Art & Life with Jena Nagamine and John Garrard

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jena Nagamine and John Garrard.

Please kick things off for us, where does the story begin?
We started designing and making soaps first for our own family after battling with dry, sensitive skin with our children. We went a little crazy experimenting, putting everything into soap you can think of, and ended up with so much more soap than we needed. That extra soap quickly disappeared into the hands of family, friends, and neighbors who started requesting that we make more. We were really happy to make something that was so useful and loved, so that kind of naturally led to the decision to try and start a small business. We still love making soap, but in addition to that, now this has also become a creative outlet and way to connect deeper with our community. We’ve loved meeting and collaborating with other makers and investing in making other interesting, beautiful products.

Can you give our readers some background on your work?
Our soap designs come from a lot of trial, error, and experimentation with a focus on keeping it natural and simple. Our main inspiration for our soaps comes from the kitchen. Fruits, vegetables, and herbs are so amazing for your skin and they smell great! Most of the time, we’ll see an amazing dessert or something at the farmer’s market and we’ll both have the thought at the same time: “This would be amazing in soap.” We always wanted our products to bring you back to that feeling when you take a bite of something delicious and just kind of dive into that moment. We want our products to be an avenue to relaxing experience that helps you stay centered and present in your day.

How do you think about success and what do quality do you feel is most helpful?
Even our own definition of success keeps changing. At first, it was just to cover our costs and have enough soap for our family. Then, it was to establish a local presence and connect with our community. Now, on rough days, success is just being able to pay the bills, but on good days, it’s much more about building something that we are proud of. We want to have pride not just in our products, but also in the company itself, what it stands for and encourages. So, even in a small way, success is being able to take care of our family, and also contributing to a strong and vibrant community, in any way that we can.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
Most of our work is found on our website and on our Instagram. We have been able to partner with some really great local shops including Peixoto Coffee, Phoenix General, The Farm at South Mountain. We feel so supported when people come out and talk to us at markets or connect with us over Instagram. We have really been able to see how much Phoenicians care about their community and supporting the great businesses that start here.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.veranobathery.com
• Email: hello@veranobathery.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/veranobathery/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/veranobathery

Image Credit:
John B. Garrard

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