Hi beauties! We want to introduce you to Soap on Skin, our newest contributor to The Truth Beauty Company journal. You can expect quarterly pieces from SOS this year on topics covering beauty (obviously), routines, products reviews and more! To learn more about how these 2 fabulous ladies started, keep on reading!
The SOAP ON SKIN beauty collective is the love child of Holly and Sofia, an idea that blossomed from a friendship that began at Ryerson University in Toronto while studying Fashion Communications.
SOS’s beauty philosophy is simple: create a place to bring together individuals with an interest in skincare and cosmetics, but who are in search of a cleaner perspective. We don’t try to be the typical “green” or “granola” beauty brand. We want SOS to appeal to a broad range of beauty enthusiasts – from the editorial lover, to the luxury brand junkie, to those who just can’t say no to some good looking packaging (because neither can we, PS).
In university, both of us would swap our favourite products before bar hopping and play hooky to wander through Sephora (Sorry mom!) With half our lives devoted to all things beauty, by 2017 we knew we needed to find some sort of platform to share our ideas, genuine thoughts, and love for products with a like-minded community.
Holly, aka our RBSD (Resident Beauty School Dropout), has loved beauty since her early days exploring her Gramma’s makeup drawer. As she grew old enough to experiment with makeup, she spent hours on YouTube learning from tutorials within the budding beauty community online. Her premature exit from hair school and move on to Ryerson was followed by a series of jobs in freelance beauty, fashion merchandising and cosmetic buying. These opportunities allowed her to develop her talent at creating and designing digital marketing visuals that would help launch SOS.
Growing up, Holly’s father advocated for a holistic approach to nutrition and medicine and often bugged her about what she was putting on her face – something that stuck in the back of her mind. In December 2016, Holly’s brother, Bennett, was diagnosed with GBM, an aggressive brain cancer that would take his life at the young age of 23. It was this experience that catapulted Holly to research the harmful ingredients found in all sorts of popular beauty, hair, and skincare products.
Sofia’s experience comes from years of working at a Yorkville boutique, where her advice to clients often goes beyond just clothes and shoes. Growing up in a family business that has dominated the fashion industry gives her a unique opportunity to meet and understand so many different kinds of people, their beauty ideals, and their time and money constraints.
She was always taught that grooming was essential and first impressions are everything. That motto stuck with her into adulthood where she quickly racked up *way* too many VIB points at Sephora and was always on the hunt for the newest beauty favourite to share or recommend to friends and clients.
After losing Bennett, we decided we weren’t being pro-active when it came to making conscious choices about what we put into and onto our skin.
SOS is about finding balance. It can be hard to find the time or effort to dive into a completely new beauty routine, which is why people often stick to what is familiar. Where we spend our hard earned money is important to us, which is why we don’t think you should throw something out just because it’s not a perfect fit.
SOS is about being aware of what you’re putting in your body and striving to find something cleaner moving forward. If we do our nails at home we will try a clean polish, but we will also indulge in a gel manicure from time to time. It’s really what works for you, as long as you make cleaner swaps here and there. We need daily green smoothies, and a beer on Friday night too! We’re hoping on making the effort in finding, trying, and sharing cleaner products with our audience can help girls like us make a quicker, cleaner decision.
Supporting smaller brands and businesses is important to SOS. With so many cosmetic giants snatching up independent beauty companies, the industry has become more and more homogenized – which often means less opportunity for authentic ingredients and formulas. Because of this, SOS is a massive supporter of The Truth Beauty Company. For a Guelph native and small business owner, it represents their very essence.
SOS plans to expand into reviewing products for men, collaborating with makeup artists and aestheticians, and building our community of followers. For now, you can find us on Instagram @soaponskin where our focus is on creating great content, reviewing products we're trying in real time, sharing clean beauty news, and raising awareness in small doses.
