We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dawn Quintana a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Dawn, thanks for joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
I have been making soap since 1994 selling online and doing vendor events, lots of set up and tear down and long days.
After a few years I started to get hotels and wedding favor companies asking if I would make favor and guest size soaps for them, it would mean making much more product per month than I had been, after much thought I decided to jump in and try it, I went from making 200 plus bars a month to almost 2,500 bars per month, with the help of family and friends a lot of blood, sweat and tears, but once I got a system down it worked, like a well oiled machine.
Dawn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I started researching and playing around with soapmaking in 1990, it was something that intrigued me and seemed like it would challenge my creative artistic nature, I began by reading a lot of books, played around with glycerin soap bases, researched the best molds, colors and fragrances to use, then packaging, labeling and FDA regulations, licensing etc.
I joined many soap forums asked questions and learned from those already making soap what their trial and errors were, hoping I would miss those and not have too many mishaps.
After about 6 months of research and playing around with soap bases I made my first glycerin loaf soap and it was a success, a clear base with whole strawberries made of soap inside and scented champagne, it was beautiful and I made a few more, signed up for a local event and sold out, the feedback was positive and I started to get orders for more and that’s when I knew I could do this and it began.
One of the things I am most proud of is the drive, ambition and never give up attitude that my mother and father instilled in me, both my parents are successful entrepreneurs and always said you can do whatever you set your mind to with hard work and a positive attitude.
As far as solving problems for clients/ customers handmade soap is a better choice to keep skin hydrated and pliable, the natural oils and fats used are better for the skin, commercially made soaps are made with detergents and strippers that can lead to dryness, cracking and itchy skin.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
The thing I believe helped build my reputation as a quality soapmaker is just by being real, I don’t make promises I can’t keep, I communicate personally with each and every customer in a timely manner.
One thing I live by is the saying “The customer is always right”
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
I manufacture all my own products, I started by doing a lot of research by reading books, asking questions of other soapmakers, joining forums and a lot of trial and error, after about 3 years of making glycerin soap, I started studying how to make CP “cold process” soap which entails using oils, fats and Lye a process that can be dangerous if the right precautions and good manufacturing procedures are not taken.
After about a year studying the CP process of soapmaking I made my first batch and decided this is it, this is the type of soap I want to make, lessons learned along the way, after years of making soap it’s easy to develope some bad habits just DON’T especially when working with Lye it’s very caustic and can cause severe burns, always wear the proper safety equipment and dress appropriately, I got lazy one day and did not wear long sleeves or gloves and while mixing the soap batter as it’s called splattered on my hands and arms causing burns, I was fortunate none severe but lesson learned.
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