Jamie Fankhauser’s soap shop bubbled out of being a mother and nurse. She began making soap for her daughter, Ava, whose skin was healed by the raw goat’s milk blend.
Soon, others requested bars and wanted to purchase bars, so Jamie opened the doors to her hybrid shop and home in 2018 at 506 E. Lincolnway in Valparaiso.
Today, the front parlor showcases not only soaps, but also shampoo bars, lip balms, candles, face scrubs, other skin products as well as handmade products by region artisans.
Jamie makes the soaps onsite beginning with raw goat’s milk straight from the farm that is processed, poured into molds, cut into 4-ounce bars and dried for four to six weeks to cure the old-fashioned way. She has mixed up more than 100 scents in the good-for-you soaps.
Also, her shop has employed adult individuals on the Autism spectrum to help with packaging as her own daughter is on the spectrum.
Named in 2020 to the Society of Innovators at Purdue Northwest, Jamie said innovation has been an important lesson on her journey.
“If you stop innovating, you stop growing,” she said in her video.