ABOUT US
OUR STORY
Wild Women Soaps began one spring evening in 1999 with a simple, slightly audacious idea: the ordinary things we touch every day can become sacred.
I had fallen in love with handmade soap, with the way oil, water and lye transform into something entirely new. That transformation is still alchemy to me. Not magic instead of chemistry, but magic because of it: a precise dance of plant oils, herbs, color, scent and story, shaped by hand and given time to become.
From the beginning, Wild Women Soaps has been rooted in the Arizona desert, a place that teaches resilience, beauty without apology and the wisdom of blooming when the moment is right. The desert lives in our ingredients, our colors, our stories and the fierce, earthy spirit behind everything we make.
Today, Wild Women Soaps remains a true cottage industry. Every batch is handcrafted in our home studio in Mesa, Arizona, surrounded by a small nexus of soapmakers, studio helpers, willing testers, creative conspirators and loyal customers who have carried this wild adventure forward for more than twenty-five years.
We believe wildness is not recklessness. It is remembrance.
It is the part of us that remembers our bodies, our senses, our pleasure, our connection to the earth and our own untamed knowing. A shower can be more than another task. A bar of soap can carry a landscape, hold a prayer, awaken a memory, shift a mood or return you to yourself.
That is what we offer: practical magic for ordinary days. Soap made with intelligence, imagination, beautiful ingredients and a great deal of love.
Awaken your skin. Remember your wild.
Deborah Owens, Founder & Wild Muse
Wild Women Soaps
Mesa, AZ
OUR CRAFT
At Wild Women Soaps, craft begins where chemistry and imagination meet.
Every bar begins with plant oils, water and lye. Through saponification—an exacting transformation we still occasionally celebrate by shouting “SAPONIFICATION!” across the studio—those simple ingredients become soap and naturally occurring glycerin.
The science is precise. The result is alchemy.
We formulate every recipe from scratch, choosing oils, butters, botanicals, clays, colors and scents for the character they bring to the finished bar. Some soaps are silky and understated. Others are earthy and exfoliating. Still others are shimmering, herb-laced or gloriously untamed. Each has its own story, told through scent, color, texture and feel.
Unlike many commercially produced “cleansing bars” formulated primarily with synthetic detergents, Wild Women Soaps are made using traditional soapmaking methods and retain the natural glycerin created along the way. We enrich our recipes with carefully selected ingredients to create a generous lather and a cleansing experience that feels anything but ordinary.
Every batch is poured, cut and tended by hand in our Mesa, Arizona studio, then cured for four to six weeks before it is ready to leave us.
No conveyor belts here and no anonymous formulas. Only practiced hands, beautiful ingredients, lots of laughter, plenty of failed experiments, a fair amount of cursing and the wild energy that has kept us devoted to this craft for more than twenty-five years.
We make soap for the body, certainly. But also for the senses, the imagination and the small daily ritual of returning to yourself.
OUR PRODUCTS
The first six soaps were never destined to remain alone.
Since 1999, Wild Women Soaps has grown through equal parts curiosity, experimentation and the enthusiastic encouragement of our lovingly loud customers. You asked for more scents, more textures and more ways to carry a little Wild Women magic beyond the shower—and we were delighted to oblige.
Today, our soaps are joined by lotions, bath salts, body oils, scrubs, balms, perfumes and other small luxuries created for the body and the senses. Every product begins with the same question: How can we transform an ordinary act of care into something more beautiful, pleasurable and alive?
Wild Women are restless souls by nature. Some ideas arrive like lightning. Others require months of testing, scribbled ideas, failed batches, spirited debate and language best left on the soap studio floor. We keep working until a creation earns its place in the Wild Women collection.
Our customers have always been part of this creative process. Your questions, stories, favorite scents, candid feedback and wonderfully wild ideas have inspired some of our most beloved products. We listen because, ultimately, what we make is for you.
We also strive to make thoughtful choices for the earth that sustains and inspires us. We choose ingredients and materials with care, reduce waste where we can and continue to learn as better options become available. We do not pretend to have perfected this work. We simply remain committed to doing it with awareness, honesty and respect.
Everything we make is an invitation to pause, inhabit your senses and bring a little more pleasure into the rituals of an ordinary day. It’s all made by hand. It’s all born in the desert. And it’s all created for your one wild and beautiful life.
