Tierra Soap Raises The Bar

For some, a bar of soap is a common household item that helps them get their body clean. For Tierra Soap Co., a bar of soap has become a fusion of art, wellness, and culture as well as a way to connect to earth, nature, and community. 

Founded in 2021 by the husband-and-wife team of Richard Ramos and Addy Reyes Ramos, the Hamden-based company has grown by leaps and bounds, from a hobby born during the 2020 Covid lockdown into a multidimensional and multifaceted provider of a variety of wellness products created with natural ingredients, and all with an eye on the greater good of New Haven County and beyond. Ramos, a math professor, and Reyes Ramos, an accountant, run the business from their home before and after their regular work hours while also raising two children. It can be considered a labor of love, but a love that extends to family, friends, and the earth itself, rooted in the couple’s work ethic and artistic leanings.

Reyes Ramos described her husband Richard as someone who as a child was ​“constantly coming up with ideas and things to do.” He came up with the formulas they are still using for their soaps.

As far as her own childhood, she ​“always had that line of taking care of the environment, taking care of your body,” she said, while being raised vegan and by a mother and a father who ​“both in the spiritual aspect and the whole-body aspect was conscious about the foods we ate at home and the products we used.”

The couple, who identify as Afro-Latino, also both had grandmothers who were herbalists and were told many stories over the years of how their own handmade goods ​“helped bring healing and wellness to others.”

The couple are both naturally inclined towards the arts. Both sing and make art, with Ramos also being a self-taught musician who plays at least six instruments and Reyes Ramos continuing to foster a love of photography since her Betsy Ross Magnet School days. The lockdown in 2020 led to both of them leaning into their artistic talents when they found themselves home more, and with more time on their hands.

“We started doing things that we just enjoy and doing things that we consume,” she said, which included Reyes Ramos starting a ​“massive” backyard garden as well as a blog, and Ramos making things like kombucha. But it was a trip to the Dominican Republic that planted the seed for this current business.

After Ramos’s father passed away, he traveled back to the land of his birth and connected with a sister he had never met who made her own soap. According to Reyes Ramos this ​“lights up a bulb in his mind.” He began researching different ways he could make his own version of homemade soap, watching videos and downloading books to figure out the method he would like best.

Once a blender and other supplies were purchased, Ramos began trying to make soap through what is known as the cold press method. As he started experimenting, he came up with three soaps: charcoal, turmeric oat milk and honey, and olive and rosemary. Reyes Ramos became more involved as the soaps evolved. Her husband began asking her for ideas as their family began using them and other people becoming interested in what they were doing. She thought they should start ​“seasoning this up a little.”

“We’re going to have to create more variety,” she told him. ​“We have to make it look more appealing. We’re going to have to take advantage of [the fact that a] soap bar can literally hold almost anything, so I added that artful beauty.”

Reyes Ramos began playing with color, flower petals, slices of fruit and the peels, also putting the emphasis on ​“making the soap have a purpose and a meaning” beyond being an item used to clean oneself. 

“I believe that people nowadays, we are buying things that make us feel connected to something, something that reminds us of places and things, so even the names that we give the soaps I want them to have meaning I want you to feel a connection somehow.” 

For example, one of the bars from the Spring 2022 collection was called A New Day, and Reyes Ramos said it is associated with what the season means to her. 

“It means a new beginning of life,” she said. It incorporates the scent of Japanese cherry blossoms, which, she added, is one of the first blossoms to bloom during spring. 

The company made a meaning behind each bar and all of their launches. Soaps like Punta Cana — ​“a beautiful tropical soap but it gives us a connection to our heritage” and Summer in Oak Bluffs — ​“a very summery soap with lots of ground salt inside,” named after one of her favorite vacation spots — reiterate the company’s commitment to connection. Same with the fall collection, when Reyes Ramos named each bar after a song — ​“November Rain,” ​“Autumn in NY,” ​“Stormy Weather” — to create ​“an emotional connection” to what people are using, and so much more. 

“There’s a understanding that it’s also a zero waste product,” she said. ​“Not only are you using something that’s good for your body, you’re using something that as it washed off your body and goes into this ecosystem that we all participate in its also not harming the environment.”

Their Spring 2023 collection launched last week on their website and includes such scents as Cranes in the Sky (made with orange and clove essentials oils) and Flawed and Beautiful (made with grapefruit, geranium, and Himalayan pink salt).

All ingredients used in the company’s products are, for the most part, homegrown or locally sourced. Oatmeal, which they use a lot of, and their botanicals such as jasmine are purchased at Edge of the Woods, where Reyes Ramos and her family have been shopping since she was four years old. Lavender comes from a farm in Killingworth and apples from places like Bishop’s and Lyman’s Orchards. 

“I bought my pumpkins from out there last fall,” she said. ​“We made a soap called Grandma’s pumpkin pie with it, so again back to the connecting emotions and culture to something as simple as a soap bar.”

After the soaps became a hit with family and friends, Tierra Soap Co. — named so because Tierra means ​“of the Earth” — officially came to fruition in September 2021 with the launch of the soap line’s website. 

The first local store to sell Tierra Soap was Westville General. Another Westville store, Vintanthromodern, was one of the company’s first custom wholesale orders, which is another facet of the company that has grown over the past two years. Recently the company co-designed two custom bars of soap with Tea Montgomery of Threads by Tea, also based in Westville.

Other New Haven shops that carry the company’s products include Bloom, Possible Futures, and Cultured Café. They have also branched out to Hamden (the Barn Boutique), Amity (The Write Approach), Westport (a monthly pop up at West Elm), and soon will be in North Haven at Your CBD Store. They even have products being sold out of state, in South Carolina and Texas.

“A big part of our business now is were focusing on the customization, the gifting, and the event component,” said Reyes Ramos. ​“There’s a big industry of event planning and design, which I absolutely love.” She also loves the idea of a favor or gift being ​“something that can be used.” 

“I’m a very practical person,” she added, working closely with those interested to create a product for them that suits their theme and needs, whether it’s soaps, balms, bath bombs, or botanical bath salts. 

“People don’t understand how beneficial it is to take baths every now and then with certain things, whether its herbal or salts,” said Reyes Ramos. ​“Our body is made out of these components, so it needs these types of minerals, and when we bathe in these things, the healing takes place.” 

Vintanthromodern sells a Tierra bath bomb made exclusively for the shop, a jojoba oil-infused citrus bomb called Smells Like Vintanthro. It’s part of a custom designed line that included a soap bar and a mineral and botanical bath soak, as well as a custom French Riviera balm. 

The company also makes holiday gift sets and has sold many at the CitySeed market at Edgewood Park, an organization that holds a special place in their hearts.

“CitySeed gave us so much exposure and I am forever grateful,” said Reyes Ramos. ​“It was our first farmers market … our first at-large vending opportunity.”

She shouted out Courtney Renton of CitySeed and spoke of the fostering of community that has helped the business grow, prosper, and create meaningful connections. 

“CitySeed opened up so many connections and relationships and I think that’s the part I love the most honestly about what we do,” she said.

She spoke of how much she can’t wait for the opening day to see the many vendors and shoppers who have now become friends. ​“We’ve been able to meet amazing people through CitySeed, and it’s very in line with our philosophy,” she added. 

She is also ​“so grateful for my church community” — at Mount Zion Seventh Day Adventists — ​“my friends, and my family because they make it all happen,” said Reyes Ramos. ​“With us having our careers and our two children, there is no way we would have been able to do anything had we not had our community and the embrace we’ve gotten from strangers that are now friends.”

And giving back to that community and the rest of the world is of the utmost importance. ​“I would not pick any other place to live,” she said. ​“New Haven County is it.”

“The fact that we have been able to connect with other local community makers and other local entrepreneurs is huge for us,” she said. ​“It’s huge for our business and it gives us a lot of meaning too. The being able to connect with designers, creators, participate in art fairs … it’s taken off. 

“We are very spiritual in thought. Everybody has their own life’s higher power, and for us, it’s God,” she continued. ​“We don’t know how long we’re going to be doing this thing for, but I believe he has a plan, and he’s using soap as a medium.”

Reyes Ramos noted that over 25 percent of their sales are designated to giving back, not just to the local community, but to the world beyond it. ​“I know it sounds crazy, but there are so many people who just don’t have soap,” she said. They have partnered with global organizations to give free soap to other countries and are ​“creating connections” with veteran organizations and shelters in the local community to provide free soap because, according to Reyes Ramos, ​“a lot of illnesses are associated to a lack of hygiene.” She cited articles about how the lack of handwashing soap puts millions at increased risks, mentioning how the company hopes to one day create a foundation that provides free soap to those who need it.

“That’s another component to this brand: we want to be able to save lives, whether it’s through funds or providing the actual product for people,” she said.

What would Reyes Ramos tell someone who was questioning why they should try an all-natural handmade soap?

“Tierra Soap is a multifaceted brand where we connect art, wellness, and culture and we try to incorporate those three things into a product,” she said. ​“Our coffee we purchase from a local coffee shop in East Haven called One World, so it’s like there’s that cultural connection, and they themselves outsource this coffee from Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Colombia, so there’s that cultural component. You’re going to experience something that contains history of some sort.”

“There’s the art component, of someone who took their time to make these sculptural designs of this bar by hand, added these petals, these dried flowers, and then there’s the wellness factor that this is something that will enrich you in every way,” she continued. ​“You have the opportunity to experience art, wellness, and culture in one bar and in all of our products.”

New products are always in the works. A room and linen spray is now available and a massage candle will make its official debut on the website in the weeks ahead. Gifts set for Mother’s Day will also be available soon and the company is also getting ready to launch a men’s line of products. Add to that the spring launch of their new line, the ongoing custom orders, and the events they have planned — including a Little Mermaid-themed event and collaboration with Possible Futures Books and Little Feet’s Opus on May 7 — and it becomes obvious that Tierra Soaps and the Ramos family are ready for anything.

“I don’t want to miss anything that was supposed to happen in my life because of fear,” said Reyes Ramos. ​“If it was meant, if God allowed it to come to us, I don’t want to miss it. I don’t want to miss the business. I don’t want to miss the people that I’m going to meet. I don’t want to miss the opportunities I’m going to have. I don’t want to miss the chance to impact someone.”

“I don’t want to miss my shot at whatever it is. Today it’s Tierra Soap. Tomorrow, who knows what it’s going to be? but I’m so anxious to see it happen.”

Tierra Soap Co. products are available at the stores listed above as well as via their website. More information about their launches, events, and other projects can be found via their Instagram page.