From bath bombs and bar soap to body butter and laundry soap, a new shop in town has it all. Representatives from the Metro North Chamber of Commerce recently helped Buff City Soap celebrate its new location at the corner of Main St. and Northdale Blvd.
The Coon Rapids store is one of the first four locations for Buff City Soap in Minnesota. The business was founded back in 2013 by a Tennessee couple who made plant-based products out of their garage. Today, it has blossomed into a multi-state franchise with hundreds of stores. The products are made right on site.
"You can come in and watch us make body butter, bar soap, any of our products on a daily basis," said Carla Haugaard, partner for the Minnesota franchise of Buff City Soap.
Jennifer Belisle is the Coon Rapids store manager and leads a team of five employees. She was new to the Twin Cities when the opportunity to become part of the expansion into Minnesota bubbled up.
"The beginning of the process was learning how to make all the products so we were all dressed up in protective garb and aprons and gloves to take good care of the products that we make so that was a learning process," Belisle said. "Then the next part of the process was setting up the store."
Laundry soap is their most popular product. In addition to all of the items, they also offer bar soap and bath bomb making parties.
"We also cater to kids birthday parties so the little ones can come in and make bath bombs to take home," Haugaard said. "Their favorite is fruity loopy so if your child has fruity loopy, they'll come out of the bathtub smelling like a fruit loop."
No matter your preferred smell, there's plenty of options to soak up at Buff City Soap.
"Everybody is invited to come in, we love having new customers, we love having our repeat customers which we've already got quite a few of which is really nice," Belisle said.
Buff City Soap has locations in Forest Lake, Coon Rapids, Hutchinson and Blaine.