Welcome Soap

• Handcrafted with natural plant-based materials.  Please patch test before use: wash a small patch of skin on the inside of your elbow ◦ wait 24 hours ◦ do not use if a reaction occurs.
• Don’t leave the soap sitting in water between uses - use a soap saver.

The story of Welcome Soap

A few years ago, I picked up a booklet at the Cambridge Recycling Center called “Cambridge on the Cutting Edge: Innovators and Inventions”.  I learned that the soapmaking industry in the United States started in Cambridge Massachusetts and a soap by the name of Welcome Soap was produced starting in 1883 at Curtis Davis & Company’s factory on Broadway in Cambridge—just a few blocks from my studio.  The soap was heavily promoted as “New England’s Favorite Soap” and Welcome Soap was popular throughout the region.  The original Welcome Soap, I believe, was a borax laundry soap.  I envisioned a modern version as an all-purpose soap for cleaning hands and body.  I decided to make it a lavender soap because lavender has traditionally been the favorite herb for cleansing (the word lavender is derived from the Latin …lavare, to wash).  I liked the image on the original package:  two hands shaking in a gesture of welcome.  I asked a friend, a talented artist, if she would transform the image to something that evokes forests, trees and welcome.  She drew a beautiful image of two black-capped chickadees–the state bird of Massachusetts–greeting each other on the branch of a tree.  

And thus Welcome Soap is once again…
New England’s Favorite Soap