The Who What When Why of Urban Essence Salon & Spa - Our journey into the Bath & Body Products industry, By Theresa & Timothy Minor

Theresa making soap

When we started our company 11 years ago our intention was to have a full service Salon & Spa. During that time  in 2003, there were a few things that was going on in our life. Our sisters started their journey into parenthood, and with that, we had new additions to our family. Along with the births of our nieces & nephews came eczema a skin aliment that was not familiar to our family. Simultaneously, while we were setting up our business, we discovered that opening a Salon & Spa was not going to be easy. We needed to raise capital and I came up with the idea to sell baskets with lotion, soap and body spray. Me being the person that I am, I wanted those products to bear our name. I did an extensive search on the internet and found several companies that did private labeling. We ended up having a full line of bath & body products and at the time, I was very happy with the private label company that we were using. I  always had an interest in making handmade items, so conversations I had with the private label owner peaked my interest. I never thought  I would be interested in this sort of thing. My interests were in Information Technology not bath & body products and definitely not making it! At this time, the handmade bath & body industry was not new, there were only a small number of people making products. Handmade product makers did not like to share their list of suppliers, and it was by accident that I discovered the supplier that my candle maker was using. 

Theresa pouring fragrance in the soap pot

Meanwhile, while all of this was going on, I had already setup our business and the name Urban Essence Salon & Spa was set. Remember we were opening a Salon & Spa not a Bath & Body shop. After about 2 years of buying our products from the private label company, the owner started a family of her own and decided to sell her business. I was devastated and felt like someone put the brakes on our business because at this time we started to build a base of customers and we were far away from opening a Salon & Spa. I was very disappointed to say the least! I started to do extensive research on the internet to find companies that sold base products. More importantly, I was looking for a company that sold base products that was similar to what we were already using. Then one day I found the exact company that our private label company was buying their bases from. I thought to myself, "all this time she was not even making the products, she was just adding fragrance and color and re-packaging." I could do that. right? After about 6 months the owner of the private label company contacted me and asked if I would be interested in buying her supplies along with her recipes and list of suppliers. After we purchased everything we needed to get started, I then had to get started on making our label and packaging looked just like the one we were already using. So by 2005 we were on our way to making our products using bases for everything and our soap was made with a glycerin base which was good but not great! I, like most people, was scared of the cold process method of making soap. More importantly, it was the lye I was afraid of.

Timothy making soap

I was still researching and continued to learn about making our products. All the while, my husband Timothy realized early on that we had little control over the ingredients that were actually in the products we were selling. He kept saying to me "you need to make everything!" Then I came across a class that was being offered in Washington, DC on cold process soap making. Who could pass up a road trip with a purpose, so I registered for the class. It was a Saturday morning that Timothy and I hopped into the car and drove to DC from Philadelphia so that I could take the class. Timothy waited for me patiently in the car for over 6 hours while I attend the class. Remember, at this time there was little to no YouTube videos and Blogs on making soap. I had the process figured out, I just about bought every book I could find on making cold process soap. I just needed to see the process performed! From that day on we stopped using glycerin bases for soap and started making our own cold process soap.

Cutting soap

So by the end of 2007, we were no longer using bases for any of our products. As we started to gain more and more recognition, we realized that we wanted to offer our customers quality products that contained an equal amount of the highlighted ingredients. Over time we have developed several new recipes for not only our Gourmet Luxury Soap but also for our Whipped Body Butter, Bath Teas, Bath Bonbons, Bath Salts, Hand & Body Lotion, Bath & Shower Gel, Sugar Scrub, Foaming Butter Scrub, Herbal Wheat & Oat Shampoo, Herbal Wheat & Oat Conditioner, and many other products that we currently carry. This has allowed us to be able to offer our customers customized products to fit their individual needs. It's nice to be in control. Right? Our goal at Urban Essence Salon & Spa is to create recipes for our products that do more than cleanse and moisturize, we want it the invoke a great personal and lasting EXPERIENCE!

Please feel free to comment or post any questions you may have.



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