HENDERSON, Ky. — During the pandemic, you may have picked up a new hobby, but you may not realize you possibly picked up a new career.

What You Need To Know

  • Lucia Felty made her first bar of soap in 2003 with a friend

  • Felty then turned her hobby into a home business, which then led to a storefront located in Henderson

  • Felty continues to make soap and other skin care products herself

  • Felty’s other career, nursing, ties into how she makes her products

That’s what happened to Lucia Felty almost 20 years ago when a friend asked if she wanted to try making soap. 

Felty's fascination with soap started long before she made her first bar of it.

"My grandmother always had homemade soap by the sink, in the kitchen, in the bathroom. At that time, it was not considered safe for children to be around so I never saw her make soap, but she always had it," Felty remembered. However, it wasn't the reason she started making soap in the first place.

A young Lucia Felty (left) stands next to her grandmother on her First Communion day. Felty said she thinks of her grandmother often when she makes soap, (Lucia Felty)

“I didn’t really think about making soap until a friend of mine wanted to make soap,” Felty said. “And I was a little anxious about using lye. So she said, ‘Why don’t you come and help me,’ and I just thought it kind of sounded interesting.”

Felty enjoyed the process so much, she opened a home-based business four years later, in 2007, to sell her soaps. The following year, Felty became a juried member of the Kentucky Arts Council’s Kentucky Crafted Program. 

Felty also continued working on her craft, by becoming a member of the Handcrafted Soap & Cosmetic Guild, and she tested to become an advanced level soapmaker through the organization. 

Then, a decade ago she expanded her business. 

“I didn’t want to just make soap at home and sell it at the craft shows. I wanted it to be a shop and a full-time business,” Felty said.

However, if you walk into Felty’s shop, LuciaSoapsEtc. LLC, in Henderson you probably have a better chance of running into her husband Rudy Felty. That’s because Lucia prefers to be in the back, doing what she loves most, making soap.

“I mean you wouldn’t think about just rubbing oils on your skin and getting clean. And lye solution, lye can be a dangerous thing, and so you really don’t want to put it on your skin. It can do you harm. So to mix those two together, and it makes such a wonderful soap, it is still just fascinating to me,” Felty explained.

A walk in back of the shop looks like part office, part kitchen, and part chemistry lab. Felty told Spectrum News 1 that a lot of chemistry is involved in making soap.

“You learn which fatty acids contribute what to the soap,” Felty said. “Lauric acid and myristic acid are two that there’s a lot of in coconut oil and palm kernel oil, and both of those are really good to put in your soap if you want lather,” Felty explained.

Felty said she spent years researching and trying hundreds of different recipes to perfect what she calls her own “formulas” for her products. However, the 66-year-old didn’t study chemistry. She studied nursing.

“I didn’t learn anything about being a business from being a nurse,” Felty laughed.

However, being an RN did teach her about sterile environments, she told Spectrum News 1. She said that especially important for other products she makes, such as lotion.

“I know what things contribute, like germs and microbes, to the product and how to avoid that. So that part was a big help in making the products that I make,” Felty said.

Working as an RN, Felty also said it was important that the soaps she makes do more than just smell good.

“Well, I wanted my soaps to be beneficial to your skin,” Felty said. “And the natural oils that I use versus more chemical things that are in commercial soaps, I just feel like that’s so much better for your health and for your skin,” Felty said.

Felty said the stress-level between her two careers, as RN and soap maker, is night and day. So in November 2019, she retired from nursing. 

“It was a good career for me, and it paid better than this, but this is just really a creative outlet for me and I need that,” Felty said.

A creative outlet that she has no plans to retire from any time soon. 

“When I kind of feel like I’m tired of doing this every day, then I’ll fully retire, but right now I am still enjoying it,” Felty said.

You can check out Felty’s handmade soaps and other products at her retail shop LuciaSoapsEtc., LLC located at 105 N. Main Street, Henderson. You can also view and purchase her products online.