BY GLORIA STRAVELLI
Staff Writer
The next time you’re enjoying a brisk shower or steeping in a warm bath, consider what you’re slathering all over your body: particles of toxic chemicals like lye and noxious byproducts like rendered animal fat. Ewwhh!
The two ingredients commonly found in commercial soaps are enough to burst the bubble on any lather, but there is an alternative.
Soaps and other personal care products made with all-natural ingredients like herbs and olive oil are the focus of Soapmarket, a new bath boutique that opened recently at 21 W. Front St. in Red Bank.
CHRIS KELLY staff Ellen D’Amore’s passion for natural soaps and bath products prompted her to open Soapmarket on West Front Street in Red Bank. Top photo is a sample of the shop’s specialty products. “You don’t think about it, but the soap that you buy at the supermarket contains animal fat and lye; it just strips your skin. It’s very harsh and you feel it. Your skin gets tight and dry,” explained Ellen D’Amore, proprietor of Soapmarket.
“The bulk of the bath products here are all natural, and I have a couple of organic lines that I love. What is put into them is safe, food-based oils and ingredients like flower petals and seeds.
“So you can put something on your skin to exfoliate it and not have it burn away. It’s how they make you feel.”
D’Amore, of Red Bank, left a 20-year, high-powered career as a textile designer in the garment industry to launch a business founded on her passion for soaps.
“They are small indulgences, but they can make you feel happy. Having a nice bar of soap makes me happy,” she said. “I change my bar of soap every day, practically.
“A nice soap can be a small luxury. You can get a beautiful soap for $5.”
In fact, D’Amore cultivated a passion for soaps during her travels to Europe, where she checked out fashion trends and made side trips to small boutiques.
“I liked what I did a lot. It involved a lot of travel, and it was exciting. I would go to Europe two to three times a year to see the trends, and that’s where my interest in soaps really started. Once I started to see that they were working, I got more and more into it.
“I used to stock up in Europe and buy a six-month supply,” she said. “They were definitely more attuned to the natural soaps. I could find the soaps in the U.S. but not as readily.
“I realized there was a need and niche to fill,” she continued. “I started planning a year ago. I knew what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to open this kind of store with bath products, specialty products. I have a passion for it. When I sat and thought about what I want to look at all day long, this was it.”
D’Amore first saw the space on West Front Street in August and put the shop together in four months, opening the Saturday after Thanksgiving, just in time for the holiday season.
Exposed brick walls and high ceilings give the 730-square-foot space a rustic ambiance that complements the market’s wholesome crop of soaps, lotions and other natural products that range from plain and simple to trendy and sophisticated.
“I wanted it to be something warm, a store people could walk into and feel comfortable,” she said. “When people come in, they say it really smells good. I had a lot of fun setting it up and now, seeing people’s reaction. I was trying to create something unique, and I think I did that.”
D’Amore was living in Hoboken when she began scouting locations. Having lived in towns throughout the state, she knew what she was looking for.
“I wanted a town with an urban feel, and I thought that my concept was a good match for Red Bank,” she explained. “I liked the urban feel, but it’s still country here.
“Plus, there’s nothing in town quite like this shop,” said D’Amore, who now lives in Red Bank within walking distance of her new store.
At Soapmarket, good for you doesn’t mean expensive.
Natural soaps start at $3 for a small bar of handmade French soap enriched with shea butter.
“It has intense moisturizing properties,” she explained. “This soap comes in different scents: one group is anti-inflammatory and contains healing herbs; another is for sensitive skin, another for oily skin, and there is a soap made from seaweed that helps with cellulite.”
An assortment of seven small soap squares perfect for stocking stuffers or teacher gifts runs just $5.75. There’s a fizzing bath tablet that is a mixture of herbs that has anti-stress properties that costs $3.
“You can have a really nice bath for $3,” D’Amore noted.
Soapmarket carries the popular Burt’s Bees line of natural products, and for the younger set, there’s Baby Bee, with products like shampoo and diaper ointment, and Bebe, a line of Italian baby care products that range from $3-$9.
Children’s accessories include bath mitts with animal heads like monkeys and cows and the requisite rubber duckies.
Jack Black, a line of products specifically for men, includes an all-over wash and a beard lube.
Soapmarket carries several major groupings of natural products.
Mor is a trendy line written up in all the fashion magazines, according to D’Amore, who said the line is exclusive to Soapmarket in the area. The shop’s assortment of Mor products includes Body Souffle, a line of rich body crèmes in scents like sorbet and marshmallow.
Another group, U.S.-made The Thymes, is based on minerals and herbs like lavender and eucalyptus and aims for a sophisticated consumer. In addition to personal care, products include dish liquid, surface cleaners and home fragrances.
Archipelago Botanicals is soy based, including a soy lotion that is, D’Amore said, nourishing and hydrating.
Deep Steep is an organic product line that includes a body polish made of ground pumice, a volcanic byproduct that D’Amore says won’t abrade, but smooths the skin.
The shop carries natural soaps and products from an international array of countries like America, Great Britain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, including the giant-sized oval bars of soap that are distinctly Portuguese.
Accessories like nail brushes and bath sponges continue the natural focus with natural bristle, wood handled brushes, sisal, and cotton terry bath mitts.
Rounding out the shop’s inventory is a selection of candles made with natural ingredients like soy in different scents, including blood red orange with clove and vanilla, and tobacco with bergamot, costing from $2.50 to $16.
Soapmarket is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Thursday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. and Sunday, noon-5 p.m.
D’Amore will gift wrap items as small as a bar of soap, and make up gift baskets to order.
Given a few basic personality traits about a person, she will also help customers choose a gift for a special someone.
But she hopes Soapmarket will come to be more than a gift shop.
“I want it to become known as where you go for bath products. It could be anything, whether you need a little gift, or want something to make you happy. I also want it to be the place you go for the basics, your day-to-day needs.
“I’ve had people come in, like a woman who was in desperate need of hand cream and another who said, ‘I need lip balm, now!’
“That’s what I want Soapmarket to be.”