Monthly Vendor Interviews
Interview 1: Sue from Saint Charles Shave
Interview 1: Sue from Saint Charles Shave
Often on this forum consisting of different points of view on wet shaving, one point of view is conspicuously absent: that of the people that create and sell the products we love to discuss to no end. In an effort to give you the member insight into the other side of wet shaving, we will periodically interview vendors to learn more about their experiences, and their take on this hobby of ours. The questions you see here were submitted by members of Badger & Blade, and were narrowed down by the Development Team.
This month, Badger & Blade swapped soap sentiments with Sue of Saint Charles Shave:
Name: Sue Moore
Title: Owner
Company: Saint Charles Shave. LLC
Location: Saint Charles, Missouri, USA
Years in the industry: Saint Charles Shave just celebrated its one year anniversary this past autumn. I have been making soaps and toiletries for about ten years.
1. Could you provide a brief history of Saint Charles Shave?
The short history on my website is absolutely true. As a hobby I made bath items for family and friends and lots of it. Once I tried to give more soap or a bath set to my daughter and she refused it; Mom, I just cant possibly use more soap. She probably still has surplus.
I received the same response from my sons with bar soap and lotions fragranced with mens scents. Someone suggested eBay. I began with auctions, then an Ebay store.
During the period of time I had the Ebay store, a return customer, Tony, asked me if I could make shave soap. I replied sure I can, not realizing how different a shave soap was from bath soap.
During a period of months, I sent him box after box of numbered shave soaps to trial. Id receive the daily morning email saying, keep working on it, it needs to be ...slicker, quicker to lather, smaller bubbles, thicker lather, smell better, etc., etc.
Everyday it was the same pitiful report. Eventually, Tony said one of the soaps had a lot of potential. More cakes were formulated and mailed. Finally the revised recipe was pronounced shave-ready .
While speaking with my brother one day about the Ebay store and fees, he offered the space and his time to set-up and to maintain a web store for me. Saint Charles Shave opened for business shortly after this conversation.
2. What do you enjoy most about making shaving/male grooming products?
I think I would have to say fragrance. I really enjoy mixing different oils and trying fragrance that is new to me. If I had a song playing in the background of SCS, it would be the old Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top (really an inappropriate group, shave wise).
A man who spends time and effort in his appearance stands out. I would like to think in some small way I am helping men achieve that well-groomed, sharp look that we women notice.
3. What did you do before you started making shave creams and soaps?
I worked full-time in a professional office environment in business suits and heels. I found it unrewarding. In my spare time, Ive always enjoyed making things or creating. That creative side is a passion. Ive painted in oils and acrylics on canvas and have painted childrens rooms; floor and ceiling and a day care in popular themes. Ive also enjoyed making specialty breads and cheese; making my own press. I sew quite well and have made many garments and custom window treatments.
4. What do you use for inspiration for new products/names/scents?
Suggestions and feedback from my customers. I have a file specifically devoted to customer comments and fragrance suggestions. There are so many; I try to choose what I feel will be enjoyed by the most customers.
5. Did you start off focusing on shaving products, or did your buisiness just evolve into producing mostly shaving related products?
I began with womens products while using eBay. Eventually I offered limited mens items; bar soaps and lotions. The shaving soap question changed all of that. The focus has always been on mens shaving items with SCS. I have offered womens products but that has been limited.
6. How are the formulas developed for your products? Spefically, how are the ingredients selected? What research is involved in creating a new product?
This is where customer feedback is so important in determining what the end product will deliver. I look at ingredients and study the properties of that ingredient. This entails a significant amount of reading. What does a particular ingredient do, how does it feel on skin, and what value does it add to the finished product? Are there similar ingredients available? Determine what the best ingredient is to achieve the desired result.
An example; currently my shave crème contains SLS or Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. There are many who do not like products with this ingredient. I have been working on a new formulation which contains Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate. Although both products are coconut based foamers, the latter is said to be much kinder and milder to your skin. I am very near sending samples of the reformulated crème to my testers. Barring my testers find degradation I have not picked up on; I feel it is ready to sell. Prior to sending samples to my testers, many recipes go down the drain, literally.
7. How long does it take to make a typical product? How many iterations do you make of a product before it passes your muster and is available to the public?
Well, that all depends on the product. Shave Crème and Soap pucks were the longest time to develop. Ingredient cost is also a factor in the development. With Shaving Crème, cost was near a complete breaking point of debt when the ingredients finally clicked. Shaving crème took approximately a year to develop. I quit in frustration and lack of funds, for short periods, on several occasions.
The crème was sent for trial at differing points of its development. The approved recipe was then sent to another tester and he obtained a third opinion prior to offering it on my website.
EDTs are so subjective to individual fragrance preference; it is difficult to decide which to invest in for sale. Individual fragrance has been trialed by as many as thirty individuals both male and female. With favorable reviews by a wide majority, I bottle it.
8. How do you test your products?
In addition to Tony testing every product I sell, I have several other testers whose opinions and suggestions I also value immensely. They look not only for product performance but all aspects of the intended use of that product. My testers, as noted in the previous question are, of course, of varying skin types. They all are aware of the need to not produce an adverse skin reaction and that is a big consideration with their feedback.
9. Since gaining exposure on Badger & Blade, have your sales increased significantly? How has being on the 'web' helped your business?
All of my customers are from the web. I do not have a brick and mortar store, so SCS would not exist without the web. The shaving forums, Google search, BottomGun.com and word- of-mouth are my customer base.
Badger and Blade provides a lot of exposure and many of my customers are members here. The product reviews are helpful and I also enjoy participating in discussion as I have time. Reading threads that discuss products, (anyones products), is helpful for the knowledge of what is wanted as well as what is not wanted in products.
10. What SCS product/scent is your personal favorite?
New Spice of course and I am very fond of Embrace if I could pick two in a tie for favorite fragrance and I use Skin Defense daily.
11. Are there any articles, books, or online sites that you found particularly helpful when you first began making soaps?
None in particular, there are so many. Some knowledge can usually be gleaned, even if only a small hint, from most.
12. What are your plans for the future, i.e, products, expansion?
Id like to expand my fragrance line. I continue to work on a product for my International customers in a non-alcohol EDT strength spray.
From day one I decided I would only offer the best products that I could produce. I stand behind what I sell with a full refund for any dissatisfaction.
Many specialized vendors place a very high price on their products. I make the best that I can at the lowest cost possible so my products are affordable to anyone. I have no desire to be an elitist company.
What you see is what you get on my website. I offer no pretty boxes to throw out or fancy packaging of any kind. My goal for next year is to continue to offer quality goods and personal customer Service. Along the way, I hope to make more friends amongst my customers.
I offer my many thanks to the Administrator and staff of Badger and Blade in presenting Saint Charles Shave this month. I also would like to extend my hand of appreciation to my friends and customers here at B & B for contributing so much back to my little guy company.
Sue
We'd like to thank Sue for her time, and wish her and Saint Charles Shave continued success.
This interview will be available in the ShaveWiki shortly.
The photo above can be found in higher resolution in the ShaveWiki here.
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), your interview was very informative and enlightening. Keep up the great work, thanks for participating, and as a practicing member of your choir 
, you will be seeing my order tomorrow!
Great interview !! Just want to tell all the Busy B'ers out there that her "veryV" EDT smells great, and is in my new rotation now, besides that , and here's the icing on the cake, my wife loves it!
