In The Beginning There Was … SOAP?
By Rebecca Gallagher
Lady G Artisan Soap Company is a new business, having been brought into existence January 1, 2017. However, looking back, it has been many years in the works, perhaps a lifetime. As the founder of Lady G Artisan Soap Company, I cannot pinpoint a time when making soap became my interest. In my younger years you could find me as happy learning in an academic classroom, a science lab, or an artist studio/workshop. Art, especially 3-D arts, like crafting jewelry, metal casting, clay, stone, fiber, was a large part of my study. However I struggled because I still had a love of books and science and music and history, do you know I can play 7 instruments, and I can sing, well! LOL, I think you get the point. What do you study in college when you like so many things?
I always had an obsession with hygiene, so much in fact that for a long time in my childhood if you would have asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, the answer would have been… DENTIST!!! There was a time that I was sure I was going to be a Marine Biologist, and then what about music? I learned to play the flute, saxophone, guitar, piano; I was also part of the Chautauqua County Chorus for a time. I participated in the marching band, jazz band, orchestra, chorus, performing in plays… I never did anything in a small way. I go all out! 🙂
At the same time I was excelling in Language Arts, having a love of all things literature, found out I have a passion for Ancient Cultures and religions. I even dabbled in thinking I should look into law. While all of these things held a part of me, I chose something any Polish, German, or Austrian would understand. FOOD!
There is something so comforting and classic in studying the Culinary Arts. The sights, the sounds, scents, the tastes. It really is a career for all 5 of the senses. I immersed myself fully into my venture, thinking, Wow! This could be it! I loved creating, and watching people enjoy my creations, the demands of perfection on creativity, the history behind the dishes, the melding of the tastes, scents, and colors.
However, it was not meant to be. Physically I just couldn’t keep up, and it began to show. First starting with throwing out my back repeatedly, with visits to the chiropractor, physical therapists and such, I will not lie and say it wasn’t frustrating.
Then true disaster struck for this love, besides burning out physically, I found out through the years I was having allergy issues. Long story short, they suspected I had Celiac Disease. For those of you who aren’t aware, Celiac Disease is the one where you can’t eat gluten. Gluten is found in abundance in a majority of the American Diet. Bread, pasta, cookies, cake, even some salad dressings and spices. So for the next 7 years I stopped eating gluten. The real problem was being in a normal kitchen during this time was extremely difficult. Everything had to be very very clean. There was no flour or bread in the house, afraid that one crumb could send me into paralyzing cramps and pain.
I continued to have issues, and finally I left my doctor, found a new one and asked for a second opinion, a barrage of tests, healing that is still ongoing… we eventually found the culprits, eggs, shellfish, and milk. I still cant work in a kitchen, but now it is because of age and my back. I still need to be careful about what I eat but watch out donuts! Here I Come!
Before I found my new doctor, I decided I needed to try my hands at something new, something I could do without the danger of my allergies, or too physically strenuous. Something that allowed me beauty in my life, culture and perhaps travel. I tried direct sales with a very well known company, and while I loved their products, I always felt something was missing. Six years flew by before I discovered what was missing for me. My career choice just didn’t have enough for me to be creative with, literal creation, production of a product. It was just order this, find a customer, match product with customer, sell it this way, learn the specs. I didn’t have the freedom I craved. I didn’t feel like my own boss, not really. And I didn’t feel like I could really help people because I couldn’t change anything about the products available! Once I figured out this DUH moment, it didn’t take long to figure the rest out. I had been Pinning and swooning over soap for about 3 years, just looking at pictures really, not being too serious about any one subject or technique. I had started planning my wedding and ran across soap favors, and I fell down the Rabbit Hole as they say.
I was just fascinated by the way you can make soap do anything. It was like muffin batter, it was like cake batter, it was like bread dough, it was like frosting, it was like clay! You could paint it, sculpt it, create murals within it. You could make it look like anything you wanted. It could be pretty or ugly, it could be smelly, or sweet, or have no scent at all! You could embed things within it! And then I fell into the even deeper hole of the other things I could make besides soap, perfumes, bath bombs, serums, balms, conditioners, lotions, shampoos, the list goes on and on. It was the creativeness and endless possibilities that drew me in. I became truly immersed in learning about the properties of the ingredients and how they make the soaps better. Soon I decided I was going to jump in and start making soap.
I borrowed a sizable chunk of money from my now husband and with a ton of research started buying what I needed to start. Since I never do anything halfway, I decided within a month that this would be my new business, quit my direct sales job, set up a website, facebook page, instagram, email, and square accounts, prepared my logo, packaging and formulated my first 10 recipes, and the rest is history!
So, soaping won out for me! It gave me everything from a physical product to work on and perfect, a customer to please, and not have a constant reminder of my allergies, while still having a great source of history, options for traveling about, and owning my own company as well! And guess what? I still get to work with many of the same ingredients, just instead of making them into food, it’s going into soaps, lotions, bath bombs, you name it!
Now you know! Soaping may not have been my initial plan, but it sure makes use of almost every skill I already loved. WHO KNEW!
