Provenance Soapworks recently marked 15 years in business in St. Charles. The shop’s roots trace back to 2002, when owner and product creator Carolyn Holden came across a story on soap making in Martha Stewart Living magazine and began experimenting at home. What started as a curiosity eventually grew into a full-time business built on handcrafted soaps and bath products.
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Organization: Provenance Soapworks | 311 South Main Street St. Charles, MO 63301 | 636.577.1972
Title: Owner & Product Creator
Age: 43
Hometown: O’Fallon, MO
Education: Bachelor of Science from Lindenwood University
Interests / Hobbies: Travel, gardening, stained glass making
What motivated you to get involved in this work/community/activity? I picked up a Martha Stewart Living magazine back in 2002 that featured an article on soap making. I started experimenting with different ingredients and scents and quickly fell in love with the craft. I began making soaps for friends and eventually selling them at craft shows while still attending college at Lindenwood. After graduating, I realized I didn’t want to pursue a job in my field of study (Elementary Education). Instead, I began working full-time while spending my weekends selling at various shows and markets. Slowly, with the help of my husband, Mike, the business grew. In 2010, we opened our first location on Main Street in St. Charles. By 2012, we had outgrown that space and moved to our current location at 311 South Main Street. We celebrated 15 years this past August and continue to grow and evolve.
What values or principles guide how you show up in this role/community? These are our core values that we as owners follow and also ask staff to be onboard with as well. These guide use in making choices that are beneficial not only to the company, but our community as well.
1. Be humble, gracious, & above all else, be kind
2. Always be willing to learn, accept new challenges & take new risks.
3. Do more with less.
4. Make choices that are good for the company, but more importantly, benefit the community as well.
5. Be passionate, creative & have freedom to voice your ideas & opinions.
6. Make choices that are environmentally sound & sustainable.
Numbers three and six, in particular, strongly shape our decision-making when introducing new products or systems. We are deeply committed to environmentally friendly practices: all of our wrapping is biodegradable cellulose, and we never use plastic packaging- only glass jars and bottles. We also repurpose all packing waste from our suppliers, either donating it to other businesses for reuse or finding creative ways to reuse it ourselves.
What’s the most enjoyable aspect? I love that I get to do a little bit of everything and continually learn new skills along the way. I create and manufacture our products, from formulation to scent development, but I also handle graphic design for labels and packaging, visual merchandising and interior design for the storefront, product photography, website development for our online shop, and more. It’s truly a little of everything, which keeps the work endlessly interesting.
Can you briefly share a few standout memories? In 2017, business was really gaining momentum. At the time, my husband was working both at the shop and as a general manager for a local company. He was able to retire from his GM position to take over production and manufacturing full-time at our business. Seeing this business grow into something that could support both of us, as well as a small team, is still surreal, especially when I think back to where it all began in 2002 with my first batch of soap, and later when we first opened our doors in 2010.
Can you share an insight about this role that most people don’t know? Being a business owner can sometimes be lonely. It sounds silly, but there’s a lot of what you deal with on a day to day basis that most friends can’t relate to. I’ve found it’s so important to have friends who are also business owners, so you can have someone to turn to for advice or just someone to commiserate with when things get stressful.
What’s one key piece of advice you’ve embraced? Start small and build piece by piece. You don’t have to have everything perfect or at the scale you envision right away. Take your time and work with what you have until you’re ready for the next step. That approach has helped us avoid debt and growing too quickly before we were ready.
What’s the greatest challenge? There never seems to be enough time to do everything I want to do. Every day brings new ideas- products to develop, scents to introduce, or improvements to make to our website. Between managing the store and employees, manufacturing products, and handling day-to-day operations, finding time to get everything done while still enjoying life outside of work can be a constant balancing act.
Where do you find inspiration? In our travels. My husband and I have several close friends in Europe, so we try to visit at least once a year. While doing that, we travel to other areas and as a result get a lot of inspiration- from the food and drinks, the architecture, the plants in that region, etc… A lot of those things form the inspiration for new products in our Passport Collection and our Market Collection.
What are your future plans or ambitions? We have several business ideas that aren’t directly related to the bath and beauty industry. We’re both gin lovers and would love to open a classic cocktail bar in the St. Charles area with a focus on gin-based cocktails.
