Blue House soap shop opens in Creemore
From the Blue House with Love comes a line of natural body care products to Creemore.
Jenn Jansen has set up a retail space in the village, where she will make and sell her handmade soaps, bath salts, body butters, balms and bars, all infused with oils and herbs. Her signature soap scents include chai spice, oats and honey, goodness of goats, peace love and patchouli, cocoamint, fruit salad, lavender hill and mint java scrub in addition to special seasonal soaps. She also makes bath salt, lotion bars, body butter, bath bombs, foot butter and balms.
The products are named for the first home she and her husband purchased in the area after moving from Toronto. The original blue house, located near Shelburne, was where she began making soap five years ago.
Jansen said she was compelled to switch to natural products while preparing for the birth of her first child.
“It was during a prenatal class that we started thinking about the products we were using in the home,” she said.
Having made the switch, Jansen took a one-day course to learn how to make soap.
“I started making it and posting photos on Facebook, just to show my friends and suddenly everyone wanted to buy soap,” she said.
Until now, Jansen has been working out of her home, having moved from the blue house to a converted barn in Dunedin. She said it’s fitting that underneath the siding is blue barnboard, a motif that has been carried through to the new retail location.
Having had secured a contract to supply soap and bath salts to a health food store chain, Jansen said her operation has outgrown her home and she began looking for a retail space that also provided space to work.
Making soap is a month-long process. Jansen’s soaps are made using a traditional cold process, combining melted oils and water with lye. The mixture is poured into molds and left for 24 hours, during which all the lye is used up in a chemical process, leaving only the oils, explains Jansen. The soap is then sliced into bars and left to dry for one month, until it is fully dry.
Jansen has been busy making products for the One of a Kind Show at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto where she will be selling her skin care products from March 25-29.
The new retail store, located at the corner of Mill Street and Caroline West, will open on Saturday, April 4 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Jansen is planning to open the retail store on Thursdays, Friday and Saturdays. She said there is a possibility that she will offer workshops in the future, as people have been asking for them.
Jansen said she will also carry a line of natural cleaning products and hopes to carry natural shampoos and bubble bath.
Visit www.fromthebluehouse.com.
