The aromatic scents of oils and shea butter fill your senses as soon as you walk in the door. If you time it right, Jim Spann will mix and pour the all-natural serums right in front of you. Standing on the main floor of the New Harmony Soap Company, you’ll see how the ingredients are heated and blended before they are poured, slowly, into a long, wooden rectangular box that Spann then leaves to cool.
Body Bars, After Shower Mists, Bath Salts, and Shea Butter Balms are just a few of the products that New Harmony Soap Company owners Jim and Stephanie Spann produce and sell out of their store on 512 N. Main St. in New Harmony, Ind. The Spanns are committed to creating innovative, whole, natural soaps and skin health products that generate healthy, youthful, and self-rejuvenating skin from head to toe.
“We’re providing people with very natural, very organic skin care, but also at the same time, we’re giving them something that up until now a lot of them didn’t have, which is an awareness,” Jim says.
Jim and Stephanie always knew they wanted to open their own business, but they weren’t sure what they wanted to do until they visited the Vermont Soap Company.
“They had all these bars of soap everywhere and they all smelled great, so I bought some and threw it in the car seat when we got back in the car,” he says.
When the couple returned from their trip, Jim used the soap he brought back from Vermont Soap and became intrigued about the products and the process used to create the soap. He went to the library to study books on soap making.
“I got a book, learned how to make soap, and then started thinking about how to build a business around soap making,” he says. “It’s one thing to do it as a hobby, it’s one thing to do it has a craft, but it’s another thing to actually try to do it in a way to take care of your children, pay your mortgage, and make sure you have money to retire on.”
Just about every ingredient used in New Harmony Soap products comes from the earth. The company’s mission is to find and combine the most potent ingredients on earth for skin health, ensuring they are as unprocessed as possible. Jim and Stephanie infuse their body and face bar with a concoction of nutrients called Phytonutrient Serum 1 and 2.
Serum 1 contains nutrients that are best for the body, which includes items such as comfrey root, neem leaf, olive oil, and multi-spectrum vitamin E. Serum 2 is a part of the face bar components, and some of those nutrients include aloe vera juice, French green clay, papaya extract, and witch hazel.
“We’re always getting better ideas,” Jim says. “People come in every day and give us a new idea about something and, every time we get one of those, we start to put it in process.”
For more information on the New Harmony Soap Company, visit newharmonysoap.com.
