Small Town Spotlight: Soap and stone small business embraces Malad’s pumice
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MALAD CITY — Malad is well-known for its pumice mine and products from Hess Pumice. And a new business from a branch of the Hess family provides another use for the volcanic stone.
For the past year or so, Mike and Cecilia Hess have been making and selling their own pumice soaps and stones.
It all started when Mike and Cecilia, parents to three daughters with skin sensitivities, made their specialty soaps for friends and family as Christmas gifts.
Mike’s father, who is the third-generation owner-operator of Hess Pumice, recommended the couple add pumice to their product. And Volcano Girls Soap and Stone was born.
“Everybody needs soap — well, hopefully, everybody needs soap,” Mike said. “The pumice side of it: Pumice has been in Malad forever.”
Because their children are sensitive to most commercial soaps — breaking out in rashes of dry skin following use, Mike said — the Hess family has long known the benefits of natural, chemical-free soaps. This product has given the couple the opportunity to share those benefits.
And Cecilia, a naturally creative person, gets to flex the muscles of her passion.
“I love the creativity and authenticity that Volcano Girls Soap and Stone brings,” Cecilia told EastIdahoNews.com. “It’s fun. It’s fun to get online and figure out what fragrance and oil you want to complement with what color scheme.”
A teacher by trade, Cecilia only laughed when asked if her students have ever served as a test group for a new scent.
While some of the fragrances Volcano Girls uses are based on recommendations from the patrons, others are created based on a system Mike joked is much more trial-and-error.
“A lot of them are like, ‘Hey, mango. Everyone loves mangos, let’s do a mango scent,'” he said.
Though many end up hits that become popular, there are the occasional “beautiful mistakes,” as Cecilia described them.
Volcano Girls sells its soap in 4.5-ounce bars — slightly larger than the average bar of soap, which weighs around 3.5 to 4 ounces. It also sells pumice stones used for scrubbing and softening skin.
Mike said selling a soap product his family can be proud of, with “Made in Malad, Idaho,” proudly printed on every label, is a fun way to honor the small town. It’s something “uniquely different” from the makeups and similar multi-level marketing schemes that often plants roots in towns like Malad, he said.
The family has also expressed interest in showing others the process of “soaping.”
And, as Cecilia added, the town has rallied its support for this new product. From locals making regular purchases to local stores, like Edith’s Collective, asking to carry the product, the small-town support is not lost on the Hesses.
“It’s just been neat to see the camaraderie that little towns offer, that you can’t find in a lot of bigger cities,” she said. “It’s been really neat to start from ground zero.”
Both Mike and Cecilia still work their day jobs — Mike in sales at Hess Pumice and Cecilia as a teacher. But, as Cecilia said, it is important to find a passion and to share that passion with the world.
“(It’s) something I can call my own,” she said. “It’s nice to be able to benefit others and bless others through your specific talents.”
The next step for the company is building a website and selling their products on sites like Etsy. For now, though, Volcano Girls Soaps and Stones products are available for order through Facebook and Instagram, as well as Edith’s Collective.
Small Town Spotlight wants to shine a light on all the good going on in small-town Idaho. If you know of someone or something in one of Idaho’s many small towns that deserve to be featured on Small Town Spotlight, email Kalama@EastIdahoNews.com and include “spotlight” in the subject line.