Simpler suds

SPRING VALLEY — Almost everyone uses soap to clean themselves, but not everyone can use modern soap. To help, Nuka Soap and Body is bringing cleansers back to their original, natural state.

“People who know what they’re looking for in a natural, homemade soap really appreciate my soap,” Lindsy Heusinkveld said. “I’ve always just had a heart for … helping people find what gives them peace and helps them be the best they can be.”

Lindsy and Seth Heusinkveld settled on their hobby farm near Spring Valley in 2007, the year they married; Seth grew up a stone’s throw away. Today, the Heusinkvelds and their four sons raise two horses, a dog, and a few cows and pigs on their farm.

All her life, Heusinkveld had been sensitive to artificial detergents, sweeteners and flavorings. When her second son was born in 2011, he could not tolerate artificial ingredients either, so Heusinkveld started making her own laundry soap using olive oil to make a castile soap, which she would convert into the final product.

“When I first started, I just went to the library and rented out hundreds of books about making home products, … and I took some classes online, and I fell in love with it,” Heusinkveld said. “As word spread that I was making laundry soap, people started asking me to make it for them.”

Because of the demand, the Heusinkvelds founded Nuka Soap and Body about five years ago.

“Nuka means ‘little brother or sister’ or ‘something worthy of honor’ in different languages, so I thought that was fitting with all my kids,” she said.

Heusinkveld estimates that she made about 50 different types of soap when she started, and she picked which ones she liked and worked for her and her family. She still makes some of those varieties today, and she also offers body soap, hand soap, lotion, shampoo and conditioner bars, shower gel, moisturizer, sugar scrubs, bath salts and lip balm.

“My product list usually has to do with what people are requesting from me,” Heusinkveld said. “When I go to markets, a lot of people come up and say, ‘Could you make this?’ (or) ‘I’d really love it if you made that.’ I start looking into what that entails, and that’s usually how things become a thing. … It’s total trial and error.”

Not every suggestion from customers makes it to the product list, as some options are too expensive, difficult or time-consuming. When Heusinkveld first tried liquid hand soap, that did not work out for her.

“I make it in a Crock-Pot, and it takes two days to cook,” she said. “If you don’t stir it every 20 minutes, it will kind of explode. … Just this last year, I decided to try making it again. Now, I’m more experienced, and I make it all the time.”

The products offered rotate seasonally, as the Heusinkveld family likes to incorporate what they have growing at their farm.

“Right now, I’m growing calendula and lavender, and we do use the tallow from our cows when that’s available,” Heusinkveld said. “I try to add natural additives I’ve grown here to some of my products. … True soap is just a mixture of water, lye and some sort of fat. In a lot of my soaps, it’s olive oil, coconut oil, shea butter (or tallow); each one has a different ingredient list.”

Aside from the slow cooker, Heusinkveld’s main tools when making her products are an immersion blender and a scale.

The business has a website through which its products are sold, and thanks to its online presence there and on social media, it has customers from across the country.

“The first time I got an order … (from) nobody I knew, and it was out of state, that was an awesome feeling that day,” Heusinkveld said. “Now, I get orders from all over, and I hardly ever know who it is. (They are) from Florida, Arizona, North Carolina; I’ve gotten orders from Texas, and you’re just like, ‘Wow, how did you hear about me?’”

Locally, the Heusinkvelds bring their products to markets and storefronts

in Spring Valley, Rochester, Park Rapids, Lanesboro, Wykoff, Chatfield and more.

“I’m at a market somewhere almost every week,” Heusinkveld said. “I’ve gone all the way up to northern Minnesota and done markets up there.”

Before selling a product, the Heusinkvelds test it amongst themselves for a year, and they use natural ingredients — such as spinach, lavender, clays and micas — to color them.

“When I make lotion, I have it sit in my car over the winter and summer to see if it melts,” Heusinkveld said. “We test it ourselves. … They (my family) like helping me name stuff. One of the last bars of soap I made was the Kodiak; that was all my boys. They help me decide what color it should be and what essential oils we should put in it. They even help me design the sticker.”

Heusinkveld aims to keep growing the business, provided she can garner the funds to do so.

“With any business, you hope someday you keep getting bigger and keep having to expand,” she said. “There’s a movement toward people wanting to be more conscious of what they’re putting on their bodies.”