Outlaw Soaps... A Q&A with Danielle Vincent
The folks over at Outlaw Soaps are having too much fun! Their scents, like Sage Copper Canyon, Wild Grass, Hair of the Dog, and the rest, are meant to connect you with happy memories and inspiring environments. And to remind you to get out of bed every morning and kick some butt.
Danielle Vincent quit her career as a corporate Digital Product Manager for such sites as Oprah.com and ABC.com, to pull up her rubber gloves to make a living manufacturing and selling Outlaw Soaps. Here's a Q&A with so you can get a better sense of what she's up to:
So, Outlaw soap isn't your ordinary, run-of-the-mill soap?
Ha! No... we like to say that we make exciting soaps for adventurous people. Our soaps are for people who like being outside, but find themselves having to do things like, oh, you know, go to work at a set time every day. It's a rough life for adventurous people. I think the way a person starts their day defines how their day is going to turn out. It could be boring, but why?
How did you get into soap making?
My husband and I were on our honeymoon and we stopped by this little corner store in Paso Robles. I bought two little bars of goats' milk soap and set one on a shelf in the bathroom. Every day, I would sniff this bar of soap as I was getting ready for work, because it reminded me of that wonderful trip. I researched how to make soap and started hoarding the bacon grease from my friends (this was before we were making soap to sell, so it wasn't vegan). Below is a picture of me with that first bar of soap ever. I think the look on my face really says it all, right? :)
What's the soap made from, and how do you make it?
Our soap is made from Avocado, Coconut, Olive, and Castor oils. Avocado oil is great for moisturizing. I personally hate it when bars of soap dry out my hands, so I wanted to make a really moisturizing soap. The Coconut oil makes the bar more solid. The Olive oil is also very moisturizing and good for sensitive skin. The Castor oil makes those nice sudsy bubbles. I don't know if you're a fan of handmade soap, but I've found a lot of bars really lack in the "hey, it's fun to wash!" department, so we wanted to make something that was actually fun to wash with.
What are your favorite Outlaw soaps right now?
My favorite changes so often, almost entirely based on how I'm feeling that particular moment. Some mornings, I love the spicy start of Bunkhouse Stampede. Some mornings, I want the sweet, masculine scent of Hangman's soap. Some mornings, it's definitely best to start with a bang and go for Fire in the Hole. The bar that I stand around sniffing for longest, though, is Sage Copper Canyon. There's something about it that just takes me away to Joshua Tree, standing on gravel in cowboy boots, sniffing the air, with nothing but scrub and an occasional spiky tree around me.
