EP151. The history of slavery in soapmaking

If you've been following this podcast for a while, then you'll know that I love delving into the history of the beauty industry. After all, you can only shape where you're going when you know where you've come from. So when I recently received an email from Candace Parish asking me if I was interested in covering the history of slavery and soap making, I jumped at the opportunity. You, like me at the time, might currently be thinking, oh my goodness, slavery and soap making. I had no idea. So I jumped on a call with Candace and she started to tell me all about the dirty history of soap. And I knew that I had to share this information with you too. We can only make the beauty industry better if we learn from our choices and our mistakes in the past. The fact that no one actually really knows all that much about the history of slavery and soap making means that our beauty history books have effectively been whitewashed. It means that when we use or make soaps, we don't necessarily give credit to those soap makers on the plantations in the US who were treated barbarically, but sometimes also created opportunities for themselves by learning such important skills. It's a complex history and it's important that we tell it. And that's why today I'm delighted that I'm joined by Candace Parish, who's going to tell us exactly how she is honoring the African American slaves who contributed to the foundations of modern soap making through her activism and through her beauty brand. Settle in for an enlightening episode that will make you look at your bar of soap a very different way. Welcome to Green Beauty Conversations, the podcast that challenges you to think about how you buy, use, make or sell your green beauty formulations. In my weekly episodes, I explore the sustainability of the beauty industry and encourage you to join me in changing the industry for the better. I'm your host, Lorraine Dallmeier. I'm a chartered environmentalist, biologist and the CEO of award winning online organic cosmetic formulation school Formula Botanica. We have thousands and thousands of students in over 180 countries around the world who study with us to become organic beauty formulators and entrepreneurs. Visit our website@formulabotanica.com to try our free online formulation course. And if you want to be the first person to know what's happening in green beauty, make sure you subscribe to this podcast in your favorite podcast app. So in today's episode I'm joined by Dr. Candice Parrish, the founder and creator of Odelia Marie and Patrice. Candice received an interdisciplinary PhD related to the areas of PR, health communication and visual communication and is currently an assistant professor at Penn State University in the US after being recognized internationally as well as nationally for her research, she decided to apply her love for design and artistry with her research in health communication to make vegan, small batch, environmentally friendly and luxury self care products. In 2020, Odelia, Marie and Patrice received a grant from Beyonce and the national association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil rights organization in the US to continue to fund the launch of her brand. Through Odelia, Marie and Patrice, Candice also helps to give back to minority community activists and social movements such as prison reform. She's been featured in Forbes related to all of these efforts. Hi Candice, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today?

Woo. So excited to be here with you, Lorraine.

Me too. I am thrilled that you're here.

Thank you. Green Beauty, always a good thing.

I'm really looking forward to this conversation, it's so important. But before we dive into this, can you please start by introducing your brand to us all?

Absolutely. So I am Dr. Candice Parish of Odelia Marie and Patrisse and we are a vegan, sustainable and small business black woman owned company that is working towards creating really decadent beauty products, but with a extra emphasis on sustainability and activism.

Well, there's a lot to unpick there. So let's talk a little bit about this platform of activism that you founded Adelia Marie and Patrice on.

Why?

Why have you done that? What is your big dream and what would you like to achieve with your brand through this activism?

You know, I think from childhood there's always been a thing about me with finding a problem and then sort of like creating a solution which usually comes in the form of sticking up for people. And maybe that's something that's been within me from young and you know how it is where we all have a tether back to childhood. So I think one of the things for me when I created this company which pays homage to my grandmother whose middle name is Odelia, my mother whose middle name is Marie, and mine Patrice. I think one of the things that I think about my family is that we always do things for our surrounding community. And so I knew that in creating this company I needed it to be a reflection, just not just like physical community, but also community of women of race nationally and internationally. And I needed to find an avenue of things that I'm interested in so that I could use this company to not only just we don't need just another beauty brand, right? We have tons. If that was the case, then I could stop today. So I feel like if I'm going to have this company, then it needs to be mission driven.

I love it. Well, let's talk about your mission. What is your big mission with your brand?

Our biggest mission is sustainability, and that focuses on different things that plague minority communities. Obviously, there's a tether with sustainability and what minority communities experience nationally because we often feel the effects of global warming first. But then there's also a tether that seeks to uncover the history. Right. Of what African Americans and Africans and black people, Caribbean people, internationally have contributed to the beauty industry. And since I make soap and candles, that was one of the biggest focuses that I had thus far.

Yeah, it's amazing. And what's interesting is actually after I first spoke to you, I got out all my history books to try and uncover that history that we're going to talk about in this podcast today. And you were right. I couldn't find it referenced anywhere. It's just like, it's just not there. So you're shining this light on and you're paying tribute to African American community, in particular the slaves who contributed to the foundations of modern soap making. So before we learn about their story that no one seems to really know about, can you tell me more about why you feel so passionate about telling this forgotten history?

Absolutely. So my family in particular has a background in what we call today the self care industry. My grandfather started a barbershop and it's still standing today, Midway Barbershop in Fayetteville, North Carolina. So I grew up in and out of those spaces. My grandmother sewed Avon. And then when I started making soap, I was told by my mom and my uncles and my great aunt that my great grandmother made soap. And, and that was so fascinating to me, like things that I never even knew. And then it just got me thinking, like, how far back have we been creating soap? And why is it that these recipes and these foundations haven't been highlighted? So I think for me it feels kind of like a mission to go back and highlight all of the people who created the foundation for this work so that we can get our due justice as a community. You know, all of the people who are leading in soap making, or a lot of the soap makers, at least in the US that are highlighted are white or white owned companies. And so that doesn't seem to be, you know, balanced.

Yeah, I understand. Well, tell me a bit more about this, this history that we don't know about. I mean, obviously you're paying tribute to African American slaves who were sopers. What used to happen? How was soap traditionally made?

Absolutely. So we know that the origins of soap as life stems from the continent of Africa. We know that the origins of. Of soap go back to Africa. And one of the places that we can kind of pinpoint soap to. And there's all sorts of other, you know, regions and things that have their history of soap. But Africa specifically, we know that the Yoruba communities were creating soap, and that's what today is known as African black soap. And so African black soap was kind of a tradition that was passed down by Yoruba women. And they were believed to have traded soap to different parts of Africa, like to Ghana, because the Yoruba community is in Nigeria. So they believe to pass these along through bartering, like, through pepper. Bartering. Pepper and things like that. And so what's not known is how the recipes, like, if they traveled with slaves as they were captured, brutalized, and brought to the US in different parts of the Caribbean and South America and parts of Europe, as well as, um, that kind of is like the question mark. But we do know that, although it's not really highlighted, soap making and candle making were two big portions of slave duties and tasks in the U.S. what.

Records, if any, did we have of this period, and what do they tell us?

So one of the few kind of like, interviews was from the Encyclopedia of Virginia. They interviewed a woman who was A Virginia resident, Ms. Virginia Gibbs, and she was a former slave. She said that they made soap for the task of laundry via oak ash, and they used it to form the process of soaponification. They used it along with. And the exact lard is not really noted, but it is believed that they use, like, pig lard or something like that along with the oak ashes and mix them in a washing barrel to create the process of soap so that they could also use that for laundry. And then I'm assuming that they also use that for sale and profit in different spaces and plantations.

So why was soap made on the plantations? Why were slaves being asked to make soap?

I'm assuming that it was a part of the labor. Well, the foundation of the US Is slave labor. Right. The capitalist structure in society was built on the backs of African Americans who were captured and brutalized. So their process of creating different resources, like cotton and sugar, soap and candles, which are lesser known, was a part of fueling the economy and helping white people make money in the United States.

Gosh, it seems so far removed, and yet it really isn't that long ago. At one point you mentioned to me that when we first met was that soap making also offered opportunities to slaves, which obviously seems counterintuitive. But can you please explain more to me about what you mean?

Right, absolutely. So one idea or one record is that being an artisan, including knowing how to make soap, also being a blacksmith, knowing how to, you know, make leather, cure leather, you know, different things like that allowed people, allowed African Americans to create a, the first kind of middle class in the US because when slavery was abolished, over time the people who had the skills learned how to generate other revenue and they can start other businesses. And so that kind of artisan skill set of making soap allow people to then make sort of like their first business to support their family outside of slavery life and plantation life.

Yeah, well, I mean, it's commendable obviously that you're shining this spotlight on this forgotten story of forgotten history effectively. And I'd love to ask you why you think no one else is sharing this story of these African American sopers during this period of slavery. Because I've done my homework and there is just hardly any information out there. It's almost as if it's been sort of erased from the history records. Why?

Well, you know, I have my speculations, it's still a big question mark. But I think like a lot of things in the history of the US it doesn't profit the agenda of white supremacy to highlight all of the things that black people did. Instead, it makes sense in that structure, in that racist capitalist structure to say, okay, you're free now, whatever, we'll take your recipes, we will use it to profit. If we can't use you to profit, then we'll shut you out of the true profits and we'll make our own companies and we'll sell it back to you. Just like farming. So many things about African American history have been lost in the US So to shut black people out, marginalize them, and keep them hooked on a system that also directly oppresses them. So most people's great grandmother or grandmother probably made soap, but they would have no clue about it. And it doesn't. I think in the US a lot of people, a lot of large corporations don't want to empower people because they want to keep them hooked so that they can gain all of the profits. But you don't want to empower people to grow their own food. You don't want to empower people to make their own soap, to learn how to live outside of your structure. Because Then you don't have that supreme control.

Oh, yeah. I could not agree more. That's exactly why the mainstream beauty industry doesn't like what we do at Foreigner Botanica either.

And I had to learn that as well. I'm like, oh, you know, pitching to different companies and I'm like, meeting all these people in the industry. And then it clicked to me, like, a few months ago. They do not like what you do. That's why you don't get traction. They don't want to see anything that's not lab made. No. No shade to anything that's lab made. But they don't want that type of structure. If you fit in line with their structure, you know, using all of the harsh chemicals and the lab made and all that stuff, then you can probably succeed in the mainstream media.

Gosh, it's fascinating. Not to divert us too much, but I once had a fancy dinner with this cosmetic chemistry society and I was sat at this table with all these chemists, and one of them said, what do you do? And I explained that we teach people how to formulate online. And this woman, I mean, she just collapsed into fits of laughter going, I've heard about these people. They have tubs of shea butter in their kitchen. And I've sat there going, how dare you disrespect these formulators? And it's exactly what you've just been talking about. Right, so what parallels do you feel we can draw from the experiences of African American soap makers during this period of slavery and the modern beauty industry?

It's pretty much the same. There have been a lot of progressions after we experienced the revolutions that came after with Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and so many others. In 2020, when we had the global pandemic, we were forced to sit down and then we were forced to see it. So. Because obviously it had been going on internationally. But I think with those came a reckoning and an awakening of people saying, wow, it really is happening. And they wanted to start to uplift different communities. But I think right now we've hit a period where there's kind of a diversity fatigue. And so all of those efforts to continue, and there's economic stuff going on as well, but all of those efforts to continue to lift up and promote black people and other brown people at the forefront are kind of waning. But with that comes the unfortunate circumstance that we don't get to claim our history, to rise up in cells to support ourselves from the history that we've paved the way for in the US and then we just get outshined again and then we go back to modern slave labor of lower workforces that also fuel the US and international economies.

Gosh, yeah, there's a lot to unpick here. I'd ask the question, you know, how do you feel that we can continue to honor the legacy of African American soap makers one of the ways?

Well, there's a lot of like, things that need to go on, you know, because a lot of the stuff that we can think of off top is kind of like a band aid when we really need to. You know, when you have issues with your plants, sometimes you have to repot. You have to like go unpot the plant, get clean off the old soil, get the roots of the issue out, and then repot it with new soil. So we kind of need that kind of thing to happen globally. That way we can see the trickle down in all industries. But that, that's a big, you know, undertaking internationally. But I think right now what we can do is begin to educate ourselves and ask questions every day about everything that we use. Like, what was the history of it? What are the origins? And I think when you start to ask those questions, then you start to look for people in those communities who are doing carrying on the traditions and then uplift them. Don't buy from a mainstream retailer or a mainstream white owned entity. Go and buy your soap from brown. A black person, a Native American, like anybody who's a minority, who's uplifting their traditions and histories and also trying to sustain a lifestyle through that today.

Yeah, I agree with what you said, by the way. I mean, you can't pave out a future for yourself until you know where you've come from. I love unpicking the history of the beauty industry because it continues to fascinate me and I'm sure it does for our listeners as well. So talk to me a little bit more about your activism. I mean, obviously you're shining the spotlight on the tale and history of these African American slaves who made soap. But I know you're also quite active in prison reform, aren't you? So what role does that play in your brand?

Yeah, so I have a dear friend whose brother, Marcus Profus, was unfortunately convicted of a murder he did not commit. And so he is in the process of trying to appeal that and work for his freedom. He's been in prison for over eight years, 18 years now. He went in when he was about 16. And so I knew about Marcus's situation for a few Years. And because I knew this platform has to be built on activism. Odelia, Marie, and Patrice, I said, let me. Let me use this as an opportunity to help him. Everyone loves candles, right? So let me team up with Marcus, and let's create a candle together. And it's not we're changing any laws, right? But it is the process of spreading the word about him. And we did a really cool thing. I talked with Marcus and his family members as much as I could. He said if he created a candle, he wanted it to be called Unique. So Unique by Marcus Profits is the name. He said he wanted, like, an ocean scent. And then I decided to create the candle using a homemade concrete vessel. So I make all the vessels by hand. And the vessels are colored in gradation from, like, a light teal blue to, like, a gray when you see the vessel. Also symbolizing the kind of somber situation that Marcus is in. Right? He's behind, like, concrete and bars. It's a really nice, aesthetically pleasing candle that smells really good. I used a premium wax on it because, you know, I really wanted people who get this candle to think about the artistry, think about his struggles, and to spread the word. And so when we first launched it, for about six months, I did 100% of the proceeds going to him, and we raised over a thousand dollars, which is great. And now 15, 50% of the proceeds go to Marcus's attorney fees. So just really helping him to. And it's just a drop in the bucket, right? But if everyone dropped in the bucket, we could fill it up a million times over, you know, and in the U.S. unfortunately, that's another form of slave labor. People. Prisons are privatized. So people who are working in prisons get paid, like, it could be as low as, what, like 25 cents or less for an hour of work? And they have to work. There's no other, like, choice. So when you think about private prisons, who make money off of that, and a lot of companies, like mainstream corporate companies that have been linked to getting prison labor, then you begin to understand, okay, they need people to do this. So then if they need people to do this, who are the people that they're going to force to do it? It's going to be marginalized communities. So they'll convict them on something either they didn't do or something smaller, and give them a lot of time, make it really hard for you to appeal. Even though, like, in Marcus's case, evidence doesn't match up, if you look it up online and you read the case it's just not making sense. But it's been so hard for him and his lawyer to try to get to a point where it can be looked at and sort of rectified. And that's a part of the system. There are so many people like Marcus. There was a company that a rapper, Meek Mill created called Reform and they put out a call to kind of represent these people who have been wrongly convicted. They got flooded. They got so flooded to the point where I think it kind of stifled them a little bit. That's how many people in the us, Black people especially, and brown people are really crippled by the unfortunate prison and law enforcement situations. So I think for ommp, we can't change it today. We can't change it all. But we're already selling candles. Why not sell a candle with a mission? Why not create beauty that allows people to fight back? Maybe people don't have the self efficacy to figure out a way to help Marcus get free. But you know what? You can buy a candle. You were already going to buy one. That can be contributions to his attorney fees and that can begin to get the process rolling.

Candace, what you're doing is so admirable. I really, really admire the work that you put into your brand and the activism that you bring to it. So I guess my final question to you is what's next for Odelia Mar and Patrice?

So Odelia, Marie and Patrisse, we've had an awesome few years. The things that are next for us is really looking at sustainability and how to truly like break our company into that lane. Because another thing is, Lorraine, that sustainability is expensive. Right. So then it limits black owned companies and brown companies from getting into the process of having a sustainable company, even though they also will suffer the most from global warming or first. So it's a really interesting dynamic there. So we're looking at highlighting those disparities so that we can create a truly. I don't want to just say sustainable or vegan or whatever just to say it. If we can't find a way to do right by the earth, then why there's like a million plastic bottles from beauty companies already. So that's kind of our focus this year, is how do we get truly sustainable. And I know that conversation can go on and on and on, but we're going to find something and we're going to take it step by step.

Amazing. And I have no doubt you will do very well with it. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. So where can people learn more about you about everything we've talked about today and about your brand and come and buy your candles and your soaps and everything else you've got.

Absolutely. So if you go to shopomnp.com, you can find the blog, you can find Marcus prophecies, candles and all of our natural and decadent goodies. And on social media we are underscore omandp on Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, we're on Facebook, all of that. And I'm hecanvegan on Instagram.

Fantastic. All of those links will be with the podcast, so do go and check them out. Go and buy Marcus's candle, go and support om&p and everything that Candice is doing. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. It's been such a pleasure talking to you.

Thank you Lorraine.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode. Were you aware of the history of slavery and soap making? How can we learn from this history? Please do come and leave us a comment on our social channels as both the Formula Botanica team and I love hearing from you. And if you want to hear more about some of the topics that we covered today, please do delve back into the podcast archives. Go and listen to episode 101, in which I interviewed Dija Ayedeli on why black skin care matters. Or listen to episode 55 in which I interview Kim Roxy of Lamic Beauty and Sami Kolk, who's a green makeup artist, to talk about whether green makeup can go mainstream or whether the makeup industry is sufficiently embracing diversity. Or listen to episode 68 in which I speak to Erica Freemantle on the need for the beauty industry to embrace diversity. There's a wealth of information in our old episodes and I do encourage you to go back and listen to them. Thank you for joining Candice and I for this latest episode of Green Beauty Conversations. I really hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please do leave us a five star review so that other people can enjoy them too. Make sure that you subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or whatever your favorite podcast app is, and stay tuned for the next episode. Follow Formula Botanica at Formula Botanica on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter or LinkedIn and come and give me a follow at Lorraine Dharmeyer on Instagram. Visit our website@formulabotanica.com and sign up for our free online formulation course today. Sam.