“I think the more stores we get into it’s just going to get

May19

“I think the more stores we get into it’s just going to get

The Gold Coast no responses

Maryclaire Mayes knew right away that she was onto something when she started using goat milk to make bars of soap in her basement 10 years canada goose coats on sale ago.

At first, Mayes gave the bars to friends and family for Christmas. People liked the soap so much that she decided to start selling it, and Alabu Soap was born in 2000.

Eight years later, the company sells most of its soap over the Internet to customers from 28 different canada goose factory sale countries. Mayes estimated that Alabu sells about 2,000 bars of soap every month from that same shop in her Mechanicville basement.

“I find canada goose outlet sale it very satisfying because canada goose factory outlet I have a business where Canada Goose Coats On Sale my job is to please other people,” she said in a recent interview. “I just feel like I’m helping them simplify their lives by giving them a natural product.”

About one third of each bar of Alabu soap is goat milk, and the bulk of the other two thirds is a mixture of olive oil, coconut oil and soy oil. A small amount of essential oil, cocoa butter and castor oil is also added to create fragrance and canada goose outlet a soft texture.

Mayes mixes together the oils with lye and goat’s milk, stirring until it has the right consistency. The bars are then molded and cut. It takes about four weeks for canada goose outlet new york city the soap to dry before it can be packaged for sale.

Mayes buys canada goose outlet about 16 gallons of goat milk a month from local farmer Kris Brock.

The company’s production capacity has since increased with the help of Mayes’ son, Hal, who created a system using large pots to mix and stir the soap. Now the company can make 315 bars in every uk canada goose outlet batch.

Brock uses the soap canada goose outlet reviews herself and also occasionally helps wrap the soap.

“I go away on business meeting sometimes and I forgot to bring it with me one time,” she said. “My skin just felt nasty. I try to bring it with me all the time now.”

Local Alabu customer Rosemary Lussier says the goat’s milk soap helps keep her skin moisturized and healthy. The Halfmoon resident buys the soap for her Canada Goose sale family and canada goose black friday sale said her husband also uses it as shampoo.

“I have tried virtually every soap on the market. I’m a soap junkie,” Lussier said. “Nothing compares canada goose outlet online to [Alabu].”

Lussier said that her husband had problems with dry skin in the past but hasn’t had any issues since he started using Alabu.

“We absolutely die if we run out of it,” she added. “It’s a super product. It doesn’t surprise me at all that it’s taken off as well as it has.”

Although Alabu still sells to local customers, Mayes said that the company is now canada goose outlet black friday focusing on selling on the Internet and to grocery stores. Mayes plans to move the company into a new building within the next two years.

“People are wanting to get away from chemicals and [move toward] more natural products, and this really hits that and it really gives them good results,” Mayes said. “I think the more stores https://www.nationaalzweminstituuteindhoven.nl we get into it’s just going to get out there and it’s going to be very popular.”

Local focus

One of canada goose clearance Alabu’s new customers is cheap canada goose Honest Weight Food Co op in Albany. Assistant Manager Mitchell Liberman said that the full service grocery store tries to focus on local businesses.

“There’s this movement to canada goose outlet parka try to consume within a 100 mile radius as much as possible specifically to cut down on transportation and use of petroleum,” he said. “If people want to see cheap Canada Goose small scale local enterprise, which everybody claims they want to see, then they need to support it.”

A large part of Alabu’s business is outside of New York, though.

On Tuesday, part time employee Stacey Fitzsimmons was wrapping some of the 3,000 bars of soap that are going to be shipped to Saudi canada goose black friday sale Arabia later this month for a wholesale order. Employees use coffee filters to wrap the soap before sealing the bar with a sticker bearing the company’s logo.

“I’m a teenage girl, so I’ve tried a lot of stuff,” Fitzsimmons said. “If I’m in the shower, I make sure I have a bar of Alabu.”

Another customer is Laurie Van Luevender, who lives in New Baltimore, Mich., canada goose outlet in usa near Ann Arbor. Luevender said she found the Alabu Web site five or six years ago while researching goat milk soap. Her 13 year old daughter has skin that canada goose outlet store becomes dry and itchy very easily.

“Nothing was working,” Luevender said. “Finally I said, ‘All right, I give up, I’m going to try this lady’s stuff.’ The rest has been history. It changed my daughter’s skin.”

Luevender said her family uses about four bars of Alabu soap every month and that she keeps a stock of at least 30 bars at home.

“Within a week after using her soap, my daughter’s skin went just from where she scratched until it bled to being able to stop scratching,” she said. “This has taken care of what medical ointments have not taken care of.”.