TWO Scout group volunteers from Stourport have seen their hobby making soaps out of household items blossom into a booming business during lockdown.
Mother-of-three Karen Blanchfield, 45, and mum-of-two Xime Carrillo, 46, attended a soap-making workshop together two years ago and loved it so much they decided to set up their own business.
The duo, who met at the 17th Wyre Forest Mid Severn Sea Scouts, launched 7Soaps - named after their hometown Stourport-on-Severn - and held their first workshop two months before the first lockdown last year.
"When we did the soap-making course, we realised you could make beautiful soaps out of natural ingredients and stuff you have in your kitchen cupboard," said Karen.
"We started selling a couple of items on Facebook and did our first workshop in the Scout hut, which had about 10 ladies attend, it was lovely."
When restrictions were eased in the summer, Xime and Karen took advantage of their Covid-19 safety training with the Scout group to hold another workshop in an outdoor marquee at Bell's Farm.
Another lockdown put a stop to their soap-making courses, but the pair continued experimenting with recipes at home via Zoom.
Karen and Xime made so many bars of soap during lockdown that they decided to donate their surplus products to good causes. 220 soap bars were sent to local care homes and to Wyre Forest Food Bank, and 40 dog shampoo bars went to High Hopes dog rescue in Worcestershire.
Karen, who leads the local Pickup Artists litter-picking group, and Xime, a marine biologist, share a love for the environment and were keen to make their products as eco-friendly as possible.
"Xime and I have totally different tastes," said Karen. "I suffer with eczema really badly so I'm always looking for things that are chemical free, so we came up with some different recipes and gave them to family and friends and listened to their feedback.
"Some really liked the honey and oats, others liked the lavender, so we decided on eight recipes and went from there.
"We've got a natural range now and are working on a salt range.
"We've also launched a dog shampoo bar which we launched after the first lockdown at Cookley Dog Show. That has been incredible, we can't make enough of it. It's package free, kind to skin and chemical-free so people just love it.
"In the first lockdown, I did some garden projects with the kids and we planted lots of bee-friendly flowers. I had so many that I thought, let's dry some out and we can use them as decoration for the soaps.
"We have lots of botanics that people can use to benefit their skin. If people want a light exfoliator, we can add poppy seeds, and other little ingredients like that.
"We've just set up our own website and it's just gone crazy. We've shipped to London, Lincolnshire and Scotland - our soaps are going far and wide.
"I couldn't have imagined our little home business would do so well."
Karen and Xime's soaps are priced at £3.50 or £3 for a dog shampoo bar.
For more information, visit 7soaps.co.uk.
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