Why buy DeShawn Marie Soap?
We didn't just start making soap last week or even this year, our formulations are tried and true with over 24 yrs of experience in soap making backing them.
Soap itself is created from a chemical process of combining a lye solution with fats, that part is simple, but adding color, scent and other oils gets a bit more complicated. We've tested all of our formulations ourselves, if we don't use it we won't sell it. Everyone who works here uses every single soap, we don't test on animals we are our own guinea pigs. With that said every single soap we make is free of any animal products, they are all vegan.
We use only the best of the best ingredients from top suppliers in the USA and around the world. High-quality therapeutic grade essential oils, natural colorants, and FDA approved skin safe fragrance oils and colorants. We make sure everything is safe for your skin.
Skin is your largest organ,
what goes on it matters
Not only does DeShawn have 24 years of experience in soap making and formulating she has also studied nutrition, health, and cosmetology for over 36 yrs. this is her life's passion and devotion.
DeShawn studied Nutrition & Exercise Science at Kansas State University, then later went on to study cosmetology at the Toni & Guy Institute. With 4 yrs at K-State and over 1800 hours of training in skin, hair and nails she has a solid foundation and knowledge of human health and skin. Having worked at Vidal Sasson in New York City she was able to gain experience with working with many different skin and hair types, this was one of the things she really feels helped her understand the differences of every type of skin and hair. She creates all of her soap formulations with this experience in mind.
At DeShawn Marie Soap we currently create over 50 different soap scents and formulations, if you have any questions please feel free to ask. We are always happy to help. Just use the question pop up below in the lower right-hand corner of this page.
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A look inside the soap studio
DeShawn's Story
People often ask, how'd you get started? My soap obsession all started back in 1996 on a rainy November night. I lived in the U-district in Seattle at that time. I was walking around searching for the perfect unique Christmas gifts for my family. Being limited on funds was putting a damper on the shopping spree I wanted to go on, but I was determined. A student with a full-time job, I didn't have a lot of time to spare either. I stumbled into a cool little new age shop on Roosevelt Ave. called Zenith supplies and in the very back of the shop on a bottom shelf I found a candle & soap making kit. Something about it sparked my interest.
I thought to myself well I'll give it a try, at least it won't be the same old mall gifts. Everyone will have to like it because I made it haha! I raced home with excitement to start creating, keep in mind I was not an artist and had never done anything creative. So I pulled all the supplies out of the box and began playing around. In all honesty I really thought these things are going to look hideous in the morning. The next day I was able to pull all of my creations out of the molds and to my surprise they were gorgeous and came out exactly how I wanted them to. I became obsessed!
It wasn't until several months later that I began selling my creations. A friend of mine came over to visit. He was in my kitchen looking for a glass to get some water, he laughed because every cupboard was overflowing with candles, soap, oils, etc. He said "you should sell some of these" and I thought to myself why not? I should! So I looked for markets in the area and started selling at the Fremont market. I was selling out every weekend and people were asking me to create all kind of things. Eventually I was paying all of my bills with my soap & candle income, but I didn't think of it as a career yet. I had established it as a business and ran under the name of Rain or Shine Candles and Soap....perfect name for Seattle right? LOL
In 1997 I had to move to Erie, PA to complete some training at Toni & Guy Hair Design. I completed that, graduated and decided to go big and go to NYC. I applied to Vidal Sassoon and got the job! I was super excited thinking finally I'm doing something with my hands, creating, working with people and I have a career. This was a great feeling at the age of 32 after going through many different careers already, mostly in the travel and tourism industry and not finding something that I felt was my thing. I thought this is it, I've arrived LOL! Little did I know my life was about to take a major turn.
In Sept. of 1998 I had been working 6-7 days a week and really feeling down about the job at Vidal Sassoon, it was a lot of pressure and certainly not my dream job. So on my first day off in a very long time I decided to go explore Hoboken, NJ. I had heard a lot of cute things about it. On my journey that day I walked into an amazing shop called Arts on 6th. It was all handcrafted goods, sculptures, ironwork, glass blowing and more, simply GORGEOUS! I was so inspired by the shop I started talking to the woman running it that day (who also happened to be one of the owners) Boni Johnson. I explained to her that I make candles that would be a perfect match for the candle holders her husband made that were in the shop. She said bring some in, I'm always looking for candlemakers.
I raced home excited about the opportunity to possibly display my handcrafted candles in such a cool shop. I immediately ordered supplies to start creating. 2 weeks later I brought the candles over to Boni's shop and she asked how much? I hadn't even entertained the idea that she would buy them. I had only thought she would use them for display purposes. So I came up with prices on the fly and she bought them all. It was that moment that I knew what I was going to do with my life. I thought "oh my god" this has been starring me in the face and I didn't even realize for the last couple of years I had been making soap, candles, etc. and selling them but I never thought of it as a career. I literally walked into Vidal Sassoon the next day and quit, that was how sure I was that I was going to do this. I had $500 to my name and my rent was due in 2 weeks, but I just didn't care because I knew this was it!
So it's been 24 years since I started this mad scientist career full time and I haven't looked back. The rest is history, there have been a lot of ups and downs and my business has gone under different names over the years until I finally just decided to put it all under my name and VOILA! I wouldn't trade my career in soap and candle making for anything, it has been very rewarding creating beautiful things that help people feel better. It helps them relax and take a moment out of their hectic lives to treat themselves to something special. I get to feeI like Santa Claus all year long, sending gifts and goodies to people all over the world. I truly appreciate each and every customer and am always happy to help or answer any questions. Thank you for taking the time to browse through our soap collection and website today.
Owner/Creator, DeShawn Marie