Joy Starkey, owner of Artesian Springs Soap Co., pours a beer soap mixture into a mold where it will set before being cut. The soap mixture needs to be poured quickly before it hardens and becomes too thick.

Joy Starkey sets handmade soaps on a rack in her house in Fredericktown. The soaps sit on the rack for a period of time in order to cure before they can be used.

Joy Starkey, owner of Artesian Springs Soap Co., pours a beer soap mixture into a mold where it will set before being cut. The soap mixture needs to be poured quickly before it hardens and becomes too thick.

Joy Starkey sets handmade soaps on a rack in her house in Fredericktown. The soaps sit on the rack for a period of time in order to cure before they can be used.

Joy Starkey runs her soap-making business entirely from her home in Fredericktown, which is surrounded by dense woods.

Above the sink in her kitchen where she crafts her soaps is a window where she watches hummingbirds zip around feeders hanging outside.

Starkey started making soap to sell five years ago, fitting it around her day job as the CIO of Filtration Systems Products. She sees creating soaps and other products as a hobby, and selling them as a way to fund her hobby.

“When you make something a job, then it becomes un-fun,” she said.

Starkey primarily makes soap with a base of beer, aloe or oatmeal. She wants to fill her soap with ingredients that are beneficial to the skin and products she would use herself.

“I decided I needed something different, so I started reading about beer and how good hops is for your skin,” she said.

The process of making soap is extensive, and dealing with chemicals requires specific precautions to prevent a situation from becoming dangerous.

Starkey keeps careful track of the temperatures in the mixtures she makes, adding oils and cocoa butter to the composite of beer and lye.

If the temperatures of the liquids are too high when she combines them, the process can cause an accident or the soap can be ruined.

“You have to watch what kind of plastics you use, as well, because when you mix this together, it’s going to get super hot,” she said. “I have blown one up all over my countertops.”

Starkey pays attention to the functionality of her products and thei scents to find a niche and allow her products to stand apart from manufactured soaps.

Each of her soaps has a different benefit for the skin, and some of the soaps she creates are made with a specific purpose. Her mechanic’s soap has pumice and walnut shells, for example, which gives the soap a rough texture to help remove grease from hands.

Starkey attends crafts fairs across Missouri throughout the year to sell her products, as well as via her Facebook page. She sells to friends and family partially as a way to test the potential reception of a product.

Leslie Stafford, a longtime friend and co-worker, said she has been using Starkey’s products since the beginning. Stafford and her husband have each found a soap to fit their individual needs.

“I would say my main go to is the jewelweed. I’m highly allergic to poison ivy. I get it year round, and so I went to her one day and said, ‘Hey, do you have a soap that could possibly help with this irritant?’

And so she said, ‘Yeah, try this jewelweed.’ So that’s mine whenever I get poison ivy,” Stafford said.

Starkey said nothing she makes goes to waste. One of her soaps is made from scraps of other soaps after she trims the edges. She also makes a point to use extra soap herself.

“When I carry one around that doesn’t sell well and I get tired of carrying it around, I just use it here,” she said. “I haven’t bought bar soap in five years.”

What: Soaps, personal care items, clothing and more

Where: Online through Facebook or at vendor events

Contact Info: 573-783-9262; joy@runningpharness.com

Local Pig sells pork,beef, free-range chicken, lamb, rabbit, cured bacon and sausage, local wine, cheese and more.

Community reporter, fall 2022. Studying journalism focused on reporting and writing. Reach me at olivia.rodriguez@mail.missouri.edu

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