Our Soap Shop Story

This August 2019,  we’re celebrating our 18th anniversary.   We began our soap shop in our garage way back in 2001.  From those humble beginnings, we have grown to be the biggest handmade soap maker on the island!

I studied to become a chemical engineer many years ago.  The first soap I did was in the chemistry lab in the university.  I never would have guessed that that would end up being my profession.  The education helped me learn about chemical processes, including saponification.  That’s how soap is made. Soap is produced from the reaction of any oil or fat with lye.  But that’s another story.

I went to work for Coca-Cola Caribbean after graduation.  Worked for 11 years as a quality auditor. The job involved auditing the Coca-Cola bottlers throughout the Caribbean.  Now you know why we’re called Caribbean Soaps! This stage in my life helped me be quality centric. I believe that is one of the reasons of our success. But… the complete regional office closed.  That was not the best experience and I made a promise to not work for another company again!

That’s how Caribbean Soaps, Puerto Rico’s largest soap shop got started.

We began our soap shop in our garage.  The soap curing room and packaging area was in the main garage. The soap making room in the laundry and candle making are in our patio terrace.  Our daily production at the time was around 30 soaps, now it’s 20 times that.

We obtained certification as a handcrafted soap artisan and began participating in local fairs around the island.  Since there were only two other soapmakers at the time in all of Puerto Rico, we were very successful from the very beginning.

In 2004 our garage was too small so we moved to a building nearby to house our  new retail store and larger production facility.

With its ups and downs we have been there for 15 years now.  Incredible how time flies!

Now, 18 years later, we.re stronger than ever. From supplying local supermarket and pharmacy chains, souvenir and gift shops around Puerto Rico (even the hotel and airport shops) to online selling on Amazon and in our updated website.

But still after all these years, continue to participate in artisan fairs where we started.

Who do we have to thank for the success of our soap shop?  Our staff whom some have been with our from the beginning and our loyal customers.