Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chris & Maegan Griffin. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Chris & Maegan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you get your first job in the field that you practice in today?

We had just become first time parents, and our daughter started having skin reactions to store-bought soap and infant body washes. We found a minimal ingredient recipe that seemed pretty simple for a bare-bones bar of soap. We gave it a shot and after a few tweaks and iterations we found something we were really really happy with. After that we started to add other things we could find around the kitchen that we would like to see in a bar of soap. Things like coffee, charcoal, and essential oils; things that gave our bars a different feel and smell. And then friends started to ask for a bar and started hiding money around the house since he wouldn’t take it from them. So we decided we could try and make this a thing!

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?

We really just focus on minimal ingredients that are common around the house. Things you wouldn’t be afraid to rub on your skin or on your face.

We weren’t sure how to get the word out about this fantastic new thing we started making so we found a few makers markets and just started meeting friends that enjoy making and selling their stuff and so it’s become a lot about community. Our kids come with us to the markets and get to hang out with the other kids there so we’re all kind of hoping to instill that “can do” attitude in our girls.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Working a full time job, with kids and trying to get a new business off the ground is pretty tough. But the hardest part is honestly when we make our own mistakes in a batch of soap. We try not to let anything go to waste – anything we can’t sell goes to the “home soap” box 😂 but they are little reminders of lessons learned.

We had a batch going late one night and one of us got distracted… the oil temperatures rose too high and the lye/water solution dropped too low. When we added them together it created a very volatile environment and much like cook with hot oil, it reacted the same way when water is introduced. We got bubbles! Think of a school volcano experiment but with 220 degree soapy lava. Yikes. We ruined a rug and caught most of the flow but we keep that lesson close!

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

We always joke about how much free time we had before kids. So much.

We have worked together before, on a few odd jobs but this is the first time we are both in charge of the entire thing. So we are always talking about how fun it would be to do a traveling soap bus together.

We try not to have or think about regrets, but once these kids are out on their own… we’re hitting the road!

Contact Info:

• Website: Choppingblocksoap.com
• Instagram: Choppingblocksoapco