Sophie Goodwin-Hughes

An enjoyable hobby and desire to help her son’s skin condition, has led to Sophie Goodwin-Hughes, from Belstone now owning and running a thriving international business.

Sophie Goodwin-Hughes lived in Essex until about ten years ago when she and her husband moved to the Teign Valley. Sophie, an occupational therapist, said: ’When we first moved down here, there weren’t any jobs, so I project managed renovating our cottage and when our son Sebastian came along, I really wanted to be able to spend as much time as possible with him.

The creation of the soap business was a bit of an accident. Sebastian was diagnosed with eczema and the doctor prescribed various lotions and potions. However we realised we were just adding chemicals upon chemicals. So I decided to go back to my hobby of making soap again to see if anything completely natural would make a difference. It did and Sebastian's eczema cleared up.

‘I think we were lucky as he didn’t have the condition too badly, but the whole process got me thinking about how I could possibly make this hobby into a business, allowing me to stay at home with Sebastian. I began making more soaps at home and it’s now taken off in a way I never really expected at all!’

Sophie began trying her products out on friends and family to guage their reaction and feedback. She then started selling as The Dartmoor Soap Company, initially at country markets back in 2013. A website followed and then a variety of stockists started to get in contact with her including a big break coming in the form of the National Trust and the Not On the High Street website.

Her mother who had been a strong supporter and great help in the early days of production, sadly died but this only spurred Sophie on even more - to take her business to the next level and move to proper production premises at Kigbeare Studios, near Okehampton. ‘I really found it difficult to work from home after Mum died and after I appeared on the BBC’s Countryfile in May 2015, things just went mad! Everybody who saw it seemed to think I’d come up with some kind of miracle cure for eczema, the exposure I had from the programme was incredible, but it meant I was struggling. If you could have seen my house at the time every room was full of soaps with boxes everywhere! People used to say “Your house smells lovely” — now it just smells of dogs!’

Moving her business to Kigbeare has made a huge difference to Sophie, who is now producing an average of 800 bars a week. All her products are created using natural products, local where possible. For example, she includes honey from Peter Hunt, based at North Bovey, her 'ale soap' is made with Jail Ale from Dartmoor Brewery and her goats milk soap is made with milk sourced from her home in Belstone. She is constantly dreaming up new brands. Using a ‘trial and error’ method some of the latest inventions include a ‘Mischevious Mutts’ soap for dogs and a ‘Country Cooks’ soap which includes coffee, said to get rid of the smell of garlic!

Fortuitously, an order from China came in time for her to secure a substantial EU grant, just days before last year’s Brexit vote and she now has her sights set on international markets. As Sophie says, it’s a far cry from experimental beginnings, although she still has an army of local teenagers wrapping her soaps by hand in the village.

Sophie’s New Year resolution was to do more for herself, including getting out and about running and riding her mountain bike. ‘The business has certainly increased my confidence, my skills set and my social circle. It’s pushed me to do things I find very difficult - certainly doing Countryfile I was like a rabbit in the headlights! But Sebastian will always come first, and that’s what it’s always been about.’