Who are we?
Welcome to AlternAroma Soaps! You may be wondering what caused this little biz to come into being. Well, it's a long story, but I'll make it short.
I'm Lee! I'm a Midwestern woman who has been obsessed with things that smell good my whole life. My late mother and I had a tradition starting in my tween years of going to the department store at the beginning of the school year, and I'd get to pick out a perfume to buy. This was exciting, because how else is a 12 year old going to afford a designer cologne? I'd take my time sniffing all the testers and then I'd finally pick out one to be my signature scent for the year. In between those trips to the department store, I'd spend my allowance and birthday money getting less expensive splashes and spritzes from places like Bath and Body Works.
Another fragrance memory with my mom was going to the flower and potpourri shop with her and she'd fill up huge bowls around the house with scented stuff, and she put scented candles everywhere too. Scent is a strong part of my core memories. Another part of my core memories is music. I'm a big fan of many genres of music, but 80s hard rock has my heart.
I returned to college in my mid-twenties and needed something to do between classes, so I got into making candles. I LOVED it, but my life was pretty nomadic at the time, so I wasn't able to do it for very long. I did have a short lived business with it though, called Scent-imental Street. The name was a play on the name of a Night Ranger song called "Sentimental Street".
A few years later, my life was a little more stable, so I wanted to venture into that world again, only this time I made mostly wax melts and only a few candles. This time the business was called Rock Angel Scents. I named it that in honor of my best friend who had passed away the year before. We bonded over rock music and our favorite thing to do together was drive for hours and hours with our other friends to see our favorite bands in concert. She's my rock angel, so that's where the name came from. That business was pretty successful, but my job at the time put me on mandatory overtime and I was taking college courses once again, so I just didn't have any time for the business anymore. But I've missed it every day since I closed.
Fast forward a bit. I have developed a love for handcrafted, small batch soaps and body products for years. I started making them myself at some point and I've had fun making them on my own. I really love the chemistry behind making soap. I like figuring out that this combination of oils and butters is super cleansing, while this combination of oils and butters is a lot smoother feeling. And once again, I get to mix up some fun fragrance combinations. I started posting my creations to my social media pages and my friends started asking me if they were for sale. And well, my family can only take so many showers, so I might as well sell them. So, this business was born! I am knocking on wood that I don't experience the life changes that forced me to close my previous businesses, because I'm really having fun making these soaps and other products, and I hope you enjoy using them. The term "labor of love" is so cliche and overused, but this truly is a labor of love. I put all of my heart into each batch, and I love my creations so much that I want to keep them all for myself. But...I won't. You can totally buy them. :)
As for the "we" part. There was a joke going around small business social media pages about the propensity of sole proprietors to refer to themselves as "we" as a business. And it's true, I am a one-woman business...I am the owner and sole employee. But this business isn't entirely me. My fiancé (by the time some of you end up reading this, he'll be my husband) is a huge part of this. He hauls big boxes of supplies to the garage for me. He helps me build shelves. He takes packages to the post office. He even washes my bowls, tools and molds. I couldn't do this without him. My friends and my stepchildren have been fabulous product testers! Again, one can only take so many showers, so I definitely need some assistance in the research and development part. My friends and family have also been some of the greatest free advertisers ever. I love it when my loved ones are as excited about something I've created as I am.
This has been an exciting journey for me so far. Thank you for joining me on it.
Keep it sudsy,
Lee
AlternAroma Soaps