The art of soap making: Richland resident presents colorful creations

Maybe you grew up washing with the golden hue of Dial, the emerald green of Irish Spring or the snowy white of Ivory.

Whatever the color of the brand at hand, a soap bar was a soap bar.

Richland resident Laura Bogacz effectively takes the opposite approach with her business, Pittsburgh Artisanal Soap Co.

“When I make my soaps, I try to make each bar as attractive as possible,” Bogacz said, and the result is a lineup of products that exemplify the “Art” component of the company’s name.

From the swirling shades of bars she calls Sweet Dreams and Singing in the Rain to the earthy tones of Autumn Woods and Satin Penny, her creations can serve as picturesque alternatives to common cleansers.

“You spend for the soap, and you get to use the product, but you get to then go and get a new little art piece in a few weeks, when your soap is gone,” she said. “It’s similar to buying flowers, I suppose. But it’s also useful.”

The Pine-Richland High School graduate made soap as a hobby before making it her vocation in the wake of a pandemic-related job loss.

“I’ve found over the years that I really like colors, so I’ve done things like quilting and yarn work and needlepoint, and things like that,” Bogacz said. “Then I realized, I can do that with soap, as well.”

She already had impetus for making her own:

“I have fairly sensitive skin, and I was restricted when I would go to buy scented soaps because I can’t handle all the scents. So I wanted something I could use for myself.”

The olfactory element figures strongly in what she produces.

“You can scent soaps in a variety of ways. One way is essential oils, which are completely natural but are also highly regulated right now,” she said, with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration taking closer notice.

“The amount that you could put in to get a good scent in soap was changing, so I was looking then at fragrance oils, which are more of a made-in-the-lab type of an oil. And the thing I gravitated toward with that is, it lasts much longer in soap.”

She orders from a company with fragrance oils that are free of chemicals such as phthalates and parabens.

“That’s usually what you’re allergic to if you have a sensitivity to soap, and you have a rash or dry skin from it,” she explained. “It’s usually because of the fragrances.”

For customers who may react accordingly, Pittsburgh Artisanal Soap Co. offers the expressive Unscented with Color and, in a nod to minimalism, just plain Unscented. All products carry the advisory:

“Please do not use a soap if it contains ingredients you know you are allergic to. As with any product you use on your skin, discontinue use if skin irritation occurs.”

A larger line is of plant-based soaps, among them the glowingly psychedelic Radioactive Vegan.

“I wanted something that appealed to people who do not want to partake in animal products at all,” Bogacz said. “We made our own recipe in order to have a really well-balanced bar, with the same amount of cleansing to conditioning, to have bubbles, to be hard enough to last.”

Working alongside of her is husband Mike.

“He likes to sit and do the calculations, all the really math part,” Laura said. “So he’s double-checking everything for me all the time, to make sure that the recipe is just what we want.”

This summer, she sets up regularly as a vendor at four weekly farmers’ markets: Hampton Township on Wednesday, Cranberry on Friday, Butler City on Saturday and Squirrel Hill on Sunday. She posts other events she’s attending on social media.

For her part, making and selling soap represents — pardon the expression — plenty of good, clean fun.

“I very much do enjoy every aspect of this little business.”