Medford woman takes the plunge with soap company

 It was an inexplicable fall down a Tik Tok rabbit hole in December of 2022 that led Michelle Corrado to go against all good, albeit unknown at the time, advice and launch the Medford Soap Company.

“It’s exciting,” she said, speaking from her home and makeshift factory. “It was really just happenstance.” 

A pharmacy administrator by day, Corrado works from home roughly 95% of the time, which means her commute is a 10 second walk down the hallway. She said she was looking for something to fill in the hours that had previously been occupied by her now grown children and playing three hours of the online game Candy Crush didn’t seem like a good plan.

Corrado said one evening while scrolling through Tik Tok videos, she found herself, for reasons unknown, watching soap making videos. 

“I’m Type A,” she said. “I always just kind of go for it.”

And go for it she did.

Making soap

Corrado said she made her first batch of handmade soap in January 2024 and made her first sale in March.

Later, she read online advice that suggested novice soap makers keep at it for a year before trying to sell. But it was too late for Corrado, she had already taken the plunge.  

She said she decided she’d launch her soap quietly on social media.

“I thought I would start with 100 bars,” Corrado said.

But her husband said she might want to make more. 

“I made 1,800 bars and by the end of the weekend, I sold 80-85% of them,” she said.

She said friends and family were very supportive, but word also spread. Before long, she had over 72 different fragrances along with body butter, bath steamers, bar shampoo and conditioner and beard balm and more than a dozen other products.

But the one thing you won’t find on her website is body wash.

“People ask me for body wash, but no, it’s too much plastic,” she said. 

But how

Corrado said she was never one to be dormant. She has always worked full time, she has trained for endurance and marathon running and was a full-time mom. After her kids graduated and her company “re-orged” her twice, which gave her a different perspective, she said, soap making gave her a new fulfillment. 

It also filled her kitchen and then her basement. 

Corrado said started making soap in the kitchen, with the dining room as storage and shipping and receiving, but it didn’t take long before she outgrew those spaces.

“So, I cleared out a quarter of the basement,” which she said worked out well, for a while. Now she’s using half the basement, and has a lab set up there. She said it’s nice to have a designated workspace even though storage is already getting tight.

And while soap making sounds like fun, it’s also hard work. Corrado said it involves research and development as well as testing, marketing and shipping and receiving.

After a year at it, she has hired her first two part-time employees: her son and a girlfriend.

“Because I can only use them and abuse so much without putting them on the payroll,” she said with a laugh. “But 95% of it is still just me.”

Making it from scratch

There are three different ways to make soap: cold process, hot process and melt and pour. Corrado likens the melt and pour method to using a cake mix, it’s nice but not exactly homemade. 

Making soap from scratch means working with oils and lye, among other things, and those elements sometimes scare people, she said.

“I’m a chemist, though, so it doesn’t scare me,” she said.

The hot process is a little more rustic and doesn’t take as long to cure, but it also includes creating a hot bubbly volcano, which Corrado said she’d rather not do.

The cold process is a little more natural and allows Corrado to custom formulate each small batch. Her soaps are also all plant-based, using beeswax rather than lard or tallow.

Corrado said she creates between 40 and 80 bars of soap at a time depending on how much restock she needs and currently she has between 3,000 and 4,000 bars on hand.

“I do wholesale as well,” she said. 

Her fragrances run from the typical lavender, lemongrass and rose to musky Man-O-Man, the earthy Palo Santo and the sensual Galactic Skies.

And does she have a favorite? Oh yes.

Right around the time Corrado was getting her soap making groove on she came across a scent called Moonlight Pomegranate.

“I fell in love with it,” she said. “It’s an intoxicating scent.”

When she was researching oils and scents for her soaps she came across the scent. While other soaps might come and go, Corrado said she will always make Moonlight and Pomegranate even if it’s only a few bars for herself.

Giving back

Corrado said another reason she really likes her new side hustle is it offers an opportunity for her to give back. In the past when non-profits would come looking for donations she had nothing to offer.

“This provides a platform to do that,” she said. 

Corrado offers a fundraising program where approved non-profits are given a discount code for 10% off all purchases, then they receive 30% of those net sales at the end of the month, she explained. 

While she came into the soap making game an admitted agnostic, Corrado said ideally she’d like to retire early and do it full time.

Where to find her

You can find The Medford Soap Company online at Medford Soap Co. or check her out at the Medford Farmers Market, 2501 Mystic Valley Parkway, Thursdays from 3 p.m. - 7 p.m. or the Wilmington Farmers Market, 140 Middlesex Ave. on Sundays, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Corrado said she loves to do the market places because she loves “seeing how excited people get about soap and body scrubs.”

You can also find her soaps locally in 4 Good Vibes on Main Street and in the Kingston Collection Mall on the South Shore. 

“That has been a phenomenal community,” she said. 

She is also in over 200 stores across the country.

“It’s kind of crazy,” she said.