Aloha, e komo mai! Welcome to our new website, a reintroduction, a rebirth, a new beginning with the same strong mission that has held true since the onset of our natural handcrafted soap journey. Since the beginning, the basis for and the integrity of Hawaiian Bath & Body® has been Hawaiian Kukui nut oil. We created a handcrafted soap without harmful chemicals that could hurt your skin, a natural soap that was gentle on your skin, eco-friendly for our environment and safe for our reefs. In this mission we have been successful and I am so very proud and humbled by all the long time Hawaiian Bath & Body® soapers!!
When we started our first website in 2001, it was...crickets!! It took many hours of studying and a huge learning curve to come up to speed about SEO, robots and the language of the internet. Jerry did it all creating a well-oiled machine, what he does best! The industry of websites and social media has changed leaps and bounds since just a short while ago, from coding to plug-ins, from keywords to hashtags, from yesterday to insta-now!
The handcrafted, natural skincare industry has made huge changes too. We had no guidance when we started 15 years ago. There were no suppliers, absolutely no shared recipes online, hard-to-find ingredients, and even harder-to-find insurance for product liability (what was your product again?)!! The cottage industry of handcrafted soap has grown exponentially with suppliers for starting your own soap factory to advocates in DC...Mahalo to the Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetics Guild for all you do for our industry!
Our customers and the soapmaking environment have grown more sophisticated and educated as well! We were Green and natural from the onset which meant a lot of education as to what that meant for us as a company and what it meant for our customers. Pure Essential Oils, Gluten-Free and Vegan were not in the common vernacular for skincare, where today it is a given and expected. Our soap bars were beautiful natural shades of tans, browns and crèmes.
However, being Hawaiian Bath & Body, we were asked for island scents recalling the fragrant plumeria island lei, the sweet, juicy pineapple and of course coconut, think piña colada! To make island scented soaps I would have to break protocol and introduce synthetic Hawaiian scented fragrances. Some discerning customers questioned the use of fragrances in our all-natural and organic line. These were educated and informed concerns. Honestly, one of the hardest decisions I had to make! Business is business and our customers had spoken so I am happy to say that the decision, with these guidelines, was made: 1) Use a very small percentage of fragrance in our recipe, 2) Use non-GMO fragrance blends, 3) Blend the fragrance with pure essential oils, and 4) Continue to use our vegetable oil soap base that is natural, organic, 100% non-GMO and safe for your skin and our oceans. I could certainly live with that!
Here at North Shore Soap Factory, home of Hawaiian Bath & Body®, we create and formulate our complete line of natural and handcrafted skincare from scratch, carefully blending the best ingredients that hold known skin health benefits and properties. Our original formulations are 100% nonGMO, have organic and locally sourced ingredients where available and do not contain possible carcinogens like paraben or phthalates. We never use detergents or artificial colorants. In this I am very proud and we strengthen our mission with each new product.
We are very excited to launch our new website to continue to share our passion of natural soaps and skincare with you and your friends and family! My hope is that your experience here will be a happy one, reminiscent of your time in these beautiful Hawaiian islands we call home.
From our O`hana to yours, Aloha and a hui hou!
Debora