Made In Chicago: Chicago Soap Company
(CBS) -- When you walk into Deb Kraemer's shop and factory at Grand and Racine in Chicago's West Town neighborhood, you're instantly greeted by a wonderful mix of aromas, reports WBBM's Regine Schlesinger.
For 15 years, artisan Deb Kraemer has been cooking up batch after batch of her Abbey Brown soaps, candles and now, a new line of solid perfumes. She started Chicago Soap Company after first taking up soap making as a hobby. She says it's a very competitive market.
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"I found a lot of soap out there. There's lot of soap. Great packaging and not-so-great soap inside. And then there's great soap with not-so-great packaging. And I thought I bet we can do this with ingredients that I really believe in."
Kraemer uses all natural products. Her soap making area looks and smells like a kitchen.
"It is a kitchen in here. It takes three weeks for soap to actually become soap. So, the first batch that we make here is going to be sitting in our molds for 48 hours. Then, we'll bump them out of the mold, we'll cut them into logs and then, a curing process takes place and that takes a couple of weeks for it to cure and turn into a nice, hard bar that'll last you."
She makes over 250 varieties for her own brand, Abbey Brown Soaps, and more for other companies.
One of her product lines is Chicago-themed.
"We have the Red Line, the Blue Line, the Green Line and we have In the Loop. So we have a number of wonderful soaps, if you're looking for a gift that says Chicago that was actually made in Chicago."
The Chicago Soap Company making Abbey Brown Soap and others brands at Grand and Racine in Chicago's West Town neighborhood.
For more information, visit www.abbeybrown.com.
