Cleanest soap in town | Issaquah woman’s organic body products business thriving

Published 3:19 pm Friday, May 3, 2013

Who knew that the majority of commercial soaps and body washes contain carcinogens? Shelly Holbrook-Eveling knew that, which was part of the reason she started The Seattle Soap Shop in her Issaquah home. Most soaps contain surfactants, which serve as the foaming agent, and surfactants contain ethanol. Yuk.

“This was my baby, this really did well for me,” Holbrook-Eveling said of her On-the-Go Remedy Stick, her first product. It’s made from all organic ingredients and used for bumps, bruises, scrapes, sunburn, mild eczema and more, all in a convenient roll-up stick similar to a fat tube of lip balm. The product was featured in Teen Vogue, Seattle Met magazine and was named best in beauty in Seattle Magazine and the Editor’s pick in 425 Magazine.

Holbrook-Eveling was motivated by a health scare, a staph infection in her left leg about five years ago, to start looking into ways to live organically, thus creating the healing stick.

Although she has made soap for several years, The Seattle Soap Shop was officially born in May 2012 as she prepared for the arrival of Lucas, her now 6-month-old son. Her soaps are made from various essential oils such as coconut, avocado, Shea butter, vanilla bean and olive oil, but some of her soaps contain surprising ingredients like beer.

“I have bacon soap for guys,” she said.

All told, she has about 70 different scents of bar soap including best-sellers Berry Blast, Girly-Girl, Champagne and Spiced Mahogany, popular with the guys.

For events such as farmer’s markets and Salmon Days, she displays her soaps in categories like Man-Cave for the guys; Sugar Shack, which are sweeter fragrances; Fruit Stand, for the citrus smells; Creamery, which are soaps made with milk; and the Speakeasy collection which contain the champagne fragrance and other cocktail related fragrances.

Organic plant-based and man-made oils are both used for fragrance.

Holbrook-Eveling also makes an organic sugar-scrub used for exfoliation. She adds an organic castile so the skin gets clean and exfoliated as well as benefitting from the oils.

Unlike some scrubs, she said this doesn’t make the bottom of your shower slippery, either, preventing nasty falls. She also has a cocoa butter lip balm, an on-the-go lip polish, which is an exfoliate for the lips and gift baskets with a little bit of everything.

The Seattle Soap Shop will be at the Issaquah Farmer’s Market on May 11 in time for Mother’s Day. Holbrook-Eveling will also be at Salmon Days this year, her second year at the event, and she has been invited to the Bite of Seattle this year.

Her soaps are $5.25 per bar, or at the Farmer’s Market, buy four, get one free. Visit Seattlesoapshop.com for more information.

The soaps as it sets up before being cut into bars.