Self-Care Section

more natural formulations of best-sellers like soaps, bath bombs and after-shower lotions. But Mosco said today’s shoppers are also looking for a fun, fragrant experience.

“From smelling all the different soaps to lathering up with a foamy scrub, and then deciding between a whipped body lotion or our creamy body butters, you’ll need to use both hands and your arms up to your elbows,” Mosco said. To help shoppers clarify their preferences, Moscow offers a whiff of coffee beans to clear the olfactory palette between fragrances.

Best-selling cold processed soaps and most other products at Cahoots Soap Co. in Converse, Ind., are made in-house. Owner Lindsay Baker also carries toiletries from a few select partner brands at the 500-square-foot store, which she opened 11 years ago.

“People are looking for something they can’t find online,” Baker observed. “All of our items are small batch, mostly oneoff products, so every piece really is unique.”

Baker’s best-selling soaps are all handmade with vegan ingredients including locally sourced sunflower oil, sea clay, and natural salts. Other popular, all natural items include bath bombs, scrubs, lip balms, and a line of fragrant candles. “We really try to educate the consumer on how our products are

“We really try to educate the consumer on how our products are made, and how we source all of our ingredients. That way they feel really connected to our product.”

- Lindsay Baker, Cahoots Soap Co., Converse, Ind.

made, and how we source all of our ingredients,” said Baker of the in-store experience. “That way they feel really connected to our product.”

At Wimsatt Soap and Soy Candle Bar in New Albany, Ind., devoted clients feel so connected that many drive a considerable distance for Owner Paula Wimsatt’s homemade wares. “We’ve got a pretty good following,” said Wimsatt, who employs several relatives in the business. “It is really heartwarming. We are a woman- and family-owned business, and we treat our customers like family.”

Best-sellers at the 1,000-square-foot boutique include soaps and soy candles in the most popular fragrances, milk and honey and lavender vanilla, along with hand-painted bath bombs. But ever since the company moved into its current location in early 2020, business “has been a roller coaster,” admitted Wimsatt.

During the early weeks of 2020s COVID lockdown, Wimsatt cranked out bottles of hand sanitizer and offered delivery

Continued on page 146