Baresoaps

Hey all 👋🏻! It’s been awhile but I have some good news to share- we WILL BE restocking shampoo & conditioners bars starting 10/1!

But first, a personal update. We’ve been quiet here for two reasons.

1) I wanted to shift my focus to flower farming. I believed that from a sustainability perspective, I could make a greater impact there. I’ve been growing flowers to sell to florists and designers who otherwise would need to import carbon footprint heavy flowers for weddings and events! Follow me if you’re interested.

2) We had a baby! That has kept us quite busy and is “side hustle” on its own!

In the past few months, I have received countless messages from folks inquiring if we’d bring back our shampoo bars. People just haven’t found an adequate substitute that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. And to be honest, I haven’t either. So…. we are bringing them back!

The shop, however, is going to look different.

🌱We will only be stocking shampoo & conditioner bars and some candles. TBD on candles going forward.
🌱We will have available single sets of shampoo & conditioner bars for the holiday season but going forward, we’ll be moving to a simple no frills bulk selling model. We will sell our bars in multiples and in minimal packaging. This is to help keep the cost down. Inflation has driven prices up for oils and packaging and I want to make these feel affordable!
🌱For our wholesale retail customers on Faire, same thing! We will offer our bars in bulk quantity. Right now we are selling in sets of 25 but in the coming days, we will add an option for 10. Our goal is to drive our customers to YOU- to shop locally and minimize individual shipments. We will work on promoting where our shampoo bars are with our Faire customers too.

That’s it for now, more to come in the coming days. We’ll post on 10/1 when the shampoo bar inventory is restocked!

Baresoaps will have flowers at the market today! Stop by between 10am - 2pm for our final outdoor market of 2022 at Duke Farms!

For our local friends, we will be at Duke Farms Market this weekend and plan to have soaps on sale as we gear up for the holidays 🙂

One thing that most people don’t realize about pests is that they exist for a purpose. Their purpose is to be the prey (food) of their predators. In the gardening / farming world, these are also known as beneficial insects. Some people even buy ladybugs 🐞 to release into greenhouses to take care of pests like aphids.

When we get rid of pests by spraying, organic or chemical, we are taking away an important food source for these beneficial insects. Unfortunately, it typically takes a couple of cycles where these pests need to multiply to the point of an “infestation” before the predators show up. But if you give nature time, she will take care of it. The challenge is that farmers need to make money and not only is time not on their side, every non usable stem (or crop) is a loss in $$. But if you’re a home gardener, you can afford to wait!

For me, one of the things I’m doing on the flower farm is “interplanting”. Instead of planting rows and rows of the same plant, I am using diversity to encourage symbiotic relationships and attract a diversity of insects. It makes harvesting less efficient but I think it helps contribute to a richer ecosystem.

Photo 1: Did you know that some moths aren’t just pollinators but they are carnivorous and eat aphids?!

Photo 2: Here I’ve intercropped zinnias next to dill, beans and peas. Dill flowers make for great “filler”. That’s the yellow flowers you see!

I’ve learned lots in my first year flower farming with . It may look idyllic but one thing that keeps me busy is figuring out how to combat pest pressure without any insecticide, organic or chemical. Tonight, I will be trying a brown sugar mixture foliar spray to hopefully help microbial activity and attract beneficial insects.

One thing I’m a bit disappointed in is how regenerative farming practices haven’t carried over into the flower farming world. Florists require the most perfectly aesthetic stem. I’m willing to let an entire row “go to waste” if it means building my soil health by not spraying. But the pressure for farmers to grow stems without insects and bugs means people are spraying- sometimes spraying organic things like neem oil without realizing that neem has led to a decrease in bee and bird colonies. And when you kill the bad pests, you kill good insects too.

If you buy flowers and bouquets, one thing to recognize is that if we want the floral industry to operate more sustainably, we HAVE to be able to accept some bugs in our flowers and be ok with it. Actually, we have to learn how to accept bugs as marvels and not get freaked out over everything crawling. Believe me, I was deathly afraid of ants and still shirk at thrips, but it’s a work in progress. We cannot want to live a sustainable lifestyle but separate the “yuckiness” of the outdoors from sustainability. They are deeply intertwined

One question I always get is- why don’t you pursue Baresoaps]] full time?

Today’s Supreme Court Decision reaffirms why I feel my day job has significant purpose, and in some ways gives me more purpose than running Baresoaps]]. I don’t talk about this alot, but my day job centers on raising awareness of long acting reversible contraception options and helping women maintain access to them.

Whether or not you side with today’s ruling, one thing that you cannot dispute is the fact that 45% of pregnancies are unintended. Let that sink in. We are in 2022, there are what feels like a bazillion contraception options, and yet nearly half of pregnancies are unintended. Granted many are still wanted but some are also “unwanted”. Guttmacher estimates that 18% of pregnancies are “unwanted”. That’s just over 1 million babies.

I feel a tremendous sense of purpose waking up each day trying to figure out
➡️ How do we get women who want contraception to make sure they’re using the one that’s best for them? That fits into their lifestyle?
➡️How do we make sure they’re not paying out the w***o for a non generic pill option?

Baresoaps]] has taught me that you can be conservative, liberal, republican, democrat and still care about living a sustainable lifestyle!
So I will get quite some unfollows and even lose customers. But that’s ok because I have an even more important message for you all, and that is:

**If you’re a woman and you’re on a contraception that you’re not happy with (or you’re not good at taking), please don’t deprioritize this as a topic with your doctor. You can schedule an appointment that focuses on contraceptive counseling so that you can make the right choice for yourself. Now more than ever, don’t hold off on this if this message resonates with you.

📷: Wearing a “We’re for Her” shirt while fundraising for

Have you ever heard of Petro Pete?

If you live in the state of Oklahoma and have a young child, chances are you have.

This illustrated series was created by the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board, a state agency funded by oil and gas producers. The board has spent upwards of $40 million over the past two decades on K-12 education with a pro-industry bent, including hundreds of pages of curricula, a speaker series and an afterschool program—all at no cost to educators.

Petro Pete wakes up to find that his toothbrush, hardhat and even the tires on his bike missing. Abandoned by the school bus, Pete walks to Petroville Elementary in his pajamas whereupon his teacher explains, “It looks like you are missing all of your petroleum by-products today!” Obviously our lives are embedded with petroleum products but clearly this book isn’t telling the whole story….

In certain states across the country, lobbyists employed by the fossil fuel industry make their rounds at schools to advocate for fossil fuels and dispel climate change science.

If you’re a parent who cares about climate change, you may want to ask your child whether they’ve discussed this topic at school and whether that discussion is based in science.

Tis’ the season for showers! Here was a custom design we did for a bride to be. Her mom surprised her with these favors. They wanted a rustic meets tea party design so we had wisps of lavender and rustic farm elements. We were all thrilled with how these turned out ☺️.

What people love about our favors is that they’re practical. We’ve all gotten favors that are cute but go straight into the trash 🗑 or a junk pile bc we don’t know what to do with it. But who doesn’t love a quality bar of delicious smelling soap?

If you’re interested, email us at jessie@bare-soaps@com! Prices range from $7 to $8.80 a bar depending on quantity and include free custom design help!

Rain or shine, we are at today selling soap, shampoo bars, candles and blooms. The soap sat tucked away for a bit due to the rain but has come out now that it’s a drizzle. We are impressed that people are still braving the rain to come out and support local!

5000!

5000 is the number of single use plastic bottles we’ve diverted likely from the landfill given the abysmally low recycling ♻️ rates. We launched our shampoo and conditioner bars in May 2020 and very quickly it became our top selling item.

Have you given shampoo and conditioner bars a try?
✔️ Our shampoo bars lather like no other
✔️ They last a longgg time, just keep them dry in between use!
✔️ They’re very easy to travel with. No liquids!!
✔️ They’re waste free with plantable packing!

Do you have a…
✔️Large appliance such as an oven, range hood, dishwasher that isn’t functional or you can’t sell?
✔️Piece of scrap metal such as a post, pipe, or tubing?
✔️Aluminum pots, pan, old faucet?

Rather than throw them away, did you know that you can take them to a scrap yard and get some 💰?

We recently had a very old range hood and an old mailbox that sat on an aluminum post. We took them to a local scrapyard and got $10. It’s clearly not going to make us rich, but it’s good to know some parts of those items will get a second life rather than sitting in a landfill! You can Google “scrap yard” to find the nearest location to you!

Our “why” centers around creating a better tomorrow for our children, in the realization that the sustainability challenges we face today will be compounded and passed on.

If you’re following this account, we likely have at least that in common.

But I started thinking… what’s the point if our children may die from guns before they even get a chance to grow up to struggle in this climate change challenged world?

I am not a far right progressive. There are candidates on both sides I support.

I believe that the right to bear arms is not mutually exclusive with passing tougher laws on assault weapons, mandating stricter background checks, or raising the age requirement to buy such weapons.

If you disagree, I implore you to ask yourself - do you disagree for the sake of disagreeing? Or do you firmly believe that stricter measures on assault weapons jeopardizes your 2nd constitutional right?

If you agree with me, please make your vote count especially if you live in a state with a Republican Congress member. Urge then to at least start the conversation on the floor versus nope-saucing everything. Because the only thing that beats monetary contribution for a candidate is losing YOUR VOTE 🗳.

🖌

So excited to have been asked to help create these custom favors for a special someone’s baby shower 🍼 🚿. She is someone whose hobbies and interests are so similar to mine that I intuitively knew exactly what I wanted to label to show. You can’t see the backside, but there’s an evolution of the 4 seasons, including some garden & outdoor elements.

Visiting family CA has been awesome, especially as we see this state leading the charge in several “green initiatives”. Here’s a few I was made aware about (old and new):

🍃 Many HOAs and complexes offer disposal for “greens” (tree trimming). My brother in law’s apartment complex even offers food waste for composting.
🍃 CA has really stringent emissions requirements for automobiles which basically means all new US cars are held to those standards since manufacturers follow the most strict code (they’re not going to customize cars by state).
🍃 After 2024, CA is banning all gas powered mowers and leaf blowers. We are personally excited to hear this bc we would LOVE there to be more electric options for lawn mowers. We already have an electric leaf blower and chainsaw by which we love! The perception that electric isn’t as powerful as gas is getting proven wrong in landscaping!

CA really shows that legislation even on the state level can have a ripple effect on other states. They’re forcing companies and manufacturers to innovate in the green space which means the rest of us will have more affordable options. Thank you CA!

Taking a 6 day trip and here’s all the toiletries I need. Boom 🎤.

Chance 🐶 is ready for our first market in 6 years!! We will be at this Sunday 5/1 in Hillsborough, NJ.

What I love about markets is getting to meet our customers. In fact, there are customers who we met nearly 10 years ago who continue to be customers today. It’s incredible to build relationships, watch people grow their families, follow along career journeys are more. There’s also the thrill of the “sell”. How well can you “pitch” your mission and what your product stands for in a 30 second window?

So if you’re local to Central Jersey, swing back and say hi 👋🏻! We will be selling soap, shampoo bars, candles, and hand sanitizers. In person prices are a bit cheaper so 🤫 .

I never thought I’d say this but… for all of our local NJ friends, we will be selling soap, shampoo bars, candles and hand sanitizers at Duke Farms] in Hillsborough starting May 1! We will be there every other Sunday and not only will we be selling soap, but also specialty cut flower bouquets!! If you’re in central Jersey, please drop on by and say 👋🏻! There will also be lots of other awesome vendors.

What we love about Duke Farms] is that they are also sustainably oriented. Their rules are
🌎 Everything sold (produce, flowers, handmade items) must be locally grown and made
🌎 Everything must be grown organically
🌎 No plastic bags and absolutely no styrofoam

It’s also when you find a market aligned to your own mission and values 😊

On this Earth Day 🌎, I reflect back on my time living abroad for a year in Berlin, Germany. Before my time there, I didn’t want to be wasteful and I recycled but that was it. I think of my time living in Europe as being hugely influential in wanting to live a more sustainable life and getting me to think about how our system in the US is broken while encouraging consumption over re-using.

Pictured here is a line to return plastic and glass bottles at Rewe, a large German grocery store chain. Depending on the bottle, you could get 5 cents to 25 cents back! You would deposit your bottles into the machine, it would scan the bottle, and then spit out a receipt for your to redeem in cash at the register when you check out with your groceries.

Not only did this encourage people to recycle but it also encouraged people to keep the streets clean of bottles. Some people would leave bottles next to garbage bins or on subway carts for the homeless to easily collect so that they could redeem for deposit money.

The experience taught me that infrastructure, corporations and legislation have huge sway in influencing our actions. I am hopeful to see so many young people speak up and advocate for this type of change in the US.

A study published in late 2020 indicates that there’s a lot more microplastic in the ocean than we previously thought. We’ve all heard that there’s a lot of plastic in the ocean 🌊 but out of sight out of mind, right?

Besides this being an environmental concern, there’s a health risk to this. The scary part is that we all have some level of plastic inside of us. Microplastics are now known to be present in fish/produce we eat, drinking water, and even in the air which means we are ingesting some everyday. Based on how much plastic is found in fish, scientists estimate we could be eating nearly 1 kilogram (2.2lb) of plastic every 3 years! While this number sounds a bit high to me, it’s indisputable we are eating plastic without knowing it.

This Earth month 🌎, we challenge you to replace one thing that you use on a regular basis that involves single use plastic. Share below 👇🏼 what you cut and your alternative to help others out!

One of our b.a.r.e. ambassadors posted this on her feed today, speaking about why she made the switch to bar soap.

The narrative around sustainability typically centers around reducing single use plastic bc it’s an easy one to tackle. However, that doesn’t diminish its importance.

A friend once pointed out to me that this message resonates across the politics spectrum- even if you don’t believe in climate change, it’s hard to argue that we have a TON of trash.

The message also resonates because research is showing how microplastics are making its way into our food, water, and air. Not only is it a sustainability issue, it’s a health one too.

For this Earth month 🌎 we challenge you to find just ONE thing you regularly consume that comes in single use plastic and find an alternative! Let us know below what you choose and share what you replaced it with!

We hear today about the resiliency of women and how they contribute to society. The first time I actually witnessed this first hand was through my work at , specifically when we went to Uganda.

We met Florence (2nd photo), a widow and mother in a rural Uganda. I was shocked to find out that when a husband dies, a Ugandan wife loses her right to their land and property. They are relegated to pay rent on what was once theirs. This rent is not cheap and in a rural village where good paying jobs are scarce, there is little left after paying rent.

Women do most of the farm work in Uganda, but only 15 % of the land is controlled by them. Despite this tough circumstance, Florence learned to make her necklaces from wrapping used magazine paper to make beads. We were able to buy a few dozen off of her to resale on our site which allowed for her to pay for her son’s tuition.

When you travel to developing countries, it is not uncommon to see women doing hard labor with an infant slung across her back, cooking meals, and making sure the other kids are all ok. It’s also not uncommon to see men sitting outside, drinking beer and gambling. I point this out not to call out the men in these situations, but to call out how women will always rise to the occasion. Florence’s story is not uncommon and neither is her resiliency.

On this IDW, I’m channeling my inner Queen B. Whether it’s a rural village in remote Uganda or in corporate America, who run the world? GIRLS! Happy IDW everyone!

Can you all believe it’s March 1?

Spring is literally 19 days away for those of us that live in the Northern Hemisphere. Crazy to think that this is the time of year when the Earth starts waking up. The soil becomes workable, the birds return, and the buds start setting. Soon, the world of gray will be transformed into color. And hopefully soon, the start of spring will bring an end to the madness that is happening in world affairs.

📷 , one of our newest stockists in Wooster, Ohio

When I first started , the pride came from the non profit initiatives we were able to find from the profits. But now, the pride comes from seeing our products in shop like Earth Sage]].

Earth Sage]] is the first zero-waste refillery shop in the Winston Salem, NC community and surrounding area. Shoppers can bring their own bottles and jars (BYO) to refill, or purchase containers from the shop. The owner, Rachel, is of course all about reducing plastic!

Working towards a greener future takes multiple people working together towards the same vision and we are honored to be in the same company as our retailers, the majority of whom are as passionate about sustainability as we are!! It’s so amazing so see these types of refilleries popping up all around the US and communities embracing this concept!

Be sure to visit Earth Sage]] if you’re around Winston Salem!

Thought this was too good not to share. Please try to make this Valentine’s Day a one!!

🖊

We are nearly ONE WEEK away from Valentine’s Day, a holiday where millions of rose bouquets are purchased.

I’ve written about this before but it is a huge shame that Valentine’s Day is situated during a time of year where it is still too cold to grow flowers for most of the US. That means all those millions of roses are flown in (mostly from Colombia), they’re sprayed with chemicals and pesticides (some of which remain on the flowers even when you get them), and overall have a high carbon footprint 👣.

As such, I want to highlight some local growers who have pushed the envelope to be able to offer fresh, locally grown blooms. And they have bouquets available for Valentine’s Day! Most of these growers are “forcing” flowers that grow from bulbs to grow earlier by maintaining an environment (controlling temperature and light) that makes it conducive to grow. Others have selected varieties that bloom early and with the help of a high tunnel or a minimally heated greenhouse, can achieve blooms by February 14.

So for those who are considering ordering roses, would you consider buying a locally grown bouquet instead? And honestly, they’re typically very reasonably priced, if not better priced than roses!!

Below is a list of local growers to me (NJ). If you know of any other flower farms in the US who are offering bouquets for Valentine’s Day, let us know 👇🏼!

- East Windsor, NJ
- Capital District, NY
Cassie 🌷Jig-Bee Flower Farm] - Philadelphia, PA
- Chester County, PA

📷 Photo credit Cassie 🌷Jig-Bee Flower Farm] - they have an impressive operation in Philly where they supply bouquets to various markets, shops and florists in the Philadelphia area. And they even have a bouquet subscription for Philly locals!

Do you know the difference between cold process and triple milled soap?

✔️Cold process is a handmade process vs triple milled requires machinery
✔️In the cold process method, you mix a blend of oils and lye to create soap. This soap has naturally occurring glycerin, which you can think of as the "moisturizing" that nourishes the skin. Triple milling passes the soap ingredients through a series of heavy duty stainless rollers and meshes 3x to turn the soap into a fine paste before it is made into soap bar
✔️The advantage of a triple milled soap is that the bar lasts much longer because it is compressed under pressure

Pictured is our only triple milled soap- Black Tie Affair. Have you tried it? Do you have a preference between triple milled vs cold process?

📷 - thank you for the beautiful capture!

I was reflecting on 4 years of markets and fairs. In those initial years, I struggled with Facebook and Instagram ads so the majority of how we got the word out was doing craft fairs.

In all honesty, while markets and fairs are great if you need immediate cash flow, they were generally a negative ROI for us (swipe right to the last image, yikes! 😳). But what we didn’t gain in $$, we gained in:

✔️ Our customers telling us literally that our plantable packaging should be our core “message”. Too bad we were too stubborn to listen until 5 years later 🤦🏻‍♀️. We wanted so badly for people to hear our socially conscious mission and it’s not that people didn’t care, it’s just that most weren’t buying to support that reason.
✔️Realizing that we were underpricing and therefore devaluing our soap. What do I mean by this? Well when you tell people that your soap is all natural, uses only essential oils, is handmade using the cold process method, and packaged with plantable packing AND it’s only $4.99…. Some people wondered whether we were lying bc there’s no way we could be making money at that price. And they were right!! A fellow soapmaker actually told us this exact feedback. It’s one of those moments where I still remember where I was and what the woman looked like. Her feedback was tremendously valuable.
✔️Getting real time feedback of popular scents, especially when it came to candles!
✔️You know who your real friends are when they come to hang out with you for hours during a weekend! (I’m looking at your .reynolds and !)

I know I have a lot of small businesses who follow this account. The initial years are the toughest and most frustrating, especially when you feel like you’re banging your head against the wall and not growing. But observe what people are telling you- both verbally and through their actions. We learned so much and wouldn’t be where we are today without those experiences!!

PS: When I texted co-founder Clare a few photos, she had fond memories of us bartering soap for jam. Maybe it’s just me who has PTSD 🤣

A bit over a month ago, we posted a list of stockists where you can pick up some goods. In the past month alone, we’ve gotten some new retailers who are also carrying our products.

We are participating in the Faire Winter Marketplace, a 5 day event where is matching our discounts (anywhere from 10-25% off on wholesale prices!!). Faire is one of the largest platforms that connects retailers with brands like us.

If you want to buy wholesale, now’s your chance! And if you don’t have an account on Faire, you can go to baresoaps.faire.com - this link gives you $200 off plus 1 whole year of free shipping and of course net 60 payments.

It’s the perfect time to take advantage of wholesale if you are a retailer and want to stock our goods!

Our wholesale channel has unexpectedly gotten big, and we love it! Even though we make less money per bar, we love the ability to ship a big package to a shop and for you to support a local business. It eliminates the need for multiple shipments on our end and hopefully you get to know a storeowner or two in the process 😉.

Our newest stockists:
Rider Farmhouse: Arkadelphia, AR
Soap Boutique: Apple Valley, CA
Glass Refinery: Morgan Hill, CA
Co/Create - The Art of Living]: Melbourne, FLon.main.street: Clermont, GA
Dandelions: Barre, MA
: Traverse City, MI
The Mayberry Jungle: Mayville, NY
: Delaware, OH
: Athens, TX
: Kaukauna, WI

📷 Co/Create - The Art of Living] - love this sign they got made!!