Who We Are

Hello!

Thank you for checking out The Gentleman's Soap Company's blog! While I eventually intend to use this blog primarily to keep people updated on our products, events, and promotions, I want to start out with a little background on who we are.

I'm Nicole, one half of the two person team at The Gentleman's Soap Company. The other half is my husband, Matt.
I guess you could say we started out as high school sweethearts. We have now been happily married for 5 years. We live in our little house outside Baltimore, MD, with our two kids, two cats, and puppy.

I am a registered nurse and work on a Perinatal GYN unit (meaning I take care of pregnant ladies, new mommies, new babies, and gynecological surgery patients). I work the night shift, so I'm awake and asleep at odd hours. If you ever send us an email and get a reply at 2am, that would be why

I've always been a crafter. Many a childhood summer I spent with my friends, pulling a red wagon around the neighborhood, selling bookmarks made with paper we marbled ourselves, home-baked pies and cookies, and various other kid crafted trinkets. I've been known to dabble in sewing, crochet, screen printing, decoupage, and pretty much anything that can be picked up at Michael's or Joann's.

Most of the time, when I'm not at work or running errands with the kids, I can most frequently be found in the kitchen, baking something. I'm a baking fool. I really enjoy decorating cakes, and I've done some pretty cool ones if I do say so myself. I even got to make a groom's cake for my friend's wedding. I'm also not ashamed to say that I think my secret recipes for yellow and chocolate butter cakes are the best.

Matt has a degree in linguistics, and right now is back in school finishing a degree in air traffic control. As you can probably guess just from that, he's pretty smart (at least I think so). He's usually the guy everyone wants on their team when playing a big game of Trival Pursuit.

When he's not busy at school or playing with our kids, I can almost guarantee you he's reading something. That, or he's cooking dinner. Or reading while cooking dinner. I'm pretty lucky that Matt is an awesome cook. His specialty is pizza cooked on the grill. It's 50 times better than any in-the-pan or even brick-oven pizza.

Matt is also what I would call a "beer connoisseur", and homebrews his own when he gets the chance. He's learning woodworking, too, and may one day have some handmade woodworked goods up for sale alongside our soaps.

If our hobbies don't make it obvious, we're kind of do-it-yourselfers. We like to know the whys and hows of things, and if they're interesting enough, we'll try them ourselves. We probably get it from our parents. Both of our fathers are good at carpentry and other projects, and both our mothers have managed their own successful businesses. We home school our kids (well, our daughter is a little young yet for formal lessons, but our son gets some 'school' time each day), and hopefully they'll grow up to be do-it-yourselfers, too.

When it comes to soaping, I think Matt and I make a good team because soap making is half an art, and half a science. Matt understands all the chemistry behind the process, which is especially great for crafting our own recipes, and answering the technical questions we get from people (like, "how do you make soap?"). I'm more the artsy half. I worry about when bars look ugly, and take all the pictures.

Another advantage to being a husband-and-wife team, is that our soaps and our business in general are looked at in two different lights. It's been pretty interesting to see how men and women differ in their opinions on something as simple as buying soap.

Our friends and family have been wonderful in testing our soaps out for us. We've had lots of great feedback, and are excited to get the shop open soon. We hope you enjoy using our soaps as much as we've enjoyed making them.

-Nicole