While the story I have told in my memoir took many turns, Greenstone Soap Company was a very large part of that story, and for me, still is. I thought you might be interested in the newsletter I wrote back in 2016 to celebrate our 20 year anniversary in business.

A Walk Down Memory Lane . . .

Greenstone Soap Company was established in 1996 with a very simple philosophy of life and work … “Have faith, do what you love, don’t make a bigger mess then you can clean up, use tools rather than machines, and laugh often.”

In the Spring of that year we began as a part-time business out of our home in Atlanta Georgia. In the early fall we decided to quit our full-time professional careers, pack up, and head out of town to pursue the ancient arts of small business and cold process soap making, on a full-time basis.

For a time, our home and corporate headquarters for Greenstone Soap Company was a Tipi. Set in a beautiful grove of young Pin Oaks, overlooking a grassy field on the property of a friend (we made soap in a small garage also on the property).

This certainly is not the path to growth for most companies, but to this day we look back on that experience as one of the most profitable and creative times in the life of Greenstone Soap Company.

Our Own Road Side Attraction

In 1999 we moved out of the tipi and relocated to an old farm house in the country. With hard work and plenty of enthusiasm we soon established a small road side attraction.

With a retail store, an assortment of herb and flower gardens, an art studio and on-site handmade soap-making, people came from all around to walk the gardens, shop in the store and visit the goats that belonged to our neighbor. It was pure fun!

Sautee-Nacoochee

After three years we moved the whole operation to beautiful downtown Sautee, Georgia and continued attracting even more people to the gardens, the shop and the art studio of our new and expanded roadside attraction. It was beautiful.

In 2006 we downsized into a new location, still in Sautee, and continued doing what we loved; making all natural products and meeting people from all over the country.

Then, at the end of 2014, we made a decision to close our brick-and-mortar store and took the business fully on-line.

Making this decision was tough, but we wanted the freedom to travel around the country promoting what became our # 1 selling product; Shampoochie® Dog Shampoo (shampoo without the bottle!).