We love beer and its many uses, such as helping us forget that fight we had with our girlfriend or the two hundred bucks we lost playing Texas Hold 'Em at the Calder Casino & Race Course after the fight with little Ms. Pissy Pants.
We are not alone in our pursuit for bigger and better ways to use beer (such as dousing our hair with it for natural highlights). The Beer Soap Co., based right here in the 305, has found a way to combine hops and hygiene. They were also one of the vendors at this past weekend's Brickell Bazaar.
Yup, the company uses beer to make delightfully hip soap bars that
leave you feeling so fresh and so clean, clean. When we first heard that
they make soaps using charcoal and squalane serum (we still don't know
what that is), we thought they might be hippies, but no, it turns out
that Jamin Poczontek and his fiancée Zaidat Bombata are just really,
really earthy.
Jamin took the time to
chat with us recently about sampling the ingredients of their products
and what it felt like to be featured in the magazine Everyday with Rachel Ray.
New Times: Where are you guys from?
Jamin Poczontek: Our company originally is from Cleveland, Ohio.
What gave you the idea to use beer as an ingredient?
Zaidat started dabbling in the handcrafted soap in 2006 and one day in 2007 experimented with a few of my beers that were in the frig (Guinness Extra Stout & Heineken).
How do your products help people with sensitive skin?
Well, for people with sensitive skin, they only know what works from them and what doesn't. But, our bars have a big following from just those people. I can only say that that is due to the five oils and the shea and cocoa butter that (is in) the soap.
You seem to be very into organic, homemade stuff. Would you consider yourselves hippies?
Not so much on the hippie side. More like healthy skin care people. We feel like the products you use on the skin have a bearing on how it looks in the future. No hippies here.
What did you guys think when you were contacted by Rachel Ray's magazine?
Now this is funny. I received a phone call from one of her people. We previously had a message left and I listened to it but did not know who Rachel Ray was. So when this phone call came, Zaidat was on the computer and I asked her who Rachel Ray was. She almost fell out of the chair. She said, "You don't know who Rachel Ray is? She is the white Oprah!" So we were both ecstatic and so overwhelmed with suspense. That little phone call changed our company.
If a huge corporation wanted to buy you guys out, how much money would it take?
Twenty-five million.
Do you "sample" the beer as you're making the soap?
Of course I do!
Follow Cultist on Facebook and Twitter @CultistMiami.