Soaping it all up: Resident trades corporate ranks for homemade bath-and-body line

"Hi, I'm Cassy and I'm addicted to soap making."

Those words matter-of-factly greet visitors to Cassy Zobel's business web page. The McKinney resident locally launched Lotus Soap - her addiction for sale - in December 2011, and now sells her products at retail spots around Collin County and beyond.

Whether with lotion, soap or lip balm, she's a fiend for plant-based fragrances - made by her.

"When I made my first batch of soap, I told my husband I was going to quit my job and do that full-time some day," said Zobel, who at the time lived in Kuwait and worked in the corporate world. "He laughed at me."

Zobel is the one laughing, or at least proudly smiling, now, more than a year into her self-made, expanding bath-and-body company. Her customers are proudly smelling...nicely and purely. Zobel has created around 30 different scents in lotions, soaps, scrubs, balms, bath salts and body frostings.

She wholesales them at 540 Mercantile right off McKinney's downtown square, at That Elegant Touch Salon and Day Spa, also in McKinney, and at shops in Plano and Frisco. Products are available at The Lotus Downtown in Hattiesburg, Miss.

But her recipes - spurred through years of research - and their ensuing creations make Lotus Soap worldly unique.

"You can't buy this soap anywhere else; this is a formulation that only we have because it's something I created," Zobel said. "Every ingredient serves a purpose; there are no fillings, nothing just thrown in there to keep costs down and make a bigger bar. Everything that's in there serves a benefit to your skin."

Zobel combines five different plant oils, each with its own purpose, and uses coconut milk instead of water because of its advantage in skin care and hardening, she said. What she doesn't use are the common ingredients used in a Scope bar or $2 bottle of Dial, such as mineral oil, a byproduct of crude-oil refinery that she says doesn't penetrate skin.

"If you're using a lotion with mineral oil in it, that is forming a barrier," she explained, "so it doesn't matter what else is in the lotion, it's not going to get through and do what it's supposed to do."

Zobel leaves out other, cheaper products like beeswax and beef tallow, rendered fat from leftover grease compiled from restaurants and other places. Such cost-effective origins enable a silky smooth feeling people like in soap, but Zobel finds it disgusting.

"We can do that with plants," she said. "I wanted to do something I felt was ethical for everything and everyone involved. As a business owner, I'm not OK with selling you beef fat."

Such an issue arose about 15 years ago, when Zobel abandoned brand-name body care for homemade products. Diagnosed with skin cancer in 2004, then a single mother of a 4-year-old daughter, Zobel needed some control. She found it in skin care, and in books and forums on soap making.

She was working as a director managing contracts, earning a six-figure salary, she said, which is why she lived in Kuwait and then Egypt. The 2011 Egyptian revolution spurred Zobel, her husband and daughter to the Dallas area.

Her new job: making anything and everything Lotus.

"I played around with it, did a lot of experimenting and lots of reading; probably for six months before I ever made soap, I just read," she recalled. "I just tried to immerse myself in the whole business."

About half of her family's 3,200-square-foot house is immersed, as well, in ingredients, finished products and molds. The living room, office and multiple bedrooms provide around-the-clock soap making space.

Not to divulge too many trade secrets, Zobel explained how she pours lye with soap, glycerin and extra oils into five-pound molds. The soap then cures for three to six weeks, she said.

And regret of her seemingly odd career switch is farthest from the scent.

"People come to me because I make their life better in some small way; they come and buy more soap because they really like it, or my lip balm makes their lips feel great," she said. "I'm making a positive difference in people's lives instead of cleaning up their messes."

Zobel has diversified Lotus creations for custom and private labeling, and for wedding and shower celebration packages. Next is out-of-home manufacturing space and continued wholesale expansion. Zobel looks to soon release facial and clay-mask products, as well as a men's shaving line.

Mixes and recipes may shift, but her soap making adoration seems to grow stronger. It's an addiction pursued and perfected.

"I do a lot of soap making in the wee hours of the morning, so it's more than full-time - it's all the time," she said. "I've fallen in love with it."

For more information about Lotus Soap products, services and purchasing options, visit www.lotussoap.com, or “Like” the Lotus Soap Facebook page.

Current Rating: 4 of 1 votes!

Rate File: Select Rating: * ** *** ****

 Plano Apartments
 Plano Attorneys
 Plano Auto Dealers
 Plano Auto Parts
 Plano Auto Repair
 Plano Beauty Salons
 Plano Car Rental
 Plano Dentists
 Plano Doctors
 Plano Flowers
 Plano Hotels
 Plano Insurance
 Plano Loans
 Plano Mortgages
 Plano Movers
 Plano Pizza
 Plano Realtors
 Plano Restaurants
 Plano Storage
 Plano Tax Preparation
 Plano Travel
 Featured
 More...