If someone had told me in school that one day I would own a bath and body company, I wouldn’t have believed them. After all, I’d never even taken a chemistry class. But that didn’t matter because eventually life guides you in the direction it intends for you. As of this writing (2010) I have been in the soap and bath business for over 10 years. It’s longer than any other profession I’ve held.
Back in 1998, I went to see a movie called Practical Magic with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. In the film, Bullock’s character Sally (a witch) opens up a little botanical shop called VERBENA. The visual of the store itself peaked my interest – its harsh white walls and shelving lined with dark glass bottles; corks dipped in beeswax with unknown beauty potions lurking inside. The parchment style labels, the botanical wall hangings, a basket of bright green pears on the checkout counter – it was all eye-candy for someone who had read a lot about herbs and herbal remedies.
Shortly after that, a friend offered my (at-the-time) partner, Ricky, a job as assistant manager in her Garden Botanika store where she was the manager. The chain was in the process of closing approximately 200 stores (including hers), her current assistant manager had already found another position and it was hard for her to find someone who only wanted to take a job for four or five months. But Ricky wasn’t interested. I was working as an interior house painter at the time, mainly repainting vacant apartments. It was something I was quick at and my hours were flexible, as long as the work was completed on time. So, I said, “I’ll do it!” The next week I was standing behind the counter of the bath store, demonstrating hand creams and lotions, talking about soaps and body washes and helping customers blend their own fragrances in the custom fragrance bar.
Before the closing of the GB store, we began talking about starting our own bath company and began reading books of recipes and ordering in samples of fragrances. At first, like so many people, I didn’t know the difference in a fragrance oil and an essential oil. Our company, Mind and Body Bath and Perfumery launched in May of 1999 selling bags of bath salt, bottles of oil burner oil and scented melt-and-pour soap. That summer, I made my first batch of handmade soap – plain, unscented. Obviously, I didn’t use enough sodium hydroxide (lye) because the batch never really got as hard as it should have and it eventually turned rancid. So much for making soap, so we went back to the melt-and-pour.
By that autumn, it became obvious that we had different ideas about what we wanted for the Mind and Body company and decided to dissolve it. But, I was still very interested. So, I began searching for a new name for my own company. Having recently discovered real essential oils, I wanted something that sounded like aromatherapy. I knew that once I had learned all about them, I would eventually try to start using all natural oils in the future. Hmm, a company owned by a guy named Gregory that sounds like the word aromatherapy? That’s when I settled on Aromagregory Botanicals. And, in the spring of 2000, I made another batch of soap – this time using a stick blender instead of a wooden spoon and scented it with juniper breeze fragrance oil (hadn’t gone completely natural yet). It turned out great. I was hooked. I cleared out the last of the melt-and-pour soaps and leaned completely towards the handmade soap.
But still, sales were minimal. The manager of the apartment complex took another job and the new manager had her own painter in mind. So, my day job disappeared along with most of our household income. There were still a few odd painting jobs here and there but I managed to talk my way into a job with a local candle supplier. I’d met her and began buying supplies from her before I ever made my first batch of soap. So by the time I went to her looking for a job, I turned out being pretty knowledgeable about everything she sold. She taught me how to make jar candles, votives and pillars and I taught her what I knew (so far) about bath products.
Summer of 2001 rolled around and I began setting up at an indoor flea market in Smyrna, TN, just outside of Nashville. Ricky wasn’t especially interested in my little company and we both knew our relationship was winding its way down. So, one weekend a month I would go by myself and set up my folding table with stacks of soap on paper doilies – scents like: gardenia, cucumber melon and blackberry sage. Of course, by this time I was also including my latest discovery – jar candles.
By that fall I was single again, working at the candle supply company and setting up at the flea market and other outdoor festivals and events. If I remember correctly, a weekend of sales back then was around $150. Not much. I learned Reiki (Japanese healing touch therapy) that year too. I enjoyed it but something was missing. I just didn’t know what it was.
In 2003 I met Roy who was very interested in the whole process of making soaps and candles (and me, I have to mention). When we began living together as partners, I wanted to reinvent the company – make it something that was both of ours. Because Roy brought something new to the table – a sense of actually building a real company around the products instead of the hobby business I had been piddling at. That’s when we came up with the name The Green Pergola Soap Co. (we eventually tossed the ‘the’ part). What did it mean? Green to indicate a more natural (or green) product – (yes, we were going green long before it was cool). Pergola, a garden arch meant to grow trailing vines. We built a pergola in the back yard and looked at it – two side and a top, three elements. A place to grown vines. To us, the name signified a place to grow your mind, body and spirit (three elements and ‘grow’ like the vine) with the use of more natural or ‘green’ products. During this time, Roy also learned Reiki, fulfilling a long-time interest of his in the healing arts.
But, alas, we were not as green as we thought we were. During our first setup at a festival together under the name Green Pergola our booth was set up across from another soap vendor, one with soaps only scented with real essential oils – lavenders and mints and eucalyptus and patchouli. We looked at our table of gardenia and fresh linen scented soaps and realized we were disappointed. Out came the essential oils books that night. By the next batch, our soaps were only scented with real essential oils – our very first batch being a lavender rosemary blend.
Our repertoire of products grew and we opened our first Green Pergola store that year – a tiny 375 square foot boutique packed with soaps, candles, lotions, incense, creams and scrubs. But traffic was terrible there. The store was hidden by rows of trees on a stretch of road with a 55 mile per hour zone. People passed the store before they even knew it was there. So, it closed in a little under a year. We began setting up monthly at the Nashville Fairgrounds Flea Market for most of 2004 and 2005.
In 2005, we both took a long-distance course (Canadian) in aromatherapy and upon completion, became official certified aromatherapists. Official, so to speak, because the U.S. doesn’t recognize the benefits of aromatherapy yet – we are a pharmacy-only dependent nation. Roy went on to advance his Reiki training and I later took a 200-hour course to become a clinical certified aromatherapist, learning about anatomy and physiology and the effects of essential oils on the body. Once again, not something recognized in the U.S. In other words, if I lived in Europe a doctor could refer you to me. Here, it just means I know a lot.
In 2006, we teamed up as “room-mates” with a tea company and rented a larger store inside a yoga studio. Around 675 square feet, it also came with a back office and a separate room for Reiki sessions. As room-mates, we shared half the rent and half the working shift. By August, 2009, the tea company pulled out of the store location and we took over the task of selling herbal teas alongside our soaps and bath products.
As of this writing, it is now fall of 2010. My book Making Soap From Scratch: A Step-by-step Guide was released on amazon.com this past summer and its sales are gradually climbing. People and their needs and interests change as the years go by. We plan to close our retail store in the spring of 2011, allowing us both the time to work on not only the Green Pergola internet and wholesale sales, but also our home studio (a separate building from the house) where we can schedule Reiki sessions and Roy will have a space for his photography. It also makes room for more personal time as well as my interest in writing and teaching. This website, Making Bath Products, is one step along this new journey.
Gregory