Hi ya’ll! I am Elisa Montoya, soapmaker and owner of Magnolia Street Soap Mill. The idea to start a home-based business was born in 2015 in my hometown of Del Rio, TX. I had a friend interested in natural hygiene products and was on the hunt to find a castile bar of soap in my small town. The search failed so I took it upon myself to make it. I found myself with extra time on my hands as I had been recently laid off. I checked out soap-making books from the library and binged numerous YouTube tutorials. It wasn’t long before I was addicted to the process of creating my own soap. In the beginning, I gave these soaps to close friends and family. As I grew more confident, I really began to toy with the thought of having my own business. I brainstormed business names and kept coming back to memories of my great-grandfather’s adobe house on Magnolia Street. We lived there for a time when I was in 7th grade and had my first job delivering the newspaper on my bicycle. I thought to myself, “This is it, this is the name and concept I want to go with.”

Fast forward to July of 2019, my husband, daughter, and I arrived in Marana, AZ to build a new life for our family. Who would have known the events to follow shortly after. Magnolia Street Soap Mill took a hiatus during the last two years due to COVID but we are back and grateful to share our love of natural, plant-based soap through local market events.