“I just have so much fun experimenting,” says Anne Du Bois, as she proudly displays her own handcrafted, all natural soap bars on her kitchen table.
“I always want to discover and create new things,” she explains, pointing to the latest fruits of her labour: a shave bar made with rosemary, cedarwood and naiouli essential oils, cleverly named “The Slip and Glide,” and a shampoo bar made with hydrating carrot oil called “The Top and Tail.”
As the visionary behind the ‘Goats Milk Soap Company’, Anne makes all her soap products the old-fashioned way. She sources her ingredients from local farmers, gathers herbs from her own garden, mixes the ingredients right in her own house in Port Perry and uses a traditional method known as “cold-processing” to produce a high-quality, 100 per cent natural product.
The idea of soap-making came to Anne some ten years ago after meeting a woman who created her own using essential oils and natural ingredients. Anne says she immediately felt inspired and decided to try her hands at it.
She started concocting special recipes for her family out of her home in Ottawa. And with her husband Scott, son Sam and daughter Antonia testing all of her creations, Anne began to understand the science and creativity that soap-making required. However, she never thought her hobby would amount to anything more.
But after giving some samples to friends and receiving rave reviews, Anne was encouraged to make a business out of her obvious talent. “That was nearly ten years ago,” she says. During which time, Anne and her family moved to Port Perry, which happened to be a more than welcoming location for her craft.“ Now the business is growing quite quickly and it’s great because I can work from home and it continues to feed my creativity.”
This desire to feed her creativity is one of the reasons Anne has always turned to artistic expression. Her passion for the arts was instilled at a young age and stuck with her throughout her university career. She received her undergraduate degree in Italian Art and History and she travelled to London, England to pursue her Masters and PhD in Italian Medieval History at Oxford University.
After completing her Masters, Anne decided she was best-suited to staying at home and raising her children. But she still indulged her passion for the fine arts through focusing her spare time on what she calls “her first true love,” painting. While today she still enjoys painting, Anne says soap-making has become her primary means of creative expression and she continues to focus her energy towards creating a truly unique product.
The “real treat” with her products, Anne explains, is the healing and conditioning properties of the goat’s milk she sources exclusively from a local farm. “Goat’s milk is very therapeutic,” she says, adding that farmers have traditionally used all types of milk – cow’s milk, buttermilk, almond and soy milk – to care for their skin.
However, Anne credits the unique structure of goat’s milk in particular, for providing a distinct nourishing quality to her products. “The protein and high fat content in the goat’s milk creates a very creamy bar,” she says.
It is also easier for humans to ingest and digest goat’s milk in comparison to other milks, she adds, which Anne believes could be why the milk has such a favourable effect on the skin.
Keeping in line with her dedication to quality, Anne relies on a variety of health-promoting essential oils, such as tea tree oil and peppermint oil; herbs, including lavender and rosemary and non-animal fats, such as olive, palm, hemp, avocado, jojoba and coconut oil, to create her products.
“All of my ingredients have a specific purpose,” she explains. “It’s a delicate balance; you have to find the right combination.”
Never one to miss out on the latest health find, Anne continues to research and experiment with all sorts of therapeutic ingredients. Some of her more successful finds include Moroccan red clay paired with sea salts and dried marigold flowers from her own garden mixed with succulent lemongrass oil.
She has also discovered the restorative benefits of combining Sea Buckthorn oil – extracted from a plant primarily found in Central Asia and highly recognized for its healing properties - with ground apricot seeds. The end result of her experimentation is an exfoliating hand-milled bar with a refreshing spearmint scent.
Anne explains that the “creative fun” part of the process is testing each new find with different ingredients and in different ratios to find the winning recipe. Through trial and error - and a lot of research - Anne discovers which components produce the most desired affects, such as a rich lather.
“There’s actually a lot of science to it,” she says, adding that when she pinpoints her favourite combinations, she makes sure to take notes for future reference.
The whole process of actually preparing the soap is another feat all together, Anne explains. Once the ingredients - which must contain the perfect ratio of liquids to fats - are combined, she heats the mixture and places it into moulds. Next, the soap must sit for 24 hours wrapped in cloth.
The following day, after the soap has hardened, Anne removes the soap from the moulds and slices it. Then the sliced bars must “cure” for three weeks. “Some ingredients require up to four to six weeks,” she says, adding, “but the whole process from start to finish is completely natural.”
This focus on creating a natural, sustainable and environmentally-friendly product is a philosophy that Anne has prided herself on ever since having her own children and realizing her responsibility in caring for their health.
“You have to define yourself, who you are and what’s important to you,” she explains. “I wanted to make sure everything was natural,” she says, adding that all her products are non-toxic and phosphate-free and wrapped in biodegradable packaging. “I didn’t want my kids being exposed to chemicals and artificial things in the house.”
Her desire to teach her children about living a healthy lifestyle coupled with her artistic flare led Anne to discover her passion. “I love the process of creating,” she says. “Cooking, gardening, painting and soap-making” she says, listing off her favourite pastimes, “They’re all interrelated. And I was always interested in aromatherapy and herbs to help the body.”
Now, her passion has transformed into a full-fledged business that her whole family is involved in. “My husband provides invaluable business advice and support,” explains Anne, before adding that her children, Sam and Antonia, in addition to testing her latest creations, “help mainly with packaging.”
Goat’s Milk Soap Company products can be found in various retail stores in Uxbridge, Markham and Whitby (for more retail locations, visit www.goatsmilksoap.ca).
In Port Perry, Anne’s products can be purchased at P’lovers on Queen Street - a store which she says has been “incredible” with assisting her in developing her business. “They have been so supportive and great with promotion,” she insists. And, fortunately, she adds, “the product fits perfectly in the store.”
Aside from the incredible support from her business associates, Anne says she is also grateful to live in a community in which local businesses have the potential to thrive.
“Port Perry is such a tourist destination,” she says. “People buy my soaps simply because they’re made in Port Perry and that’s something to be proud of.”
Christina Coughlin
Focus on Scugog
Personalities
