THE SHOP
Tucked — almost squeezed — neatly between Everything Tea and Roger’s Riverview Bistro on Snohomish’s main downtown First Street drag is a delicious bath and body shop. Though it only occupies about 75-square-feet of space, Lather & Salt smartly fills every nook with odoriferous goodness. Chemicalfree soap and personal care product lovers will rejoice at the decadent bath bars and skin balms only an arms reach away, no matter which way you turn; however, you’ll only find them open on the weekends so plan your trip well.
THE ATMOSPHERE
Walking into Lather & Salt is like walking into a chic, mod apothecary for your senses. Even on a cloudy day, light from the First Street entrance’s wall of windows floods through for a cheerful brightness. French music lightly dances off exposed brick while sweet and spicy ambrosial fragrances tantalize the olfactory senses.
KEY PEOPLE
Wife-and-husband team Hannah and Brian Long lovingly hand make every thing in the shop, which opened in May 2015. They operated as Washington Soap Works for three years prior and sold at craft shows, but with growing popular demand, they needed a place their line could call home. From a young age, Hannah created balms and perfumes for friends and family. As she got older, her frustrations mounted as she tried to find quality skin care products without detergents, harmful chemicals, and artificial ingredients, so she set out to make her own.
Through countless hours of research, experimentation, and working with a cosmetic chemist, her passion turned into a bubbly business.
WHAT YOU’LL FIND
More than 80 all-natural varieties of meticulously crafted olive oil, glycerine, and goat milk based soaps festoon the shelves alongside scrumptious soaking salts, body butters, shaving bars, bath bombs, candles, solid perfumes, and loofahs. Lather & Salt sources their ingredients locally as much as possible. They procure items like lavender, goat milk, and honey from farmers and bee keepers in the area. Scent profiles appeal to a wide range of customers, from the simple oats and honey fragrance to the more unique combinations, like smoked lavender and peppermint rose. Names like Dirty Girl, Mr. Wonderful, and Mountain Man also beg to be sniffed and tried. Activated charcoal can also be found in some of their lines to help relieve stubborn breakouts and blemishes.
MAKER’S FAVORITE
Hannah says a good natural soap like the ones you’ll find at Lather & Salt will keep your skin feeling clean and soft without drying it out and that feeling in and of itself is a favorite. But if she had to choose just one, she’d pick the soap that started it all — Take Me Back a calendula-infused olive oil soap with cocoa and strawberry. If you can’t make it in on the weekends to pick one up, Hannah gladly accepts phone orders, and online ordering will come soon. Happy lathering!
1015 First Street, Snohomish, 360.722.9090, latherandsalt.com
