Kalliste Soap Shop Helps Clean Up a Global Mess

Does chucking those little bars of leftover hotel soap ever make you feel wasteful and dirty?

If so, you’re not alone. The Global Soap Project was designed to put all of those excess stubs of soap left in hotels around the world (2.6 million bars are thrown out every day, the Project estimates) into the hands of people for whom a sliver of soap could be a matter of life or death.  

“As soon as I heard about the Soap Project, I knew I had to get involved,” said Marie Labropoulos, owner of Kalliste Soap Shop, a purveyor of a unique, artisanally made line of all-natural skincare products, which are packed in recycled or biogradable materials. Every year, Ms. Labropoulos chooses one cause that focuses on humanitarian and environmental issues, to which she can dedicate all of her personal fund-raising and volunteer efforts.

For 2011, however, Ms. Labropoulos told Patch Scarsdale that she saw an opportunity to widen the circle of giving to her customers. Kalliste launched its physical location about three months ago and, while Scarsdale has welcomed the boutique with open arms, she wanted to seize the chance to strengthen her ties to the community and simultaneously help scrub up what she sees as one of the world’s eminently fixable messes.

Soap – such a pedestrian thing to us – can be worth its weight in gold to communities that are perpetually perched on the razor’s edge of hardship and want. Vulnerable communities in Afghanistan, Ghana, Haiti, Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon and Swaziland are hit by endless waves of hygiene-related death. The cause? As oftentimes as not, it’s because they didn’t have soap to clean their hands.

The premise behind the Global Soap Project is simple.

According to the Global Soap Project, hundreds of millions of bars of hotel soap are thrown away every year in North America. Derreck Kayongo, a refugee from the Ugandan war who has lived in America for decades, first came up with the idea for the Project while visiting a hotel in Philadelphia in the early 90s. Kayongo noticed that his scrap of soap was set for the dumpster, and the Project was born. To date, about 75 tons of “throwaway” soap have been saved and distributed around the world.

Hundreds of hotels across the country have agreed to collect their half-used soap; those sopas are then shipped to a warehouse in Atlanta, Georgia, where they are cleaned and repackaged by volunteers. Once they’re deemed safe by a third-party lab, the soap is sent to communities in need around the world.

To join the fight against dirt, Ms. Labropoulos created what she dubbed a Bar of Hope and launched a mini-education campaign for her customers. She debuted both at a festive cocktail party at Kalliste HQ on Thursday, August 11, 2011.

An assortment of customers, friends of the store, friends of Ms. Labropoulos and random drop-ins milled about the diminutive and adorable Kalliste, sampling the cheese, charcuterie (Ms. Labropoulos is vegan and her products are PETA-approved, but she doesn’t hold the rest of us to the same standards) and petit fours. The guest of honor – the Bar of Hope – was perched on the table next to the delicious fare, and it, too, looked good enough to eat. 

“The Bar of Hope, like most of my soaps, was made using traditional soap-making techniques,” Ms. Labropoulos said. “It’s comprised of glycerin, essential oils and elements of grapefruit and lemon. Each bar is $8 and half of the sales for the entire year for the Bar of Hope will go to Global Soap Project.”

In addition to cutting manageable soap bars from a giant Bar of Hope for eager customers, mingling with her guests, and making sure everyone had enough to eat and drink, Ms. Labropoulos was handing out flyers of information about the project and answering questions about the logistics of the Project.

“Seven million children have died of preventible diseases since 2009,” Ms. Ladropoulos said. “I’m excited to be a part of a Project that is doing its part to end that.”

The scent of citrus, floral herbs and wildflowers infuses the store, a welcome addition to Garth Road’s quirky annex of small boutiques and old school mom and pop stores, in addition, of course, to the requisite 7-11. Ms. Labropoulos opened Kalliste after launching the store online a few years ago; a civil engineer by training, she was taught to make artisanal skin products by her Greek grandmother, a traditional soap-maker.When friends caught wind of her unique and effective skin potions and started clamoring for them, Ms. Ladropoulos sensed an opening in the market, offered her wares online, and grew her brand organically from there. 

All of her products are not only natural and vegan, they are formulated to be gentle to irritable skin. Gorgeous soaps, creams, lotions, and essential oils are laid out on shelves and in nooks of the store like artwork or haute couture in a funky Williamsburg, Brooklyn gallery-boutique. The items make great hostess gifts (or for bridal showers, grab a baker’s dozen of the soap “cupcakes” and tell the wedding party to clean up their act).  

Want to be a part of the Project but couldn’t make it to the launch? You can still join the party – stop by Kalliste to learn more about the Project, and perhaps buy a Bar of Hope.

Kalliste Soap Shop is located at 30 Garth Road and Freightway in Scarsdale. It’s open Tuesday-Saturday from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm. The store can be reached at (914) 574-5467.