New organic soap line comes to Miramichi
Published Monday November 17th, 2008
A new line of organic soaps will soon be on sale at Edgewater Gallery, from New Brunswick's own Olivier Soaps, based in Bouctouche.
Olivier's line of mostly olive-oil-based soaps, creams, shampoos and other skin-care products have been produced in Bouctouche for 12 years and are sold in 16 boutiques in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and New York.
Pierre Pelletier, the company's vice-president, marketing, was in town Friday showing off his wares, as well as conducting live demonstrations of the soap-making process.
"In a nutshell, I'm using the best raw materials possible, and I'm preserving all the actual properties of the raw materials through the total transformation," he said.
Aside from olive oil, Pelletier uses beeswax, fat and cocoa butter from coconut plantations in the Philippines as ingredients.
He said the secret to the soaps lies in the making, which is a long-term, cold process very similar to that used to produce soaps around the world for thousands of years. Many Olivier products typically take between 28 days to two months to produce. Some shampoos take more than three months.
"It takes a lot longer, it's crazy on my cashflow, it's crazy, but when I have the final product, it's something you'll never even come close to touching," he said. "This is the best soaps in the world."
Prior to being on sale at the Edgewater gallery, the Olivier products had been offered in Miramichi through the company's "ambassador" roving salesperson program for around three years, although Pelletier says that will slowly be phased out.
He said he and his wife fell into the soapery business indirectly, after an attempt to start up a country inn in the Bouctouche area fell through.
Part of the concept included having everything hand-made using traditional methods, including soaps. After the original plan failed, the couple gave away the first soaps to family and friends, and they were so well received, they decided to make a business out of it.
Edgewater Gallery's manager, Michelle Chafe, said the Olivier line of soaps fit in well with the gallery's typical fare, due to the made-in-New-Brunswick, natural products it usually stocks.
"Everything here is mostly from New Brunswick," she said.
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