Lather Bar Soap Co. is the creation of Marisa Fitch, who has been making and selling soap from home, but is opening a shop in downtown Saratoga Springs.
BY JILL NAGY
If it foams like soap but smells like coffee, it
could be a bar of artisanal soap from Lather Bar
Soap Co., Marisa Fitch’s shop at 487 Broadway
in Saratoga Springs.
Fitch has been making and selling soap since
2013 from home, but in November she opened
a shop in downtown Saratoga Springs. She sells
her beer-based soaps by stocking them at local
breweries that sell gift items, for example.
After the alcohol is boiled away, “beer is very
beneficial to the skin,” she said.
Saratoga Winery carries her wine-based
soaps. Fitch also hits the craft show circuit. She
makes a coffee-based variety. She also makes
more traditional water-based soaps and soaps
scented with essential oils and a castile soap
made with olive oil.
Most of the soaps are in conventional bar
shapes, made in wooden molds. However, for
special orders–such as shoe-shaped favors
for baby showers–she sometimes makes her
own molds.
Until recently, Fitch operated out of her
Gansevoort home, building her business until
it reached the point where she could afford
to rent retail space. She signed a lease for the
Broadway space in October, attracted by the
“beautiful woodwork” in the shop and some antique
furniture suited to soap products display.
The store has studio space in the back so
Fitch can move both her manufacturing and
her sales operation out of her home. She will
have one part-time employee to begin with.
She got into the soap business almost by
chance. She used to use a lot of lip balm. “My
husband said I was addicted to ChapStick,”
she said, and he bought her a book so that
she could learn to make her own. She came
up with a jumbo-sized stick, ideal for winter.
One thing led to another and soon, Fitch was
making soap.
Fitch grew up in Glens Falls and now lives in
Gansevoort. For a time, she managed two stores
in Lake George for the Jones Apparel Group.
Lather Bar Soap is her first business of her own.
Fitch’s website is www.latherbar.com. She
can be reached by telephone at 269-6452.