16
MARCH
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Wychbury Ave’s Story
Meet Melissa, owner and creator of Wychbury Ave, a business that creates handmade soaps, cards and clothing and accessories here in Victoria, BC.
Melissa created Wychbury Ave around four years ago. During her pregnancy with her 1st son, she thought that with having “all that extra time” on her hands and nothing better to do, it would be a great time to start her own business. (I’m pretty sure that most 1st-time moms can relate to this though?)
All the fantastic things Melissa creates these days, used to be hobbies of hers that had to be pushed to the side for a while due to a busy life and her career as a French teacher. But thanks to her Mom who introduced Melissa to soap making, she decided during her first maternity leave to start selling her creations at the Esquimalt Farmers Market.
Being the Eco-conscious lady, she is, she biked everything to the market. As in everything! She has a little chariot attached to her bike in which she moved the Boxes, the tent and her table all while being 36 weeks pregnant! Holy supermom right here!! During the second year of WychburyAve Melissa started attending the Oaklands Market.
The 3rd year she added the Goldstream market, car-free yyj and a few other little markets to her list. Then perfectly timed as she was having her second little darling boy, Wychbury started taking off, and her Soaps became so high in demand that she had to hire some help.
As of right now, Melissa has an Etsy store where she sells her beautiful soaps, her hand-painted & drawn cards (which she now gets printed though Metropol due to the high demand) as well as her crochet clothing and accessories for adults and children.
Her Soaps are made with natural, plant-based fragrance oils that are phthalate and paraben-free. And in case you are unaware, Melissa created something she calls SOAPSCRIPTIONs, where you can sign up for a monthly subscription. You will receive a box of handcrafted, natural and vegan soaps delivered right to your door every month. (And shipping within Canada is FREE!!)
But let’s dive a little deeper into the incredible soaps Melissa creates. From scratch, if I might add.
Melissa’s soaps are all handcrafted in small batches with the conscious effort to keep everything natural and sustainable. For the production of the soaps, she uses Olive oil and coconut oil, a sustainably produced palm oil, sunflower oil, castor oil, Shea butter as well as kaolin clay. (It’s clay that detoxifies and pulls out all the nasty stuff from the skin but leaves your skin moisturized)
For the smell, Melissa uses some essential oils, but she tries to mainly use natural fragrance oils because they are more environmentally friendly and sustainable.
After having been able to see and smell all the incredible soaps Melissa is creating, we can say without a doubt that she really has found her calling. If you are interested in checking out Melissa’s incredible creations, make sure to check out her Etsy store or visit Paboom in downtown Victoria as well as Thistle and Wren and/or Sailor Jacks where she is also showcasing her soaps and cards.
Another way to see/shop and smell the products Wychbury Ave has to offer would be visiting the upcoming Esquimalt Market (awarded Best Farmers Market in BC for 2017!) or the Buccaneer days.
