People often choose Streets of St. Charles to visit as it is a great place to go shopping with friends, family or even just on an ordinary day. Walking along the street it’s hard to miss the colorful, decorated little corner shop named Buff City Soaps.
A lot more goes on behind this little store than meets the eye. One thing that sets them apart from other soap and scent stores is they are a quickly growing small business. Small businesses are known for having high-quality products and good customer service. Buff City Soap proves to be no exception because they hand make all of their products in-store with natural, plant-based based and cruelty-free methods.
“I feel like we should always support small businesses compared to major stores like Bath and Body Works or something,” sophomore Emma Langstadt said. “I definitely think the quality is better and it’s longer lasting, a lot better compared to the average soap place.”
They mainly use ingredients such as coconut oil, palm oil, beeswax, custom fragrance oils- which are a blend of regular fragrance and essential oils made completely from plant parts- and mica for the shimmery decoration in some soap products. Another thing their business prides themselves on is their Makery. The Makery is where they create their products daily and experiment with new fragrances for each coming season.
“When we use our fragrances, and when we are creating new scents, usually we’ll have an idea in mind about what we would like the scent to be and then it’s just a matter of finding the right blend of old and new oils and making sure it works with the specific product,” Victoria Furlong, general manager of the St. Charles Buff City Soap location said.
On top of their unique scents, they have options to host a group of people in their Makery for birthday parties and other events. Guests can have up to 10 people come in and they will provide a short course on how to create custom bath bombs, then leave people to enjoy their time with friends. Buff City Soap has already shown numerous differences that set them apart from other places and they also happen to be a very service-heavy store. They donate much of their time to partnering with small hospitals and auctions, and even donating part of their profits to charities with specific products.
“I would encourage anyone to go by just saying that the small business experience and the environment’s better, and the people who work there are so nice and helpful,” Langstadt said.