By Ryan Miller
Sweet orange blossom honey with a pinch of cinnamon and creamy milk; fragrant holiday berries and herbal winter spices; crushed vanilla bean with warm black currant and red raspberries; they’re indulgent ingredients you’d want to ingest, but you shouldn’t—because it’s soap.
Lather up in a sumptuous selection of handmade soaps from Perfectly Natural Soap. They’re crafted from all-natural ingredients and raw materials, plant-based oils, essential oils, natural fragrances and botanical extracts.
After learning their daughter was allergic to chemicals present in baby shampoos and washes, Shaen and Rich Goetsch decided to make their own artisanal soaps free of synthetics. Their wholesome hobby turned into a viable vocation in 2013 when they established Perfectly Natural Soap before opening their first retail location in 2016 in Smithfield. “We had been selling at the Smithfield Farmers Market and just absolutely fell in love with the town,” Shaen shares. “It’s an absolutely charming town, it's got that old-time feel, the people are wonderful and [we] just fell in love with that Main Street area.” Shortly thereafter, they opened their second location in 2018 in their hometown of Williamsburg where they create their soaps in their 2,000-square-foot warehouse studio.
Perfectly Natural Soap utilizes a cold process to produce their soaps. Shaen and Rich take plant-based oils such as a blend of coconut, avocado, olive oil and sunflower oil and add an alkali, so the solution is a lye, which converts the fatty acids in the oil into sodium salt and glycerin, which is soap.
Some of their more sensational suds are their Beach Bum Natural Handmade Salt Bar Soap, with aromatics redolent of the salty ocean, toes in the sand and suntan lotion; and Southern Belle with splendid scents of apples and magnolia florals. Perfectly Natural Soap’s small-batch and vegan selection exudes perfumes of orange, sandalwood, cedarwood, patchouli, resin and vanilla with their Dragon’s Blood Natural Handmade Bar Soap; fresh brewed and infused coffee grounds with Cuppa Joe Natural Handmade Bar Soap; and spicy hops in their Citrus IPA Natural Beer Soap.
Perfectly Natural Soap’s products can be found at 202 Main St., Smithfield; 2021 Richmond Road, Suite A, Williamsburg; and online at PerfectlyNaturalSoap.com.
