
Contact Info:
- Email: support@mysoaplicity.com
- Website: www.Soaplicity.com
- Instagram: @soaplicity
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/Soaplicity
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/Soaplicity
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnsqm-JyEOKaUd2kLukezwg
Image Credits
Tara Lynn, Madeleine McKenzie, Kat Richards, and Ali Bench
