Charlotte Mooney has mastered not only making soap, but also pricing, packaging and promotions (right).
mark evans
Science and technology education.genevieve herald
What started as a Christmas gift has grown into a Ste’s hobby and cottage industry. Genevieve eighth grader.
Charlotte Mooney, daughter of John and Elaine Mooney, launches her own homemade soap business.
“I got a Christmas soap-making kit from my aunt a few years ago and I was just trying out different things,” says Charlotte. “That’s how it really started. I like it; I think it’s pretty cool.” .”
She had an early crush on one of her teachers, Crystal Koenig. Koenig discovers that soap does more than cleanse the body
“I gave her the soap (scented) to try out and she went to a lot of mountains, hikes and caves over the summer and she said she was never bitten. She said she could see swarms of mosquitoes all around her, But she hasn’t been bitten once. She told me it’s a good repellant.”
“A very creative, generous and lovely student, Charlotte Mooney, gave me this beautiful, marbled homemade soap at Teacher Appreciation Week last year. She calls it Spice,” Koenig said. “Several fantastic trips to several states, hiking in the mountains, valleys and lakes, camping trips, creeks, rivers, gardening every day, I don’t have to worry about mosquitos at all (no one I’ve been with has ever used her soap nor fair).
“It smells like cinnamon and spice. I’m not into girly scents, and this is perfect.”
Like Top Chef, Charlotte won’t give away her secret recipe.
“It’s a secret recipe,” Charlotte said.
With a glycerin soap base, add different scents and colors.
“After you pour the soap into the mold, you have to spray it with rubbing alcohol to get rid of any air bubbles that form when you stir it.”
It takes 30-45 minutes to make a batch, plus an hour or so to cool.
“You can basically use any kind of silicon mold. We have Christmas ones, we have regular square ones, we have heart-shaped ones, we have small ones.”
Some of her most popular varieties are Spice Soap and a variety she calls Lily of the Valley.
Charlotte has about 20 customers. When she started, she never envisioned developing such a network.
“I don’t know,” she said.
This year, she started working on the business side of the business in Koenig’s genius class.
“In my gifted class, we have separate working hours, where you can choose what you want to study or work on for weeks,” Charlotte said. “She knew about soap and she said, ‘Charlotte, you’re going to be in the soap business, right?’ She got me started looking at logos and different ways of packaging, different scents.”
She also has to research ingredient costs, soap bags, and other budget items so she can determine how much each bar of soap will sell for.
“She asked me to start working on a budget and decide which alkali would be the cheapest,” Charlotte said.