SheaWoman Soapery Opens at Potomac Mills Mall in Woodbridge

SheaWoman Soapery just opened at Potomac Mills Mall on Nov. 1, featuring natural soaps and skin care products at its kiosk in Neighborhood 5.

Faith Harris, who co-owns SheaWoman Soapery with her mother, Lynn Harris, originally started by making natural skin care products for her family.

"I went natural 10 years ago, starting with my hair, and I did a lot of research on soap that you buy at the grocery store and learned that they are all detergent," Harris said. "Anything that you put on your skin will go straight into your bloodstream. So I decided, 'Let's do something natural.'"

At the time, she didn't envision turning it into a business, but with support from her family, she finally decided to partner with her mother and sell skin care products. At first, she sold mostly at craft shows, and the response was good enough that she decided to try her chances with a mall kiosk.

"We got a really good response with craft shows. A lot more people are becoming natural," Harris said. She said some customers might still feel apprehensive about ditching their grocery store products to use more natural soap. She sometimes challenges customers to research natural skin care products.

"I think once they use it and they realize how good their skin feels, then they'll come back," she added. 

The skin care products include soap, body butter, and bath bombs.

"Our soaps are what we want to highlight because those are what are really good for our skin," Harris said.

Harris also sells soap dishes and candles. She's working on developing hair care products but is not selling them yet. She also sells raw products such as shea butter, cocoa butter, and black soap, all from Ghana.

The black soap is made without cocoa butter, and Harris described it as being "straight, earthy, with plantains, and sometimes you might find a stick or two." 

The price range is $5.50 to $8 for most of the SheaWoman Soapery products, and $10 for more decorative soaps, which come in a brightly-colored array of layered slices, and look almost good enough to eat. 

"You have to use it though," Harris said, gesturing toward one of the decorative soaps. "Don't just set it in your bathroom."