The Wild Botanica
PA, United States
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Our Story
"Self-care never felt so selfless."
Who we are: A local, woman-owned, small, soapmaking business called The Wild Botanica.
What we make: Artisan soap inspired by the flora, fauna, and wild folks of the Pennsylvania Wilds. We use sustainably sourced plant-based oils and butters, natural colorants like activated charcoal and clays from the earth, and scent our soaps with essential oils and fragrant oil blends.
Where we’re located: Our small-batch, cold-process, rustic soaps are handcrafted in the rolling foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, in the quaint, rural town of Brockway, Pennsylvania. We directly sell our products on our website, on Etsy, and on the Pa Wilds Marketplace. Additionally, we sell our products at various vetted, local retailers and businesses that align with our mission and values. Our list of stockist locations is growing throughout the PA Wilds, and we would love the pleasure of adding you to it! Contact us for consignment or wholesale.
What we want: Since its inception, The Wild Botanica’s mission has been to inspire people to connect to nature through self-care and conservation in a way that ritualizes the cleansing experience with soap and bath products handmade with natural and sustainable ingredients sourced from local and global communities.
Read more about The Wild Botanica and our original “Oh Deer” soap series in our first blog post. Check out our mission statement, core values, and learn more about our founder, Rebecca Patton on our about page.
Our Mission:
Our Mission is to inspire people to connect to nature through self-care and conservation.
Our Motto is self-care never felt so selfless.
Our Philosophy is that if you take care of nature, it will take care of you.
Our Promise is to always try to do better for our customers and for our environment.
Our Core Values:
Our handmade bath products provide cleansing utility.
Our handmade bath products provide a ritualized connection to nature.
Our handmade bath products support the conservation of nature.
Our Founder:
Meet the Wild Botanica’s founder, Rebecca. She’s a nature-lover, soapmaker, and an entrepreneur. She has an educational background in film, writing, and teaching. She’s also a mother and wife. Her truest identity and duty is tied to creating, educating, and supporting her family while enjoying rural life in Pennsylvania. Rebecca takes pleasure in ritualizing the little everyday life experiences like taking a bath with her handcrafted soaps, picking seasonal berries for pies, sitting on her front porch with a cup of coffee, and listening to the birds sing. Enjoying these small things and more enable her to feel intrinsically connected to and in alignment with the veneration of nature.
Connect With The Wild Botanica: Follow us @shopthewildbotanica on Instagram & @thewildbotanica on Facebook and everywhere else! Engage with The Wild Botanica and share how you connect to and conserve nature in the PA Wilds and beyond by using hashtags #TheWildBotanica, #CleanseConnectConserve, #SelfCareNeverFeltSoSelfless, & #HandmadeSoapForYourWholeHerd and tagging us to be featured! Read more... Read less
What we make: Artisan soap inspired by the flora, fauna, and wild folks of the Pennsylvania Wilds. We use sustainably sourced plant-based oils and butters, natural colorants like activated charcoal and clays from the earth, and scent our soaps with essential oils and fragrant oil blends.
Where we’re located: Our small-batch, cold-process, rustic soaps are handcrafted in the rolling foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, in the quaint, rural town of Brockway, Pennsylvania. We directly sell our products on our website, on Etsy, and on the Pa Wilds Marketplace. Additionally, we sell our products at various vetted, local retailers and businesses that align with our mission and values. Our list of stockist locations is growing throughout the PA Wilds, and we would love the pleasure of adding you to it! Contact us for consignment or wholesale.
What we want: Since its inception, The Wild Botanica’s mission has been to inspire people to connect to nature through self-care and conservation in a way that ritualizes the cleansing experience with soap and bath products handmade with natural and sustainable ingredients sourced from local and global communities.
Read more about The Wild Botanica and our original “Oh Deer” soap series in our first blog post. Check out our mission statement, core values, and learn more about our founder, Rebecca Patton on our about page.
Our Mission:
Our Mission is to inspire people to connect to nature through self-care and conservation.
Our Motto is self-care never felt so selfless.
Our Philosophy is that if you take care of nature, it will take care of you.
Our Promise is to always try to do better for our customers and for our environment.
Our Core Values:
Our handmade bath products provide cleansing utility.
Our handmade bath products provide a ritualized connection to nature.
Our handmade bath products support the conservation of nature.
Our Founder:
Meet the Wild Botanica’s founder, Rebecca. She’s a nature-lover, soapmaker, and an entrepreneur. She has an educational background in film, writing, and teaching. She’s also a mother and wife. Her truest identity and duty is tied to creating, educating, and supporting her family while enjoying rural life in Pennsylvania. Rebecca takes pleasure in ritualizing the little everyday life experiences like taking a bath with her handcrafted soaps, picking seasonal berries for pies, sitting on her front porch with a cup of coffee, and listening to the birds sing. Enjoying these small things and more enable her to feel intrinsically connected to and in alignment with the veneration of nature.
Connect With The Wild Botanica: Follow us @shopthewildbotanica on Instagram & @thewildbotanica on Facebook and everywhere else! Engage with The Wild Botanica and share how you connect to and conserve nature in the PA Wilds and beyond by using hashtags #TheWildBotanica, #CleanseConnectConserve, #SelfCareNeverFeltSoSelfless, & #HandmadeSoapForYourWholeHerd and tagging us to be featured! Read more... Read less
Policies & Help
Contact
Shipping Policy
PRODUCT LOST OR DAMAGED IN SHIPMENT:
If a product goes missing, is lost and doesn’t arrive, or arrives damaged from shipment, please first contact the USPS to file a domestic claim immediately. Then, you should also send us an email at shop@thewildbotanica.com and write “Product Missing/Lost/Damaged In Shipment” in the subject line to keep us in the loop. Please attach photos of the damaged product if applicable and a brief note describing the situation. After we have a chance to review your concerns and verify the domestic claim on file with the USPS, we will respond. However, USPS Accounting Services reserves the right to determine whether to pay a claim in full or in part, or to deny a claim. You must file a claim no later than 60 days after the mailing date per USPS website.
EXCHANGES (IF APPLICABLE):
We ONLY replace products if they are defective or damaged due to OUR error. If you need to exchange it for the same item, send us an email at shop@thewildbotanica.com and in the subject line write “Exchange Defective Product.” Please attach photos of the defective item and a brief description of your concerns to convey that we were at fault. You may need to return the product to us, at your expense, or we may agree to ship you a replacement product free of charge. We will notify you with directions on how to proceed. Requests for exchanges, due to our error, must be made within 30 days of purchase.
RETURN SHIPPING OF DAMAGED GOODS/EXCHANGES:
If you receive approval and directions from us to return a product, you can proceed to mail your product to: The Wild Botanica, 72 Lundblad Drive, Brockway, PA 15824, United States. Once we receive and inspect your returned item, we will send you an email to verify that we have received the defective product and whether we can issue an exchange or not. Shipping costs will be the customer’s responsibility unless otherwise stated. Shipping costs are non-refundable.
The time it takes for an exchanged product to arrive depends on many factors including: in-stock availability, processing and production time, where you live, shipment delays regarding weather, and USPS factors including but not limited to weather, COVID-19 impact, and/or supply-chain issues.
If you are exchanging defective or damaged products due to our error that total $50 or more, please consider purchasing insurance and using trackable shipping services. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that we will receive your returned items for an exchange. It’s worth it to have insurance in place for peace of mind.
ONLINE ORDER PROCESSING & SHIPPING:
Please allow 2-3 business days for processing online orders. This excludes weekends and/or major US holidays. We currently only offer domestic shipping at this time. USPS Priority Mail® service includes tracking and delivery in 1-3 business days.
SHIPPING COSTS:
Our current (as of 1/01/2023) USPS Priority Mail Flat Rates:
- Small flat rate box: 1-3 4.5-5oz soaps for $9.00* **
- Medium flat rate box: 4-48 4.5-5oz soaps for $15.00* **
- Large flat rate box: 49+ 4.5-5oz soaps for $19.95* **
*Packages up to 70 lbs.
*The customer will pay any potential surprise shipping fees or expenses incurred, such as duties and taxes.
LOCAL PICKUP:
Local pickup is unavailible at this time.LOCAL DELIVERY COVERAGE:
At this time, we only offer local delivery to wholesale and consignment customers within a 60 minute/1 hr radius of our location. Delivery fees are variable and charged at our discretion.
CANCELLATIONS:
In the occurance that an online customer is in need of an order edit or order cancellation, The Wild Botanica must be contacted within 24 hours after the order is placed AND before we pack and ship the order. We are happy to help with order modifications.
POTENTIAL SERVICE INTERUPTIONS AND/OR DELAYS:
Orders may take longer to arrive due to variables outside of our control. We will review situations case-by-case and will do our best to satisfy our customers.
This policy is subject to change without notice.
Please view the most updated policy at www.thewildbotanica.com.
Refund Policy
RETURNS:
At this time, all sales are final. Due to the nature of personal care products like soap or other bath products, The Wild Botanica cannot accept returns or issue refunds of opened OR unopened items for hygienic reasons.
This policy is subject to change without notice.
Please view the most updated policy at www.thewildbotanica.com.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
General FAQ
Why are your soaps wrapped?
We wrap our soaps to protect our soaps and to ensure cleanliness while they are sitting on shelves in our studio and at our stockist locations. Often our amazing smelling soaps are picked up and handled frequently by customers who want to have a closer sniff. We dream about the day when we can open our own shop and offer “naked” soaps to our clientele!
Is your soap wrapped in single-use plastic?
We are excited to share that we utilize a custom-formulated oxo-biodegradeable polyolefin shrink wrap on our products that is both biodegradeable and recyclable. It is approved safe by the FDA for food use and more. It protects our soaps and allows for scents to pass through the film. Per our supplier, “the process of bio-degradation begins approximately 18 months after application, but the process does not kick into high gear until the film is exposed to the light, wind, heat and moisture, like the conditions found in a landfill.” You can read more about Wells Plastics Reverte Technology here.
Your soap is too pretty to use! Does it expire?
First of all, use the soap!! We can always make more! We recommend using our products within 6 months of purchase for the best results. Although color and fragrances may begin to fade after awhile, soap never really expires. It will always retain its cleansing property. Some soaps are actually better the longer they sit, like castile soap that is made out of 100% olive oil for example, it takes 6 months to a year for its cure time! And it’s well worth the wait.
Do you create custom orders?
Absolutely! Please contact us for options and pricing for your special project.
Do you do consignment and wholesale orders?
Yes, please contact us for more details.
Directions & Usage FAQ
How long does a bar of your soap last?
While we intentionally formulated a hard bar of soap by using coconut oil and shea butter, which are both solid at room temperature, and contribute to the overall hardness of our soap, there are still several user and environmental factors that contribute to how long your bar will last. Firstly, it depends on how often you shower or bathe. Do you shower twice a day or twice a week? If you are using the bar individually versus sharing your bar with your family you may see it dwindle faster. Whether you work lather directly onto your skin, a washcloth, or a loofah to cleanse yourself contributes to how long it will last. Using a washcloth or loofah will help it last longer and will produce more bubbles. Finally, do you have hard or soft water? Soap will lather better in soft water than in hard water. You may notice a slippery feeling when rinsing off with soft water, and you may find that you need more soap if you have hard water. The single most important factor, however, might be keeping the soap dry between uses. By keeping the bar out of the shower’s water range, out of pooled water, and by using a soap dish or soap saver, you will ensure longevity. On average, most of our customers say a bar of The Wild Botanica soap will last them around a month.
Ingredients FAQ
What’s “Sodium Hydroxide”?
Sodium Hydroxide or NaOH is the INCI listed ingredient for caustic soda or what is commonly referred to as “lye.” It is a caustic base and alkali used in soapmaking (read more below). Other common uses include: as a drain cleaner to unclog pipes, for making textiles, in the paper industry, in water treatment for pH regulation, and to make bagels and pretzels.
Is there lye in your soap?
All true soap uses sodium hydroxide or lye as an ingredient in the soapmaking process. We carefully calculate the correct percentage of sodium hydroxide to use in our unique soap formulas. During the saponification process the lye is “used up” during a chemical reaction that turns those special oils and butters in our formula into a hard bar of soap. Another way to understand using lye in saponification is to think about the act of baking a cake. You may use raw eggs as an ingredient when you are mixing your cake batter together, but raw eggs are not present in the finished, baked cake. Like so, there should not be any remaining lye after saponification takes place in a finished bar of cured soap. Soap made properly with lye is 100% completely skin-safe to use!
Are your products vegan?
Yes! Our handcrafted soaps are made with plant-based oils and butters exclusively. We never use animal fats like lard or tallow to make our soap. This means that almost all of our soaps are vegan-friendly. In the instance that we use non-vegan-friendly ingredients, such as milk or honey for example, we will note it in the product description and clearly list it in our ingredients on the label of that soap.
Are your products palm-free?
Yes, we are and will always be palm-free since our product relaunch in August 2022! Full transparency, we initially used RSPO certified sustainable palm oil in our first few batches of the “Oh Deer” series of artisan soap. Palm oil is a non-GMO product. It is vegan, lactose free, glutan free, glutamate free, BSE free, has no preservatives, and contains no hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils, but there’s still an elephant in the room we felt we needed to address. You can read more about our journey on going palm-free in our blog post here: Palm-Free: Like It Was Meant To Be.
Shipping FAQ
Do you ship internationally?
No, we do not ship internationally. This may change in the future, however. We only ship domestically within the USA at this time.
Do you accept returns or refunds?
No, we do not. All sales are final. Due to the nature of personal care products like soap or other bath products, The Wild Botanica cannot accept returns or refunds of opened OR unopened items for hygienic reasons. Please read our Return Policy before placing an order.
Add a donation to your shopping cart during checkout and make a difference at PA Wilds State Parks and Forests. 100% of the proceeds will help the PA Parks and Forests Foundation fund special projects in the state parks and forests in the Pennsylvania Wilds!
Add a donation to your shopping cart during checkout and make a difference at PA Wilds State Parks and Forests. 100% of the proceeds will help the PA Parks and Forests Foundation fund special projects in the state parks and forests in the Pennsylvania Wilds!