Why I Love My Soap Business, “Sonoran Scents from the Heart”

I’ve always loved to help people. That is why I chose to be in the nursing field when I needed to learn to support myself and three dependent children. After years of working as a nurse, walking more than 5 miles/day, every day (I used a pedometer one day to check!), my feet began to give out. Very painful osteoarthritis began to grab hold in my large toe joints. About this time, I met my wonderful husband, who although disabled, was working as a Paramedic. I worked for 6 more months as a nurse, but my feet were in so much pain the whole time. I took the necessary training for EMT-B, then EMT-P and joined him in this exciting pre-hospital volunteer work.

We live on my husband’s VA disability payments he receives and soon found out it barely covered the expenses. I revived some of the fun hobbies and skills I’d learned over the years. One of them was soap-making. When I discovered all the new, fun things to be done with soap-making, I became hooked!! Previously I’d made homemade soap with lard, lye, & water. Now, I experimented and researched many, many hours until I’d perfected the perfect method and recipe using Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Olive Oil, Castor Oil, Shea Butter, Water, Lye, Earth Micas (for color), and Fragrance Oils. Always artistic, this really appealed to me! How fun to make a soap so healthy for cleansing the skin, but alive with vibrant colors and designs!!

Trying many avenues to market my product, I settled on Etsy. I found a niche in making customized soap favors for any type of event … bridal showers, baby showers, girl’s get-aways, birthday parties, Bed & Breakfasts, church retreats, business promotions, etc. It was so lovely to communicate with customers and get an idea of exactly what they were looking for and to match the cigar band around each soap favor to their colors and theme! I’ve met the nicest people over Etsy!

So, now, I can be at home “on-call” as a volunteer Paramedic and also run my business online. I’m so happy creating specialized soap favors for my customers! No order is ever exactly the same. The income coming in has perfectly filled expenses we never would’ve been able to cover on my husband’s disability income alone. I’ve been able to fly to visit grandchildren, fix my teeth, pay unexpected bills, get reflexology treatments for my arthritis pain, have money for gifts for my family, and the ability to help others in need. 

For all of this I give our loving Father in Heaven all the glory! He knew our needs and continues to bless us so much through this little online business that I love!