About Us
About the Name
Shmuts is Yiddish for dirt. It’s my favorite Yiddish word and I’ve used it religiously since childhood. When trying to come up with a name for our soap line, I kept thinking about the word shmuts. After all, you need soap to combat shmuts, no? While thinking, I was doodling (which I don’t do well) and I drew a pretty good likeness of a pig and always wanting a pig and wanting to name it Shmutsy, I thought, “what a perfectly fine name for this soap and a mascot to boot”! After mulling over the spelling with a friend who keeps kosher, we decided that Shmutzies would be it. A pig with a soap line? Indeed! ~Caren
About Caren…The Founder
I graduated from beauty school in 1993 as an electrologist and skin care specialist. Part of my education was learning how to use aromatherapy during various facial treatments. Although interesting, I only use my skincare license to do face and body waxing and got away from the aromatherapy.
In the middle of 2014, looking for a way to DE-stress, I decided to go back to my roots and break out the essential oils. I started making soap with a friend and we loved it so much, we made and sold to our clients at the salon.
When that little enterprise with a colleague ended, I went off on my own and decided to kick it up a notch. I started making lip balms and body butters and my customers loved everything. I then started making high-end glycerin body bars and used a variety of essential and fragrance oils, trying to stay on a more natural path, I found that raw ingredients like iron oxides and mica powders were great for adding splashes of color when needed and then I started playing with botanical’s trying to find which were good for exfoliating bars and went even further adding small toys to soaps for kids and before I knew it, Shmutzies was born.
Starting our website with soaps and growing from there, we think everyone can find something in our line that suits their tastes and personality.