For a while, Raquel Bailey toyed with the idea of going to culinary school, but she backed out because it was so expensive. Now she has returned to the kitchen, stirring pots filled with ingredients to make soaps, balms, bath salts and soy candles. She also creates gift baskets, and even some beaded jewelry, all of which she sells under the label Botanic Blends.

Making the body and bath products is "very similar to cooking, except you don't eat them," said Bailey, 32, who makes her all-natural concoctions at her Durham home.

Like most cooks, she wants her dishes served fresh, so she doesn't make too many products ahead of time.

"I've been doing this for a while, so a lot of things I can whip up if I don't have them on hand."

Clean start: Bailey, who grew up in New Jersey, always enjoyed crafts. She worked in the corporate office of a craft superstore and took business classes on the side. She and her mother traditionally made Christmas gifts for friends and families. "I'd bake and she'd make some jams," she said. "Then one year, in 2002, I read a how-to-make-soap article and thought, let's give it a try. It was a little difficult, but I love cooking and I'm really good in the kitchen. I messed up a batch or two, but then I got the hang of it." She added soap to the holiday baskets and gave it away at work. "Then people starting saying, 'hey, I'll buy some of that soap from you.'"

Trial and error: "It was gratifying that people liked it so much," she said. "I started doing a lot of research into soap and making it a business. You waste a lot of products testing and figuring out what works. At 4 in the morning I'd be reading about soap online and sleeping three hours and going into my real job." She even quit working toward a small-business degree because her own entrepreneurial efforts were taking all her time. "I was married at the time and we moved an hour and a half from my job, so I decided to try the business full time." Bailey focused her sales online from the beginning, and her Web site went up in 2004.

Moving south: Durham became Bailey's home a year ago, after an article about the Raleigh flea market sparked her interest in the area. "I'm obsessed with flea markets, and I love road trips," she said. "I met friends there and we drove around and then I made a few more trips. Every time I came down I liked it. It's that home feeling. And I loved Durham, the diversity, the neighborhoods and houses. I thought it fit me." She recently started to provide local delivery in the Triangle as a way of getting out into the community more.

Counter intelligence: Bailey makes nine kinds of soaps, including fig, lavender, eucalyptus spearmint, oatmeal honey and lilac. "Every one has the same base. They're all vegan, a glycerin type soap, with shea butter, and I add different fragrances. It's a big production. I do it all in the kitchen with the counters lined with towels and parchment. I always have the windows cracked, because it gets a little smelly. Even when the smell is good, it can be a bit much.

Cream of the crop: One of Bailey's most popular products, especially in the winter, is "healing balm," a salve that has a base of olive oil and helps moisturize and soften dry skin. She mixes in cocoa butter, soy wax and soy butter and adds fragrance. "I do a lot of research to come up with the best blends. It took a lot of testing to make this butter. I think it's just the best for cracked winter skin. I keep some at every sink and next to the couch. It's pretty rich and feels a little greasy at first, but it absorbs right in. That's one of my top products." Whipped shea butter, a natural fat from the fruit of a shea tree, is another popular dry-skin remedy. "It's like lotion, only thicker," she said. "I whip it in a big mixer for about three hours, like whipped cream almost, and over time it gets a little harder. It's amazing. A little goes a long way."

Next page >