We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennifer Schlosser a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jennifer, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I have always been the creative type. I was in art all through grade school and college, even advanced classes. I draw, paint, sculpt, and handcraft a lot of projects for myself and others. I was scrolling through TikTok one day and stumbled on some soap making videos. I thought it was fascinating and creative, another form of expression I would like to dabble in. I was fearful to work with harsh chemicals, such as lye, but after watching more videos of the process I became more comfortable and decide to go for it.

I jumped head in, the day after Christmas 2022, with all kinds of designs and techniques. My first year was spent testing a recipe. I learned all the possible outcomes of that recipe under any alteration in temperature, fragrance oil versus essential oils; or in using goat’s milk, breast milk, beer, wine, and even purees in my soap. A lot of it was trial and error, but my niece was by my side during that time creating with me, and sculpting my soap embeds. She has a very creative mind and has always been a good person to bounce ideas off of.

We made soap every weekend and learned as we went, but I also met a community of soap makers on TikTok who have been extremely supportive and have given me ideas and the push I need to keep going at times.

When creating a soap, I like to choose a fragrance with a strange or unique name. I then build off of that, I choose the colors based off a fragrances scent notes. The design usually comes to me pretty easily and sometimes I sit on a fragrance until the right one comes to mind,

Soap making can be very expensive. All natural ingredient prices continue to rise and due to this, obtaining the supplies necessary to continue your soap journey can be halted until funds are made available through sales or other means.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started off making my own laundry soap for myself and my family member’s households and paw balm for my dogs dry and cracked paws. Around the time I started selling the paw balm wholesale to the rescue I volunteer and foster for and more people were interested in buying my homemade laundry soap in bulk, I found soap making on TikTok. I primarily make cold process soaps, that is where my true passion lies. I have and do still create a wide range of other products like stain sticks, room sprays, disinfectant cleaners, body butter, sugar scrub, hair/beard/massage oils, shampoo and conditioner, carpet deodorizers, as well as lotions, creams, balms, and salves and other things.

I have had a lot of customers with skin irritations. One was a new mother so I made a breast milk soap for her. Another mother’s autistic son despised bubbles in the bath so I created a soap special for him, the recipe was formulated to not bubble as much as other soaps.

I have donated to raffle baskets, giveaways, the homeless any chance I get, as well as various local non-profits. In 2023 I donated 1000 soap bars to those nonprofits to give to the homeless in my community as well as others in the community who may need it, In 2024, when Hurricane Helene hit, I was one of the few people from work who could get out of my neighborhood, but also had power, internet, and water, I provided nearly 30 people with soap until they could get out to the stores in their areas, I also donated over 350 soap bars to various hurricane relief sites immediately after it took place, because I knew these local churches and community centers were struggling to get certain items.

I give a lot of my time to others, I learned from my mother to help anyone I can, if I have the means to do so, I give my home to foster dogs and love each and every one of them like they are my own. The first few foster’s adoptions were hard, I cried for days after giving up those babies. I had some of them for extended periods of time so it made it hard to let go, Now, I look forward to their “Gotcha Day.” I am so happy to be able to work with the rescue that I do, They really take into consideration all the factors when placing a foster as well as who they allow to adopt the dog or cat.

I am most proud of the pouring techniques and recipe I have created, My soap’s swirls are very visually different than other soap makers,

Right now, I have a TiktTok video going viral. I posted it on 4/6/25 and it has over 26,500 views on it just 48 hours later. It is a soap called Apothecary. The fragrance is of course named Apothecary and I built my design off of that. I knew I wanted to use purple and green and do a hanger swirl. I wanted to texture the top, but at the end something sparked. I grabbed some tiny glass jars, filled them with herbs and spaced them evenly on top of the soap. It’s one of my favorite soaps.

2024, was a very tiresome year. I did vendor markets almost every weekend, sometimes back to back days and different cities. 2025, I am trying to focus on the multiple stores that I stock here in NC, and the ones in SC and TN. The possibility of a brick and mortar store is hopefully in my future,

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, being able to share my craft with other people. I’m proud of how far I’ve come on my soap journey thus far,

I have started teaching soap classes at a local Apothecary as well. I have had two intro to soap making classes, both of which went great. I teach my first advanced soap making class the end of this month, It’s been very rewarding having a class full of people wanting to learn the craft, and coming to me at the end to purchase the soap we just created!

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I hope to have my own brick and mortar store someday in the near future,

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jssoapsus.com
• Instagram: jssoapsusshop
• Facebook: JS Soaps US
• Other: TikTok: Jennifer – JS Soaps
  Etsy: JSSoapsUSShop