F.R.O.G. Soap is hopping all around these days.
Owner Laura Kneib has moved from her home’s small kitchen to a location in downtown Bremerton to sell her soap. She will move again in several months when the location just up the road is finished.
“It’s very exciting,” Kneib said of the move. “This is just a wonderful area. It’s so alive.”
The new shop is on Fifth Street just around the corner from the Admiral Theatre, and across the street from Cornerstone Coffee. It is in an area that many consider the art district of Bremerton.
“So many people are so excited because they can touch it and feel it,” Kneib said of her new shop.
When she moves again, she will have her own address at 530 5th Street.
F.R.O.G. isn’t just a cute name, but it stands for From Reclaimed Oil and Glycerin. Since she started in 2012, Kneib’s recycled nearly two tons of waste vegetable oil, cardboard, junk mail and biodiesel glycerin.
All the packaging in which her soap comes in is recycled, down to the labels on which she prints her little green frogs on.
Kneib takes vegetable oil from restaurants and uses it as one of the main ingredients to create her soap, along with essential oils and other ingredients. The oil is carefully filtered, making it safe for humans to use. She started the business in part to keep her busy, but also because she couldn’t stand the thought of oil going back into the environment. F.R.O.G. Soap is her answer to trying to reduce and reuse for an item that everyone uses.
With her new brick-and-mortar shop, Kneib will still offer customer favorites and some new items as well.
“Again, I didn’t mean to do this,” she said. “It’s just so much fun.”
Aside from the excitement of finding a storefront that she loves, Kneib also was recently picked up by Made in Washington, a company that offers Northwest gifts made by Washingtonian artists.
And if she wasn’t busy enough, Kneib plans to continually create new products to add to her line.
Since the boom of her business this past Christmas, the creative entrepreneur has added bath bombs and cupcake-shaped soaps to her collection. She also has started selling birthday cards made from paper she has recycled.
As has always been the case, the soaps smell like everything but used veggie oil. She’s got lavender, peppermint, lemon and other scents, and is always on the verge of creating new ones, like her most recent, “Heart of Gold.”
The newest soap incorporates gold flecks from sand she got from Arizona.
Customers can still order soap online, and locals will find Kneib at the farmers market as well. Additionally, Kneib started a “Soap of the Month” club for those who want to try a new soap each month.
“The soap will continue to go around the world,” she said, adding that now she’s got even more space for production purposes.
As for her new space she’ll move into later this year, Kneib has big plans for it. She’ll gain an additional 1,000 sq. ft. at the next location which she plans to use for creating soap, teaching classes and selling her soap.
The classes will range from basic soap making to teaching customers how to reuse their grease and oil, Kneib said.
Until then, she’s using the current space as a way to introduce new customers to her environmentally-friendly soap and procedures.
“It’s coming along,” she said. “It’s been fun.”
F.R.O.G. Soap products range in price from $4.75 to $5.75.
For more information, visit www.frogsoap.com or call 360-337-0934.
