Maker of the Month: RainBro Crafts
Colton and
Zac of RainBro Crafts began their soap journey with a Bramble Berry kit in 2021, and
haven't looked back! Today, they have a loyal customer base in Vancouver and beyond,
for their beautiful soaps, candles, and more. Meet Colton and Zac!
How long have you been
making candles and soap, and what led you to start your own
business?
RainBro Crafts started in January 2021
during lockdown. We’d been watching soap making videos by Katie Carson of
Royalty Soaps and when she
reviewed a soap making kit from a company in Washington state called Bramble Berry
we jumped at the idea that we could make our very own cold process soap.
We purchased the Aloe Cold Process Soap Kit
and fell in love with the process. After several batches of soap we thought, why not
open an Etsy shop to share our craft? The rest is history! We went from making 10
bar batches of soap to 180 bar weekly batches over the course of the next year as
well as adding a line of wooden wick candles, beard care, hair care, bath
enhancements and lip balms.
What sets
Rainbro Crafts apart - what makes your small business unique?
RainBro Crafts is a values driven business. Our mission is to make the
world a little bit gayer, greener and cleaner. We make the world a little bit gayer
by living out and proud in our community of Vancouver, Washington and incorporating
our queer culture into our products with soaps called Butch Queen & Pleather
Daddy and candles called Drag Brunch. We make the world a little bit greener by
committing to use sustainably and ethically-sourced vegan ingredients for all of our
products and avoiding unnecessary packaging. We make the world a little bit cleaner
by offering a range of self-care products that can help you freshen your body and
your home.
Where do you find
inspiration?
We are inspired by our community and our
queer culture. We have several products that utilize a common nickname for
Vancouver, Vantucky. Vantucky Mule is our best selling candle scent inspired by a
Moscow Mule cocktail with our own Vancouver spin. For April and May we created a 2
part soap collection called the Dazzling Divas Collection. Each of the 13 soaps was
inspired by one of our favorite Divas from Taylor Swift (RainBro Version), to Dolly
Parton, and Rupaul! We also find inspiration from our fellow makers. We’ve
met so many talented artisans doing the Vancouver Farmers Market and it’s
always fun to pick their brains to look at our craft in a completely different way.
We even did a candle collaboration with a local record store called Ronald Records
that yielded another of our fan favorite candles, Vinyl Vibes SIde
A.
What is
your favorite part of the creative process?
Colton
and I balance each other very well in this regard. I often describe Colton as
“The Nose” and he describes himself as the Chief Creative
Officer of RainBro Crafts. He comes up with the most incredible fragrance blends, it
is really something to behold. He also has real skill of conceptualizing an idea and
bringing it to life in the soapmaking process. On the other hand I love the
collaborative elements in the creative process. Working with other businesses to
build a product that reflects both of our brands and results in something we can
both be proud of has been the most satisfying creative challenge for me.
What has been your biggest challenge to navigate as a
small business owner? The size of our workspace is certainly the most difficult
element of our business. We currently run the whole business from our 900 square
foot apartment. Sometimes it feels like we live in a business with our home as a
side gig. We are very lucky to have such a supportive customer base that have helped
us grow at such an astounding rate, but our next big goal is to find a larger home
so that we can continue to keep the business home-based but have a little bit of
breathing room.
What
advice would you give to makers looking to start their own business from
home?
Every day is an experiment. There are no
failures, just results. Sometimes a batch of soap doesn’t turn out how you
had hoped but if you learn from it and can apply that lesson in the future then the
setback was worth it. This applies to everything in a small business from your
packaging, website, social media posts and even how you display your product at the
Farmers Market. It’s always ok to try something new and find out if it is
better or worse for your business. Another thing I always maintain when working
directly with the public is that not every person who comes to your booth is your
customer. We often have folks wander in and ask if we sell goat milk soap. Since all
of our products are vegan I know that they are not my customer and I point them in
the direction of another soaper who can help them.
What does Pride Month mean to you as LGBTQ+ small business
owners?
Pride means living authentically. Not every
queer person paints their nails and wraps their business in rainbows like we do, but
as long as you are living consistently with your values and identity you are
practicing Pride. Pride Month is an opportunity for us to remember and respect the
queer folks who built the world for us as it is now. So many queer people never
lived to see a world where a gay couple could show up at their town's Farmers Market
and sell their products every weekend in public without fear of violence. The world
has progressed so much and Pride Month is an opportunity to acknowledge the
sacrifices of those that came before us and continue their legacy by fighting
against the people who threaten that progress. We hope that members of the LGBTQIA+
community in the future can live and thrive even more than we are
now.
What other
makers do you admire, and what do you like about their work?
We will always have a soft spot in our hearts for Katie Carson of Royalty Soaps. She gave us the
push to get started in a new hobby and it truly changed our lives. We are also so
impressed with other makers in the Pacific Northwest, Nathan from Clover Soapworks and Melissa
& Bethany from Teaspoon Soapery.
They have such gorgeous designs and scent combinations. We also recently met Steve
Meka from STEM Handmade Soap at the
Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Guild Annual Conference and his story is so inspiring.
He started out just like us and now owns several stores.
What are
your dreams for RainBro Crafts? Where would you like to see your business in 5 or 10
years?
Our 5 year goals include finding a larger home
that can better accommodate the business and our personal lives as well as for
RainBro Crafts to grow big enough to sustain us both financially without working
other jobs. We are halfway there as Zac works in the business full time while Colton
still has a day job. Hopefully in 5 years we will both be able to work in the
business full-time with a much larger workspace. For our 10 year goal it’s
a little harder to visualize. We’d love to own a storefront of our own in
Vancouver, WA but we hope to be able to continue to work with the Vancouver Farmers
Market for as long as possible. We really do love it there!
What are
three of your must-have Bramble Berry products?
We
use several Bramble Berry products on a regular basis so narrowing it down to 3 is
tough. I would say that Colloidal Oatmeal is an
ingredient that we use in all of our soaps for its gentle and nourishing effects in
soap. We also use several fragrance oils in our products regularly. Some of our best
sellers are the Yuzu
Fragrance Oil combined with Lavender Essential Oil for
our Lavender Haze Soap and the Backwoods Hike Fragrance
Oil that is in our Morning Wood soap and beard products. A special shout
out goes to the Gold
UltraSparkle Mica and Copper UltraSparkle Micas.
We get so many compliments on the beautiful shimmer they impart on our
products.
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