BUSINESS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, December 2, 2020
B1
Bathing in success
Local handmade soap company gains in popularity
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
For Emily Oden, the path to
building her business started with a
move to Montana and dry skin.
After getting out of the Air Force
and moving to the Big Sky State
with her boyfriend, Wayne Sim-
mons, a Grant County native, Oden
said she could not find a soap that
did not dry out her skin, so she began
making bath bombs at home in 2017.
Coupled with a desire to get out
of retail, Oden said making soap is
“much more fun than dealing with
Black Friday customers.” She said
she worked at Shopco in Montana
before moving to Mt.Vernon last
year with Simmons.
Her business, “Hank In
ON THE WEB
The Way Soap Company,”
For more infor-
is named after her black lab,
mation, visit Hank
Hank.
In The Way Soap
“He’s just always in my
Company on
way,” she said, “like the
Facebook.
name says.”
She said her soap is both
“pretty” and “good,” and it
will get you clean.
“It’s pretty soap, but it’s also
really good soap, and it feels great
on your hands,” she said. “So I know
grandma always said not to use the
pretty soap, but I am using the pretty
soap anyway.”
Oden, originally from Sioux City,
Iowa, said the scenery in the county
is impressive. One of her soaps
was inspired by Strawberry Moun-
tain while Magone Lake inspired Emily Oden, owner of Hank In The Way Soap Company, makes bath bombs.
another.
She said other soaps came from
customers’ requests, such as “Moun-
tain Man” for a customer who asked
for the closest thing to “Irish Spring.”
Oden said she likes to come up
with fun names for her soaps. Her
“Rainbow” and “Saturday Morn-
ing” soaps are fruit scented because
it reminds her of waking on Saturday
morning as a child to watch cartoons
A bath bomb fizzes in a bowl of water at Hank
and eat cereal.
Oden has recently has added a lip In The Way Soap Company in Mt. Vernon.
balm, which, she said, is made with
Emily Oden makes bath bombs.
beeswax, cocoa butter, and shea but-
ter, as well as a hard lotion that took
her a few tries to perfect.
Oden said she is surprised to have
a product that is in demand.
“It’s awesome, but it’s just kind
of weird,” she said. “I didn’t expect
it when I first started making it for
family and friends, and now I have
strangers telling me they love my Lip balm is Hank In The Way Soap Company
owner Emily Oden’s newest product.
A nearly-finished batch of bath bombs.
stuff.”
Dr. Brian Jennings
Dr. Caitlin MacCoun
Eagle photos/Steven Mitchell
Emily Oden’s dog Hank, the namesake
of her soap company, gnaws on a bone.
Dr. Robyn Jennings
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