Courtesy photo
Maria Culligan, founder and owner of Pluie Soap, holds up one of her soap creations and has others on display at her home-based Berthoud business.

By Shelley Widhalm
The Surveyor

Maria Culligan has found a way to create gentle, natural soap and bath products that also smell great—and starting in December, she’ll be selling them retail.

“I try to make them fun and not boring. Natural or holistic products are not fun,” said Culligan, owner and founder of Pluie Soap, 222 Spring Hill Lane in Berthoud. “I want to make them better to make people excited to use them … then they’re hooked.”

Culligan founded Pluie Soap as a home-based business in 2013 and five years later relocated it from Denver to Berthoud, when she and her husband, Emmitt, moved. She initially sold wholesale and currently sells to three retail outlets in Colorado and one in San Jose, Calif.—two of the outlets are in Berthoud, The Source Zero NoCo and You + Me Floral and Gifts.

To meet increased demand, Culligan plans to open up her website, pluiesoap.com, for online orders with the option for shipping or local pickup. She expects at that time, customers will be more open to buying local and trying new products.

Culligan sells soaps, bath bombs, shampoo bars and salves made of natural ingredients. She uses her own recipes, researching the properties of the ingredients and avoiding anything that is synthetic or artificial. Her products include essential oils, Epson salts and olive oil, which helps nourish the skin, and are colored with all-natural colorants, such as the Pink Champagne Bath Bomb with dried pink dragon fruit powder.

“There’s enough products out there that compromise on their ingredients. I won’t do that,” Culligan “You don’t have to buy subpar products. You can pay the same price and get something that’s really healthy for your skin.”

Taking care of the skin, the largest organ of the body, is just as important as eating organically, Culligan said.

“You have to take care of that as much as your inside organs,” Culligan said. “We only have one body, and we have to treat it right.”
One of the bath bombs, Relax and Unwind, combines chamomile with lavender, lemongrass and tangerine essential oils—lavender and chamomile are both good for relaxation. Other scents for the bath bombs include Chamomile, Lavender, Frosted Fig and Ocean Bath.

The soaps come in a variety of scents, like Ocean, Sagebrush, Creamy Apricot and Vanilla Latte, plus a fun one called LOL Lots.Of.Lavender and another one called O.M.H Oatmeal Milk and Honey. Vanilla Latte contains coffee granules, which are good for exfoliation.

A special kit includes the Frosty, Winter Kiss and Snowball bath bombs in the Season’s Greetings Bath Bomb Set. Winter Kiss includes juniper oil as well as litsea oil that helps detoxify pores and has an anti-aging property, while Snowball has peppermint and vanilla essential oils—peppermint helps with muscle aches, joint pain and stress reduction.

“That’s the most perfect wintertime, Christmas-time bath bomb, since the holidays can be stressful,” Culligan said.

Culligan also sells pet products, including a Dog Shampoo Bar and Pet Paw Balm, plus a few specialty products like Woodstock Deodorant, Frosted

Rose Lip Balm and Beard Balm.
“Men love it,” Culligan said. “It’s like beard oil. They rub it into their beard, and it smells really nice. It doesn’t smell like the earth like a lot of these other products do.”

Culligan, a graphic designer since 2013, designed her logo, website and packaging, plus tries to use as much eco-friendly packaging as possible. She came up with the name Pluie Soap based on the French word for “rain,” using a word in her third language, which she studied for four years. She originally wanted to use her native language, Spanish, but “rain” translates to “la lluvia,” which to her could sound like a body part. She chose rain because as a child, she pretended her showers were rain.

“I love the way (Pluie) sounds,” Culligan said. “It’s short and sweet. It’s fun to say.”