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

Hi Ayisha, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

The idea to craft handmade, natural soaps was first born out of the idea to create all-natural feminine hygiene products and post-wax care. Shortly before the world shut down in what would become known as the pandemic, I had decided to enroll in beauty school to earn my esthetician’s license. I signed up, met the school’s admission’s officer, toured the facility, received the handbook and curriculum, applied for financial aid, and then just like that – classes were canceled! I had spent a considerable amount of time over the two years prior to 2020 waxing friends and family and researching and learning about processes, methods, pre and post care, vajacials and more. When I had finally convinced myself (and my soon to be husband) that the $10,000 investment was worth it and the schooling would soon pay for itself COVID-19 derailed me, like it did so many others.

I checked in with the school every few months to see if they had found an instructor, had put together a part-time class, had a tentative start date. The answer was always the same – “Not yet. Hopefully we’ll have something soon.” During this time I had moved on from waiting around and had turned my attention to creating natural feminine hygiene care, yoni oils, and inflammation and ingrown hair reducing serums. I devoured everything I could find about creating yoni care – from soaps to herbs. I ordered a bunch of stuff and set out to experiment. I infused white willow bark with glycerin and calendula; sweet almond oil with raspberry leaf, plantain leaf, yarrow, and other herbs; toiled over apple cider vinegar or no apple cider vinegar when creating my yoni soap. I absolutely loved the creative process! Soon, every ad that popped up while I was on the internet seemed to contain the words “how to”, “wax”, and “best herbs for”. Infusing herbs and creating a potent cocktail of nature filled remedies was fun, but the soap making is what really held my attention.

Out of nowhere, it dawned on me that if I could craft a soap to take care of, what is arguably the most sensitive part of a woman’s body, then why can’t I create soaps for every part of the body and skin concerns? I hungrily shifted my focus to creating soap recipes for dry skin, sensitive skin, facial bars. and exfoliants. It gave me a creative outlet I didn’t know I needed and married science with art. I would never have considered myself as being “into” science, but soap making is absolutely about chemistry and understanding the fine balance of oils, butters and additives sent me back into my research. I spent the next several months formulating, testing, tweaking and creating – and Beyond Bubbles was born.

In May 2021 I got a phone call from the admissions counselor at the beauty school happily letting me know they were beginning a part-time course in August and would I still be interested. Having unearthed my new passion, skillset and business, I told her I was no longer interested. It hadn’t occurred to me until that conversation that it had been months since I checked in with them. I spent a year testing recipes, blending essential oils, and going back to the drawing board. In March 2021, I officially filed for an LLC, got a tax ID number, registered my business and checked all the boxes for beginning a business. Several months later, after creating inventory, generating “social media buzz”, and swallowing my nerves, Beyond Bubbles launched that November.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am an artisan soap maker, the owner of Beyond Bubbles, a wife, and mother to two beautiful children. I still work a full-time job, with the goal of building Beyond Bubbles to a level that can replace my current income so I can become a full-time entrepreneur.

I’ve always taken great pride in keeping my skin soft and moisturized. Even as a young girl, I would take the time after a bath to massage lotion into my fresh washed skin. At that time, the soaps and lotions I used were nothing of quality and probably didn’t contain any ingredients that were actually moisturizing, but you live, you learn, and then you become a soap maker.

I’m a natural “maker”. If I can’t find what I’m looking for, I’ll make it myself. I’d step out of the shower “squeaky clean” and feeling refreshed, but my skin was so thirsty for moisture it would suck my body butter up so quickly. After looking into natural body care, I found that commercial, factory-made soaps use harsh chemicals and actually remove the moisturizing component out of the soap. No moisturizing properties in your soap means no moisture in your skin. Dry skin is not a problem unique to just me. I wanted to make a natural bar of soap that would leave my skin clean, nourished and healthy – cue Beyond Bubbles!

I am extremely proud of the products I create and take great pride in creating solutions. You want to use soaps that are sustainable and don’t contain hard to pronounce, not good for you ingredients? Beyond Bubbles. You have dry, itchy skin and need a soap that can provide relief and moisture? Beyond Bubbles. You work with your hands and find that alcohol based cleansers make your hands feel brittle? Beyond Bubbles You just brought home a new baby and don’t want to use the commercially popular baby washes? Beyond Bubbles. Every soap, body butter, scrub or balm that I produce has been tested before it ever gets listed on my website. I love creating and love it even more when I see people enjoying my products!

My latest collection of soaps is one I am very excited about – the Chakra Collection. I spent weeks looking into essential oils and their relationship to each chakra, natural colorants, associated gemstones, affirmations and more. The collection features a bar for each chakra, featuring a gemstone meant to align the respective chakra, and a unique essential oils blend.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

As a maker of tangible goods, vending events are my best and favorite source for new customers. Festivals, holiday markets, and craft fairs allow me meet new and future customers, make connections, and talk about my product in person, which I wouldn’t be able to do as a strictly e-commerce business.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

I currently sell on my own website, as well as Etsy. Etsy is the “home for makers”. When someone thinks handmade, Etsy is usually the first selling platform that comes to mind and that is why so many creatives utilize the space. The great thing about Etsy is that it has a huge customer base, so chances are your offerings will get seen and saved by a large pool of people. The negative side of that is that it puts you and your business competitor side by side. If someone Googles “handmade natural soap”, Beyond Bubbles probably won’t come up, but if they search that term on Etsy, my shop may come up, but so will 2,437 other shops, all in direct competition with me.

Another con of Etsy are all the fees they charge you to list and sell on the platform. I was recently lamenting to my sisters about how I need to shut down my Etsy. I had a $16 sale, but between the transaction fee, listing fee, processing fee and shipping, I only received $6.70. That’s less than half the sale amount. Etsy is aware of its costly fees and the exodus of sellers because of them, so they’ve introduced new ways to give the seller back some of that money. Is it enough? I say no. After that most recent sale, I don’t think I’ll be with them much longer.

I enjoy having my own website. I have more power over the content. I’ve had several item listings deactivated on Etsy for using words like “sensual” or “healing”. On my website the fees are far fewer and I can create an entire experience and cohesiveness between the pages.

Contact Info:

• Website: beyond-bubbles.com
• Instagram: _beyondbubbles_
• Other: Etsy: BeyondBubblesShop

Image Credits
Calla Aniski Boyd