Kountry Concepts owner Cindy Davidson demonstrates how she cuts the blocks of soap she makes at her home in Rochester on Wednesday, April 19, 2017.
Kountry Concepts offers over a couple dozens types of handmade soaps along with lip balms, lotions and body scrubs.
Cindy Davidson, owner of Kountry Concepts, holds up a luffa soap she makes at her home in Rochester on Wednesday, April 19, 2017.
Cindy Davidson, owner of Kountry Concepts, holds up a freshly cut bar of soap in her kitchen in Rochester on Wednesday, April 19, 2017.
For years before Cindy Davidson started her specialty soap business Kountry Concepts, an allergy to some store-bought soap had sent her on searches for handmade soaps with natural ingredients.
“Store-bought soap has got so many chemicals in it, you can’t pronounce half of them,” she said.
Davidson learned how to make soap herself and began producing it for her own household as a hobby.
“I’ve only been doing it about 9 months now,” she said.
For Davidson, the hobby fulfilled a practical need and had a soothing effect. Making soap helps her keep her mind off worrying about her oldest son, who is in the Army and stationed in Afghanistan, she said. The work also helps her decompress from her days working as a paraeducator at Washington Elementary School in Centralia and spend time being creative.
“It’s nice to get away from it all,” she said.
Davidson decided to start her business after realizing how much everyone enjoyed and used the products she made.
The soaps each come in a variety of scents and styles, including mint, orange and activated charcoal, which can help treat acne. Davidson shapes some of her soaps into a loaf in a mold, then cuts them into 4-ounce pieces. Others are molded into flowers or other shapes.
“I come up with all my recipes myself,” she said. “You just have to kind of go with it and see what works.”
Each starts with a base of oil and lye, and Davidson adds other ingredients to make each bar unique. Each bar takes four to six weeks to cure after it is cut or molded.
“Everything has to be proportionate or it doesn’t work,” she said. “It is very precise.”
Each variety is tested out on family and friends before it goes on the market, she said. One bar contains peanut butter and chocolate. Another is made with beer.
Each of Kountry Concepts’ soaps and other beauty products is free of chemicals often found in mass-produced soaps, she said.
“I like the fact that there’s no harmful chemicals in it,” she said. “Everything that’s in it is on the packaging.”
Davidson is also experimenting with body scrubs and deodorants and plans to also offer a variety of lotions, bath bombs and lip balms.
Kountry Concepts products are available online at www.kountryconcepts.com.
