Years ago, Jackie Marshall started making soap in her kitchen as a hobby. Now her business, 1000 Islands Soap Company, offers dozens of types and scents of soap, bath and shower products, and more. It’s all natural, and it’s all made by hand in her store at 339 King Street East.
These days, of course, with COVID-19, business isn’t life as usual. While Jackie is still in the store, making products, taking calls, and filling online orders, she misses talking to customers in person. “People have always loved coming into the store and seeing me make the products,” she says. Customers (and Jackie’s own family members) have also had a hand in developing some of the new scents and products that 1000 Islands Soap offers.
Take, for instance, a lotion that Jackie made for her mother-in-law back in 2012. That sore muscle rub is now a best seller, shipping to customers across Canada and internationally. Blended with aloe vera gel and eight different essential oils, the sore muscle rub works on arthritis pain, headache, and sore muscles. Some of Jackie’s customers use it preventatively before their jog or their golf game, to warm and relax their muscles.
Jackie now makes a variety of specialty products, including a hot flash spray, a tick spray, and cold and flu products (including body butter, body spray, and shower steamer). And while many of these products utilize specially blended essential oils, there are unscented products, too. These include an unscented lotion bar specially made to soothe eczema.
A new product in 2020 was hand sanitizer, which Jackie initially made to help out local restaurants when there was a sanitizer shortage. “There was none on the shelves, so I had to do something quickly!” she says. She added aloe and vitamin E to her hand sanitizer, so it doesn’t dry out skin like harsher sanitizers (and it smells nice, too, thanks to a little lavender essential oil.) Due to customer demand, Jackie then offered the sanitizer for sale to the public.
Another product created for a client, but now available for purchase, is the “Secret” line of bath and body products. Jackie created a special blend of patchouli, vanilla, mint, and grapefruit for Kingston’s Secret Garden Inn. The blend is an earthy and uplifting scent recreating the experience of being in the inn’s namesake garden. The product line became so popular with the Secret Garden’s visitors that they – and others – can now bring the “Secret” experience home with them.
As well as supplying products for local business, Jackie also purchases from them whenever she can. Her olive oil comes from Kingston Olive Oil Company. Baking soda, citric acid, and herbs come from Tara Foods. And the coffee grounds for her exfoliating coffee scrubs come from Coffee & Company.
“The local community is very supportive of each other,” says Jackie. “Right now, we’re all in the same boat and we don’t know what’s going to happen with COVID. But I’m still here.” She’s also thinking of ideas to help people get through the pandemic together. One of her newest offerings is a bath bomb kit, which makes an excellent at-home craft project with the kids (or just a nice pampering exercise for yourself.)
You can order online from 1000 Islands Soap Company at https://1000islandssoapco.com
And follow the store on Facebook as well: Jackie often posts special offers (like the bath bomb kits) on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/1000islandssoapco. 1000 Islands Soap Company offers curbside pick-up and free delivery within Kingston, as well as Canadian and international shipping.
Tips from Jackie Marshall
Feeling stressed? Different essential oils can help you relax or give you a boost. Jackie recommends products with lavender to help you relax, and rose geranium for calming anxiety. Anything citrus-scented – orange, lemongrass, grapefruit – is uplifting, and peppermint is energizing.
