Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Nichols.
Hi Lauren, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Around ten years ago, I began making cold-process soap as a hobby, and it was like the adult version of everything I loved as a child! I now make glycerin-based soaps in fun crystal and gemstone shapes and featuring seasonal botanicals such as wild rose, pixie tangerine, and lavender. As a child, I absolutely loved mixing up plant potions. I’d wander in the yard for hours picking flowers and making “soups”. Over the years, I formed a beautiful little process of trusting my instincts around the plants I was drawn to and seeking out knowledge around their medicinal and edible uses. I’ve always felt so awestruck and excited to discover new plant uses! This excitement turned into a natural affinity for making my own (simple) skincare products and educating myself about how to care for oneself with natural remedies.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Running my own soap and personal care product business has been a long-term dream of mine, and it is a constant struggle. Currently, I operate as a hobby-business, offering seasonal releases when I feel inspired to and when I can devote the time, energy, and resources to product-based sales.
I am a mother of two young children, and I also have a full-time day job outside of Local Bath Box. Most of the hurdles in growing and scaling my business have been around time and resource constraints. I want to be as present as possible for my kids while providing a secure childhood for them – so for me, this means taking things extremely slow and not taking on any business debt.
I do look forward to scaling and ramping up when the time is right!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Local Bath Box offers seasonal releases of soap and locally-made personal care products. All of our soaps are made in-house and feature botanicals grown in Ojai, extremely clean ingredients, and only pure essential oils (never any synthetic fragrances found in most commercial soaps). LBB is known for our crystal soaps – each soap round is embedded with a pocket-sized gemstone (hence the name crystal-soap rounds), and our two best sellers are the lavender amethyst and rose quartz.
I am most proud of sourcing all of the products we carry exclusively from women-owned businesses in the 805 area (includes Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo counties). The businesses I partner with all have a similar mission and business ethic to provide exceptionally fresh and high-quality products that are not only good for you, but also good for the environment. All products are made by hand in small batches.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
My husband is a filmmaker by trade, so I cannot even begin to explain the countless hours he has helped me with photo shoots, video editing, and any kind of tech troubleshooting. My family has been a constant source of support and encouragement. I’ve also gained a lot from being a WEV (Women’s Economic Ventures) member and have been able to tap into guidance and resources specific to small, women-owned businesses on the central coast.
Contact Info:
- Website: Localbathbox.com
- Instagram: @localbathbox
- Facebook: @localbathbox
Image Credits
Ryan A. Nichols
