When you walk into Purple Urchin at 884 Somerset West in Chinatown you’re immediately surrounded by the delicious scent of flavourful hand-made, natural soaps and bath products. These days, you may have seen (and smelled) these products in virtually every corner of the city and this week will add another, as Flock Boutique at 1275 Wellington West will carry Purple Urchin’s products in an in-store pop-up apothecary.
As part of Support Local month, you can join Flock and Purple Urchin this Thursday, November 7 between 6:00 and 9:00 p.m. for some pampering, yummy treats and fun. Make your own sugar scrub!
Rebecca Pereira, owner of Purple Urchin, in store.
I met with Purple Urchin Owner Rebecca Pereira in Purple Urchin’s shop, and she informed me that they are selling four times the volume they did a couple of years ago. It’s pretty amazing considering she started making bars of soap in her parent’s kitchen in Sioux-Ste. Marie seven years ago with her then-business partner Sarah Stewart. “I wanted to create products that didn’t harm the planet, and that wouldn’t create a lot of waste, ” said Rebecca. “I like the idea of soap because it goes away. It biodegrades.”
A year or so later they moved on to bath bombs and were selling at local craft fairs. Then customers started to ask for other products. Rebecca decided to move to Ottawa and fast-forward to a few years later, she’s running the business with two more employees, including her sister Carly. Purple Urchin has since expanded to create many other natural products, including liquid soaps, a facial product line, baby stuff, bath salts, lip balms, body butter and candles. Rebecca herself is a life-long vegetarian and animal lover and has a product line especially for dogs. The products themselves are vegetarian and do not use endangered plants like sandalwood as ingredients.
I asked Rebecca which product she thought I should try. “The extreme crème is probably one of our most popular products for a reason – it’s a really good product and there is absolutely nothing synthetic about it. The majority of customers like the fact that our products work and do what they are supposed to do.” I keep going back to how delicious the products smell, which is hard to capture in a blog post. With soap names like Vanilla Nut, Fickle Fennel, Turkish Fig, Rosemary Mint and Blackberry Ripple, you get the idea. They also have unscented products, including a goat’s milk soap (which my mom really likes).
Overall, Rebecca is really happy with the support that she’s gotten from the community. “Ottawa’s really focused on buying local things and supporting local business. It is also a big enough city that there’s enough of a market to support products like these.”
Can’t make it to the event at Flock Boutique on November 7? Purple Urchin Soap products can be found at the following locations: Their retail shop at 884 Somerset West., Terra20, Westboro Pharmasave, Herb and Spice Wellness Shop, Rainbow Foods, Natural Food Pantry, Rama Lotus, among others. Also please visit and shop online here.
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