Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
New shop offers eco-friendly products
BELLA VISTA — Fox Petal Potions has opened in Bella Vista next door to Cafe USA, offering all kinds of eco-friendly products.
Owner Rain Hobbs said having a store has been a dream of hers for a long time, but it took a life-altering event to get her here. She was a massage therapist for 10 years, and then five years ago she got cancer. She is a five-year cancer survivor, but the chemotherapy caused damage that rendered her unable to perform massage therapy, she said.
On a whim, she said, she started making soap. She watched some YouTube videos and practiced until she got the method right, and then she gave away her first products to friends and family to test them out. She sold her products at an arts and crafts festival in Bella Vista, and the soaps were well-received, she said.
“It showed me there was an interest in hand-crafted bath and body products,” she said.
After that, she started learning to make lotions, bath bombs and more. The product line grew. She took her wares to the Bella Vista Farmers Market, First Fridays and the Spanker Creek Craft Fair. Now her products include day cream, night cream, sugar scrub, lip balm, dog wash bars, cleansing cream, shampoo and conditioner bars and more.
“It had always been a dream of mine to have a store,” she said.
Last year she decided she was going to sell her products at the Bella Vista Farmers Market, and that would be the deciding factor in whether she was ready to open a store, she said. It went so well she decided to follow her dream.
Feb. 1 she opened the store and soon thereafter hired an apprentice, she said.
The theme of the store is everything eco-friendly, whether recycled, renewable resources, biodegradable, etc.
She has a refill station where customers may fill a container with liquid shampoo, conditioner, laundry soap, hand soap, fabric softener, etc. Customers may bring their own container or purchase a glass one at the store.
There are also kitchen and bath supplies that are made from natural fibers and bamboo, such as cleaning supplies and personal care items, including bamboo toothbrushes and floss that biodegrades. The store offers eco-friendly laundry sheets and pods and dishwasher pods that do not put microplastics into the water supply, Hobbs said.
Local artisans’ work is also featured, as long as it fits with the theme in some way.
She added it is important to her to listen to what her customers want. The number one request she has received is a natural bug spray, she said. She has researched it, and it is going into production as soon as possible.
“I believe in planet and people over profit,” she said.
She said the store has been very well received, surprisingly well, even.
“I’m very pleased,” she said. “I’m very grateful that Bella Vistans have embraced the store. Sometimes I look around in shock because I can’t believe that it’s real … that a dream came true.”