Meet the Maker: Peppertree Soap House

There’s no better product feedback than a customer returning to buy it again. When that product actually prompts the customer to buy the entire business – well, you know you’re onto a winner!

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That’s exactly what happened when Kearsley truck driver Linda Hamilton encountered Peppertree Soap House at the Handmade in the Hunter Market two years ago.

“I first fell in love with Pepper tree Soap House soap after purchasing it from the previous owner Jo, at Handmade in the Hunter Markets in 2016,” she said.

“I loved the products so much that my partner Callan and I bought the business in August 2017.“ We also own a small transport business, so we drive trucks by day and make soap at night!"

Retaining the same recipes used by the former owner but narrowing the range to 14 soap varieties, Linda and Callan have shifted the soap business up a gear by also creating a variety of new products.

“We kept the same recipes that Jo had developed, believing if itain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Linda said.

“We did, however, narrow down the range of soaps and have added a few new products, such as bath salts, bath soak and scented wardrobe sachets.

“We love selling at Handmade in the Hunter markets as they’re a quality market where we have the opportunity to talk to the customers about how we make our products."

The soaps are based on ingredients such as olive and coconut oils, shea and cocoa butter, essential oils, clays and botanicals (dried flowers) and produced using a cold press process, which requires each batch to dry for four to six weeks before being individually wrapped by hand in beautiful wrapping paper.

With fragrances such as rose geranium, lavender,patchouli, lemongrass, ginger and peppermint, Linda believes the soaps add a little bit of luxury to customers’ everyday lives, and by using natural ingredients, they are also extremely gentle on the skin.

You can check out more of the Peppertree Soap House range at the Handmade in the Hunter Market, which will be held at Kevin Sobels Wines from 9am to 3pm on June 9 and 23, and

9am to 2pm on June 10. ■