Dreams bubbling into real business

If you walk past The Little Soap Shop on 36th Street, just off Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria, on a weekday, you will notice that it is closed - but behind those closed doors a passion is bubbling away.
For the past year, 28-year-old Vivian Dritsas has been in this 200-square-foot lavender-colored space nearly every evening, making soap that she sells to customers on weekends, when the store is open. On weekdays, during regular business hours, Dritsas is at her job at Citibank, in Manhattan. But now, a year later, she’s ready to turn her soap-making venture into a full-time endeavor.
To make her soap, Dritsas uses a method known as cold process. First, she heats oil, after which she stirs in water and sodium hydroxide, also known as Lye, a substance which makes it possible for water and oil, the two main soap ingredients, to mix. When this blend thickens to a trace, she adds botanical oils or herbs. Then she pours all this into a wooden mold and covers it for 24 hours so it can be hard enough to cut into bars.
“It’s like baking,” Dritsas said. “I love crushing the herbs. I love mixing essential oils. I love making new soaps.”
She originally intended to sell most of these soaps online. But she was too busy with her day job to be on top of advertising and to attract traffic to her soap web site, so her online sales account for about 20 percent of revenue. The bulk of her sales, which also include bath salts and bath teas, come from walk-in customers.
In the coming months, however, Dritsas plans to quit her job at Citibank, where she does administrative and legal work, so she can keep the store open every day.
“The economy is difficult and it’s very scary what I’m doing, but everything is a risk - if I don’t take the risk it could be the biggest regret of my life,” Dritsas said.
“I gave my store one year to be open and I said to myself, ‘It works,’” she explained. Relying only on word of mouth, rather than advertising, the business has been yielding a small profit, Dritsas said.
It worked out because expenses such as rent and electricity have been low due to the size and location of the shop, explained Dritsas’ brother, Chris Dritsas, who is a partner in the business.
He also gave Dritsas the money to open the shop. “I felt taking this type of chance would pay off,” he explained.
The business is getting serious now, but it started as a hobby. Dritsas always loved making natural products with her own hands. As a teenager she used to prepare mayonnaise facial paste and sugar face scrubs. About two years ago, she discovered that she enjoys making soap, so she took a soap-making class and started making soap, giving it away to friends and family.
“People started coming to me and saying, ‘This stuff is really good, why don’t you start selling it?’”
That she did. Now she dreams of expanding the shop in a couple of years by adding more space to her current location.