Rowan & Oak: soap and success
Avril Copestick grateful for business at the Truro Farmers’ Market
Avril Copestick has a natural passioOEn for making soap.
The Truro woman created Rowan & Oak natural handcrafted soaps, bath and body products in 2018 and enjoys offering customers a locally made skin-care option.
“I really enjoy it; it’s my passion,” says Copestick. “I always enjoyed blending oils and I really like to work with natural products and I like to produce something that doesn’t cost out of this world, but it’s really good for people and it gives them good value for their money.”
All of Copestick’s soaps are made with plant-based oils and butters and are free from palm oil. The base oils are infused with herbs or botanicals that are sourced locally wherever possible.
“I’m a vegetarian so I wanted to do plant-based products,” says Copestick, who uses a cold process to make her product. “I incorporate a lot of butters into my recipe just to make a nice and creamy soap.”
Copestick also uses natural colours from clays and plant roots.
“That’s why the product is so muted; they’re not really strong colours.”
Her soaps must cure for four to six weeks before they’re sellable.
Copestick, who moved from Ontario to Truro two years ago, sells her products in-person at the Truro Farmers’ Market on Saturdays. She also utilizes the market’s online platform for sales.
“I’m really grateful to the Truro Farmers’ Market and the people that go there because I have so many repeat customers,” she says. “And when I started off I didn’t know anyone or anything about Truro and I guess I built my business through that market.
“I really enjoy it,” she adds. “The vendors are great; they’re so friendly and it’s just social time. It’s so fun and I like meeting everybody and just the people that come back time and again; we’ve become sort of market friends.”
Copestick stresses the importance of buying local and makes every effort to source supplies from other area businesses.
“I source locally as much as I can. A lot of the herbs and plants I use I infuse them in base oils for some soaps and I grow them myself or I buy them locally at the market.
“I like everything local. I
support local and people really do support me, too.”
Copestick grew up in Scotland and the significance of her company’s name can be traced back to her childhood home.
“When I was a kid in Scotland we had a rowan tree in our yard and I just loved that tree and I loved the name, so oak just sort of followed along; it just came to me,” she says.
Copestick says she enjoys the friendliness of Truro. Still a relative newcomer to the area, she and her husband David also look forward to exploring other parts of the province.
“I love the beaches, but we haven’t seen as much as we’d like to just because of the lockdowns. I’d love to go to Cape Breton; that’s my dream to go there; I haven’t been there yet, but I want to.”
Copestick also has her own website (www.rowanandoakco.ca) and her products are available in a handful of small stores throughout the province. To see her soaps and for more information on how to order her products, visit her website and Facebook pages.