We are a family encouraging a bath & body business to live a new life in the Amazing community of Bowser. Packing up our equipment and moving Virginia's Soap from Manitoba to Vancouver Island in the Fall of 2015, we feel fortunate to have landed here. The people are outstanding and caring, and the land & sea are inspiring indeed. Everyone we've met from the places we've explored on Vancouver Island, to date, have been so kind and helpful.
Virginia's Soap is on a journey - we are the second caretakers of the soap company - and that is how we feel about Virginia's Soap, it is it's own entity and we are allowed to guide it, if you will (and have it mentor us - lol!)
Virginia & JB were the original owners (so, yes Santa, there is a Virginia) and they invented so much and researched books at the library (pre-internet) - books that had recipes from 1910 and made 2000 pound batches of soap!
I was familiar with the Virginia's Soap Company as my parents owned a resort in the Whiteshell Provincial Park in Manitoba, and part of our Christmas traditions would be to include pieces of Virginia's soap in the cabins for guests. My sister and I were thrilled if a couple of pieces ended up in our stockings on Christmas morning!
In 2010, I met Virginia at a market garden in Winnipeg - she was the entertainment for the day - Celtic drumming, singing and story telling. Chatting, while waiting for the rain to pass, she told me she and her husband owned a soap company. To which I excitedly exclaimed, "You are Virginia, from Virginia's Soap? I love your soap! If you ever decide to sell give me a call." Virginia called me 2 days later - we believe it was serendipity.
The first batch of soap my husband, Don, and I made was 300 pounds - and that's another story....