Daily Inspiration: Meet Sarah Rehmann

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Rehmann.

Hi Sarah, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself. 
My husband Eric and I met in Grand Rapids, MI, where we worked at Charley’s Crab for many years. In 2013, we moved to Raleigh, NC, where we both had successful careers in the restaurant industry. We decided to get married in the mountains of North Carolina. We ended up loving it so much that we never left. In 2017, I started making soap for family and friends as Christmas gifts. I posted some pictures of my soaps on social media, and people started asking me if I was selling them, so I did! I started selling them at our local farmers market and had a website made. Soon after that, I opened a few local wholesale accounts. Last year, my husband was able to quit his job, and now we’re both full-time soap makers and sell our soaps in 27 states in over 100 stores! Our whole business focus is on sustainability. We only use pure essential oils for fragrance in our soaps, use all-natural colors like herbs and clays, all of our recipes are palm oil free, and our packaging is eco-friendly! We also make a lot of plastic-free alternatives. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
For the most part, it’s been a smooth road. We didn’t push too hard to grow faster than we could handle. It’s all grown organically, which has helped us scale up while keeping our feet on the ground. I’d say the biggest struggle has been for the first five years; we ran the entire business from our home. It was fine when it was more of a hobby business, but as we started to grow, we quickly ran out of room in our home. We didn’t want to lease a space and work far from home since we live a good 20 minutes from the nearest town. We made a big move to build a 40’x40′ warehouse behind our home that is a full functioning soap studio! We just moved into the space last summer. It’s been a total dream come true. We’ve worked so hard to get to this point. It feels great to see our hard work in plain sight. We’re now able to be way more efficient in our work and make larger quantities of soaps! It’s even better having our house back! 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are 100% proud of the products we make. Every single ingredient we use is good for your skin. Artificial fragrances, micas, and dyes are not good our skin but are found in almost all soaps, even handmade ones. Not to mention commercial detergent soaps that are full of toxic ingredients and packaged in plastic bottles. We personally use everything we make and would never make something we wouldn’t use ourselves. Unfortunately, palm oil is in almost all soaps, detergents, processed foods, and cosmetics. The cultivation of palm oil is destroying the rainforests at alarming rates. Even “sustainable palm oil” uses up once biodiverse rainforest land to grow palms. Our planet needs the rainforests to breathe! Palm oil is cheap and is more or less used to fluff up products to make them cheaper. We do not use palm oil or even “sustainable palm oil” in any of our products. Besides body soaps we also make shampoo and conditioner bars, lotion bars, lip balms. And dish soap- all plastic-free! 

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you, and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
We learned that time is one thing you can never get back. When the world shut down, we got to spend a lot more time together. My husband was working at a very high-stress job where he worked many long hours. I knew I wanted to grow this business enough so I could improve our quality of life together, and it worked! 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cullowheegeefarms.com
• Instagram: @cullowheegee_farms
• Facebook: Cullowheegee Farms

Image Credits
Andrea Nyberg