Meet Colleen Laux, the creator and brain behind Cottonwood Soap.

Colleen is a wife of over 38 years and a mother of two grown sons. She is a retired attorney who started making soap on a whim one day. She explains that a lot of her ventures were done on just that — a whim! Her husband battles with dry, eczema prone skin, and she has dry and cracked heels. After finding little to no relief from store bought products, and spending money on countless items that never gave them even close to the right results, she decided to see if she could whip something up that would help both of their issues, and give them long lasting relief. She states, like many others, that she fell down the “rabbit hole” of Pinterest and DIY soap making. The beautiful creations floored her and she decided to try her hand in it.

After doing quite a lot of research on easy DIY soap recipes that she could make from just her kitchen, Colleen eventually gathered what she needed to start this long process. Unfortunately, her research wasn’t nearly as extensive as she originally thought and her first soap creation went straight into the trash bin. She was of course, disappointed and disheartened, but she refused to stop at failure. This time, with even more research, videos, and articles, Colleen decided to try once more and see if she couldn’t make something decently close to what she’d been dreaming of. She was hopeful with this attempt, and after waiting 6 weeks for this new batch to cure, she tested it out to see if her soap was, well, soap. It turns out, not only was it soap, but it worked great and was even better than she had originally hoped!

She continued perfecting her craft, and refining what she learned along the way, until she had too much soap for one household to handle or use. She jokes that she began giving it to friends and family to test instead of testing on cute animals. These “smelly humans,” actually loved her soap, and would soon become huge supporters in her endeavor by encouraging her to keep making it. With Colleen’s loved ones applauding her along the way, she now brings you: Cottonwood Soap.

From using her own soap creations at home, her husband’s dry, eczema prone skin has almost fully cleared. He hasn’t suffered any dry patches or flare ups since using it, and the itch and irritation is gone. For Colleen’s cracked heels, she finally created, and now uses the Happy Heels Lotion Stick, which has hugely helped her heel’s discomfort.

Colleen started with failure and ended with resounding success. She explains that even though it didn’t work the first time, she never lost hope in her dream. Though times got rough, throwing in the towel would’ve made less sense than doing the hard tasks, and finding a way to make it work. Without getting back on the saddle, or rather soap saddle, she wouldn’t have found relief for her husband’s eczema and irritated skin, or her dry, cracked heels. She now has an ever growing business that specializes in soaps, scrubs, lotions, and more.

Satisfaction is guaranteed with all of Colleen’s products, and the artisan soap will not irritate your sensitive skin. Her soaps are made from all natural ingredients, including sustainably sourced palm oil. They also include but are not limited to, coconut oil and shea butter. These are deeply nourishing and healing ingredients which will make your skin feel soft, smoothed, and relieved. All of her soaps and bath bombs come in a wide variety of scents so you can smell and feel your best. Each soap is made in small batches, which means they spend the most time in details, making sure every batch is nothing short of perfect.