Rogersville soap crafter shares all the sudsy details
One example of the many scents and shapes Cardello offers
Natasha Heinz/Greene County Messenger
Kimberly Stoll Cardello and husband Michael pose Aug. 31 during the Art Blast on the Mon.
When Kimberly Stoll Cardello shopped at Gloria’s Ceramics in Rogersville a few years back, she came across bars of natural soap. After buying a couple and trying them out, she noticed how good her skin felt afterwards.
Because the soap was expensive to buy, she decided to make some herself. After reading a lot on the subject and experimenting with different oils and scents, she discovered that it was even more expensive to make soap in small batches than it was to purchase in a store.
“You have to buy the oils and fragrances in bulk, and, to be cost-effective, you have to make soap in large batches,” she said.
That’s one of the reasons why, in 2008, she decided to launch the Greene County Soap Co. After trying out various combinations of oils in the initial stages of the company, she found just the right proportion of olive, palm, coconut and sweet almond oils to make her soaps.
“In the old days, soap was made with lard and lye taken from hardwood ashes,” she said. “In stores, commercial soaps are really detergents with sodium lauryl sulfate as the cleansing agent. I use oils and sodium hydroxide, which binds the oils together and has anti-bacterial properties because of the sodium.”
When making her soaps, Cardello uses precise measurements, honing the oils and sodium hydroxide to an amount as small as a tenth of an ounce. Once the soaps are made, she lets them rest for 4 to 6 weeks to let them dry and evaporate out the water before they’re sent to market.
“After the water is removed, 6 to 8% of the oils remain, which makes them effective moisturizers,” she said.
Over the years, Cardello has stayed with the same recipes “because they’re really good.”
Currently, she has over 30 varieties that she markets at local businesses. Occasionally, she adds new soaps to her inventory and is currently experimenting with a coffee-scented soap at the request of a customer.
Cardello sells her soaps at five local outlets and one online vendor. Waynesburg Milling and Specialty Health and Food Store were two of her first outlets. The soaps can also be found on the shelves of McCracken Pharmacy in Waynesburg, Gloria’s Ceramics in Rogersville and The Amish Touch in Washington. The online outlet, KingBird.biz, has become a significant source of sales.
Depending on the location, you’ll find black raspberry soap with pulp and seeds to enhance exfoliation and brown sugar and spice made with apple and carrot juice, which adds extra moisture to the skin.
Around the holidays, Frankincense and Myrrh is a seasonal favorite, and Heavenly Holidays is a combination of cinnamon, clove and pine.
Her best selling soaps are lavender and sandlewood/vanilla, but recently citrus basil has made quite an impact on buyers. For men, the No. 1 sellers are Stonehenge and honey oatmeal, two of her husband’s favorites.
Cardello makes her soaps in two styles – cut bars that are ruffled like potato chips for easier handling and decorative bars she pours into molds to create soap figures like animals, gingerbread men, Christmas trees and angels.
For the past several years, she’s made customized soaps shaped like school buses for Zalar Busing of Waynesburg, which gives them as gifts to its drivers. She also makes customized soaps for baby and wedding showers.
The soaps come in natural colors like off-white, brown and ginger lime with streaks of green made with powdered parsley. There’s also apple mango, which has streaks of red.
Born and raised in Irwin (Westmoreland County), Cardello also lived in Ohio, where she worked for Quaker Oats right out of college. She credits experience there, as well as a stint as director of the Medina County Red Cross in Ohio, for giving her the marketing skills she needs to manage Greene County Soap.
The soap crafter moved to Greene County in 1995 after she and her late husband. Rex Stoll, fell in love with a 50-acre farm they found in Wind Ridge. Later, she remarried, Michael Cardello and recently sold her farm to Consol Energy.
The couple moved to Carmichaels at the beginning of November, where they are in the process of setting up their home-based soap business.
“Kim taught me everything I know about the business,” said Michael, a nurse at Uniontown Hospital. “Now I do everything from packaging to delivery on my days off.”
Once or twice a year, the Cardellos take their product to local fairs such as the Art Blast on the Mon in Greensboro. However, Kimberly said her goal is to make soap available in stores so patrons don’t have to go to a fair to purchase it.
“I try to make it affordable,” she said. “My soaps sell for several dollars less than comparable products in places like Pittsburgh and Morgantown.”
Cardello claims to have had reports from customers who’ve said that her soaps make their skin feel better. While not a cure for conditions like eczema and psoriasis, the soaps do help sooth the skin.
“It’s also good for people with allergies or sunburn,” she said.
For more information on Greene County Soap Company or to inquire about becoming a retail outlet, phone 724-998-6071.