Morin Soaps Opens Saint John Storefront In Market Square
SAINT JOHN – Ashley Morin’s hobby-turned-small business, Morin Soaps, expanded on May 1 with a storefront at Market Square.
Many of her soaps are scented and shaped like desserts, from chocolate macarons to cinnamon donuts, that look so real you think you could eat them at a glance.
“It’s fun to finally do it because I’d been so afraid to touch the lye – you can really hurt yourself because there’s a bit of a dangerousness to making the soap too,” said Morin.
Soap is made by mixing lye, also known as sodium hydroxide, with water, then mixed with fatty oils, colours and scents in an immersion blender and set in a mold to go through the saponification (turning into soap) process.
“I find it therapeutic to do all the different soap designs – you’re not just doing like one solid colour and you get to divide up the batters and you’re doing a bunch of intricate swirls,” she said.
As word-of-mouth spread and demand grew Morin decided to turn her hobby into a small business, which opened in January.
In late March, Stacie Michaelsen, The Hardman Group Limited’s Real Estate Innovation Leader, reached out to ask if Morin would be interested in viewing available spaces in Market Square.
“I had a month to gather some more stuff to make and then make it for the month of May,” said Morin.
The storefront is located at 1 Market Square, Unit 142 where she has added whipped foaming sugars, whipped foaming butters, bath salts and sugar lip scrubs to her inventory.
“I’m actually going to sign a lease for the months of June and July,” said Morin. “I want to do that and test a few more months and then after that, if it seems to be going good, they’re probably going to start going for longer-term lease signings.”
Made with files from Elizabeth MacLeod