The city of Arnold is now home to a soap-making business that started in a Tennessee man’s garage in 2013 and has expanded to more than 100 locations.
Buff City Soap opened May 27 at 2263 Michigan Ave. in the Water Tower Plaza, where a Walmart Supercenter is housed.
The Arnold soap store was the 101st location for the soap store franchise that Brad Kellum founded in Bartlett, Tenn., according to a written statement.
Buff City Soap creates handmade, scented, plant-based soaps daily in the store.
Jen Rice, a district manager, said Buff City Soap has dozens of scents that may be used to create everything from bar soap, laundry soap, bath bombs, shower oils, body scrubs and foaming hand soap.
“We have over 30 scents that range from fruity to flower,” Rice said. “You can mix those scents. If you like fresh cotton and coconut, you can mix that in our laundry soap, body butter or shower oil. We do a lot of customization.”
The Arnold store was the third to open in the St. Louis area. The first store opened April 15 in St. Charles, and a Chesterfield location opened May 20.
Rice said another store is scheduled to open Sept. 23 in Kirkwood.
“Women, men, children, everybody loves our product,” Rice said. “We have a mixture of everything. We can cater to anybody’s smell and make a product that caters to what they like and don’t like.”
At the Arnold location, the first 50 customers who stopped by the store on May 27-30 received free soap for a year.
The business will repeat that promotion after its ribbon-cutting ceremony, set for noon July 22. Rice said the first 50 customers who visit the store on July 23-25 not only will get free soap for a year but also a 15 percent discount on purchases and a 25 percent discount on purchases of $100 or more.
She said the Arnold store has had a lot of return customers.
“We are doing about 28 percent repeat customers,” Rice said.
Rice described the shopping experience at Buff City Soap to the former The Fudgery at Union Station, where customers could watch the fudge being made.
“That is the same thing we do,” Rice said. “We make soap, bath bombs; everything is made in house. You can come in at any point in the day and watch us make the product. It gives a theater experience, and you can see what is going into the products and what is going on your skin.”
Rice said the most popular product is called Narcissist, which has a mixture of peach, raspberry and patchouli sandalwood scents. The Narcissist line, which includes nearly every form of soap, has its own wall display at the Arnold store.
“It is a scent for women or men,” Rice said.
The store also offers a display with three soaps created with specific scents manufactured for Arnold. Those scents are called Water Tower Blues, which has green tea, wisteria, peachwood and raspberry scents; Hoosier Mama, which has citrus, bergamot, peaches and lavender scents; and Parade Days, which has grapefruit, orange, lemon, cherry and vanilla scents.
Rice said anyone can request a different mixture of scents to create their own soap, and if someone cannot decide what soap is best for them, they will not leave empty-handed.
“If a customer comes in and doesn’t want to buy something because they can’t find something or are overwhelmed, we always have free samples to give to our guests,” Rice said. “I feel that sets us apart. We want customers to try our product.
“Our product sells itself. Once someone tries it once, they are hooked.”