Rising Stars: Meet Mari Foisy

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mari Foisy.

Hi Mari, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
We are a small, family owned business consisting of Dave and Missy Foisy (mom and dad,) Mari Foisy (daughter,) Michaela McCune (daughter,) and Elizabeth Graham (Daughter.)

We got our start during COVID. Missy and Dave had retired just before COVID hit, and Dave had spent the first several months of retirement remodeling their kitchen, and Missy found herself spending so much more time in there. In early 2020, as they were forced to stay inside due to COVID, Missy started experimenting with making small batches of homemade, all natural soap. The kitchen become a major workspace for her, and we (daughters) encouraged her to start packaging it for friends and family, since we loved it so much. Eventually, we all sat down and decided that we could start a business. Missy and Dave made the soaps, Elizabeth started making all natural lip balms, and Mari started making all natural face and body scrubs. Eventually, Missy starting making ceramic soap dishes in her ceramics class, and Dave started making Cedar soap decks. Missy also designs all of our labels! Everything we do is handmade!

Through word of mouth, we found different farmers markets and vendor shows to participate in and sell our products. We primarily sell at North Union Farmer’s Market at Crocker Park, Westside Flea, The Summer Market in Lorain, and different markets with CLE Market. We have to give credit to all of them for helping us get our name out there and grow our customer base!

When we were able to publish a website, we started taking online orders for shipping and pickup, which has also helped us grow. We also started receiving requests for custom orders and gifts. We’ve done customer orders for baby showers, bridal showers, wedding favors, and company gifts!

We’ve been in business for 2 years and our little business is slowly but steadily growing!

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
We’ve learned a lot along the way. We’ve definitely been blessed to meet other amazing vendor friends who gave us some great tips and tricks for growing our business and marketing ourselves.

We each bring different strengths to the table, each of us makes something different for the business, but we also have some (not as glamorous) behind the scenes roles. Elizabeth handles our shipping, Mari handles bookkeeping, taxes, and some social media, and Michaela built our website and also does some social media. It was a struggle at times to find where our natural talents fell and where they didn’t, but we’ve settled into the things were are good at. We’re still trying to keep a good balance of life and family and business. While Missy and Dave are retired, Mari, Michaela, and Elizabeth still hold full time jobs. It can be tricky to remember to take some time for rest when you’re building a business, especially one you are passionate about!

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We make homemade soaps, lip balms, and body and face scrubs. We have over 40 soap scents, 6 lip balm flavors, and 6 types of body scrub. We rotate some out seasonally, but also have our staples that our customers have come to love. everything is homemade, including our soap dishes and soap decks, and we strive to source as much of our supplies locally as we can. Our main suppliers for our products are based in Wellington and Independence, so we really keep it local! We try to keep it as simple and as natural as possible! The majority of our soaps are made from just olive oil, coconut oil, and then a fragrance or essential oil blend. Simple ingredients, simple but beautiful packaging, and sourcing local.

We also specialize in doing custom labeling and favors! I’ve never seen anyone else do homemade soaps with a custom label for favors, so it’s something I consider pretty unique!

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
It’s all family owned, and everything really is homemade. We get asked a lot if we really make everything, and we take it as a compliment! We put a lot of time and effort into making sure our products look professional and smell lovely. We have customers that simply want to decorate their house with our products, and we’re totally ok with that too!

Pricing:

• Soaps $6 Each Or 4/20
• Charcoal Face Soap $10
• Lip Balms $2 each
• Body Scrubs $6
• Face Scrub $7
• Ceramic Soap Dishes $8
• Cedar Soap Decks $4

Contact Info:

• Email: riveredgesoapkitchen@gmail.com
• Website: https://www.riveredgesoapkitchen.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/riveredgesoapkitchen
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/riveredgesoapkitchen