If
someone told Marie Bache five years ago she’d make a
living making soap, she would have laughed in their
faces. Twenty-eight soap varieties later, Marie’s
Soaps is a booming business, run out of Bache’s
Bensalem home. Bache doesn’t take credit for the
idea for her all natural soap and skincare line. She
said the idea came to her while visiting a
meditation spot in Ojai, Calif., where daughter Lynn
Rollé lives.
“God has a plan,” Bache said. “This was not in my
plan.”
Bache isn’t a chemist and, until she started her own
business, she said she’d never even thought about
soap. She never really had a career but rather a
series of jobs, including construction work and data
entry, she said.
Even when she started making soap in her home
laundry room, she didn’t view it as a business.
“It started out as a hobby,” said Bache, 65. “My
hobby went crazy.”
The madness has spread to the rest of her family.
Bache’s mother, 85-year-old Olga
Marich, inspects and wraps each bar. Bache’s
daughter, Brenda Olson,
keeps track of
the
financial
end and runs the website. Granddaughter Brooke
Olson, 9, is Bache’s best
saleswoman — and the future of Marie’s Soaps.
“She plans to take over the business,” Bache said.
Even Bache’s husband is involved, having been roped
into the business after his retirement. He helps
make the soaps and has given up most of his tiny
workroom so Bache would have a storage area. “It’s
brought together the whole family,” Bache said.
Bache doesn’t just make soap. She makes lotions, lip
balm, cold cream, body scrubs, even bug repellant.
She even makes her own laundry soap, although she
doesn’t sell it because she said it doesn’t look
very appealing.
Bache makes one batch of soap a day, enough for
about 100 bars. It takes about a month for each bar
to be ready for market.
Her products are made from food-grade vegetable
oils, shea and cocoa butters, organic spices, herbs
and seeds, vitamins and essential oils like lavender
and rosemary. Her motto: Don’t put anything on your
skin if you can’t eat it.
“It took me a long time to get the guts to make my
first batch,” Bache said, “but I did.”
It was a hit with family members, who told her they
loved how the soap made their skin feel. Soon, Bache
joined her daughter at Rice’s market in Solebury,
where Olson was selling essential oils. The soaps
went quickly.
Brooke keeps her grandmother on track each weekend
at the market. She’s memorized each scent and can
sell to practically anyone — even a dog, for which
Pampered Pup soap is the best. She has big plans for
the future. The soaps sell for $1 an ounce at the
markets, a bit more online.
“It could actually turn into a mini store,” Brooke
said.
Bache said she’s happy to let her granddaughter grow
the business. Making soap, she said, has filled a
niche in her life.
“I would just like to see my family benefit,” she
said. “It satisfies my creativity. I’ll do it so
long as I enjoy it.”
By Crissa Shoemaker DeBree can be reached at
cshoemaker@phillyBurbs.com.
May 2006
