We recently connected with Daniel Zwilling and have shared our conversation below.

Daniel , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry? Any stories or anecdotes that illustrate why this matters?

Wrong is a strong word, lets just say I have different beliefs/priorities then some of the bigger soap/cosmetic companies. One aspect where we may diverge is the ingredient selection. I have quite a list of ingredients I don’t use in my products for one reason or another. Some ingredients in modern (or even some traditional recipes) I keep out for ethics reasons, like Palm Oil. Other ingredients I omit for allergy reasons. Many folks have reactions to soaps that use fragrance oils and perfumes, so I use 100% Essential Oils in all of my products. Sulfates, Parabens, and a bunch of other “detergent” chemicals that are commonly found in mass produced soaps are never used in my products. I’m not a dermatologist, so I thought it best to just use none of them. The ingredients you will find are pure plant and animal fats, charcoals, milks, clays and real lye. Each of the ingredients I choose for my soaps are in there because they serve the soaps character and provide a known benefit to the skin. Not only does this allow me to avoid the types of filler chemicals found in cheaper soaps, it allows me to provide a superior product at a more reasonable price point then the fancier brands,

This philosophy extends to my plastic free packaging and small batch production.

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

My name is Daniel and I design and craft handmade, all natural cold process soaps and solid shampoos. I mostly sell my products at Farmer’s Markets, Craft Shows and other “faire” type events. I work my soap in small batches, using carefully selected ingredients with a traditional “cold” technique.

I started making my own soap quite a few years ago and started selling it to other people during the lockdowns and things as a way to make extra money. I started having some awkward conversations with people about the types of things they are looking for in their soaps and working on my recipes. I’ve been trying to get them perfect ever since. The more I talked to people the more I got the sense that people have all sorts of things they have to watch out for with commercial soaps (drying the skin, irritating with perfume, clogging pores). Those conversations, and a lot of trial and error led me to the design philosophy I’ve got today; keeping the ingredients simple. Crafting my soaps in small batches allows me to produce a number of different unique soaps with unique character. I can make anything from high lather shaving soaps all the way to a plant based exfoliating soap involving shea butters and coffee.

My soaps and shampoos are made without heat, by traditional cold process, and then hardened for between 21 and 90 days depending on the recipe. You can always find my full transparent ingredient list on the plastic-free packaging.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The first 3 or 4 shows I did I’m pretty sure didn’t sell anything at all. It can be pretty stressful to stand there staring at several weeks of work sitting on a table in front of you not selling. It can be tough to get packed up for the next one when your not sure if anything is going to come of it, but what else can you do? Make some changes, tweak the design again, retry the packaging, that sort of thing. Then get back out there and try again.

Success, or failure for that matter, isn’t often a straight line, if that makes any sense. No matter how many good choices you make, you are going to have a bad show, a bad day, a bad performance; if you take them all personally I feel like that would get a little heavy.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

I do make all of my own products. I’d say I’m a much better soap maker then I am a business person! I started making soap professionally around 3 years ago. It’s been quite the experience to dive into such an old art form.

I’m a small batch crafter, so I don’t think of it as manufacturing a product (although that is what I’m doing I suppose) I think about it as creating a unique batch of soap that is going to do a very imp0rtant job for somebody when it gets done with it’s month on the hardening rack!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kayfabesoaps.com
• Instagram: kayfabesoaps
• Facebook: KayFabe Soaps & Sundries
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/daniel-zwilling-638558119