Most people don’t look at body soap labels until there is a problem. Trent Sullivan, one of the owners of Buff City Soap, didn’t think much about it until his son started suffering from eczema. What he found was detergents, chemicals, cow fat, sulfates, and parabens that can cause irritation, trigger allergies, and cause other unpleasant side effects. Buff City Soap is the result of his effort to find something better for his son and others with skin sensitivities.
They began to experiment with learning how to make soap without all of the chemicals. As they say on their website, “After making a few big messes, we created something wonderful…”
Sullivan was in town recently from Jackson, Tennessee where he lives, to help set up their new location in Murfreesboro. He was a student here and felt that Murfreesboro was the perfect place for their 16th location. Buff City Soap opened at 2658 New Salem Rd in early 2019.
“When I was here at Middle Tennessee State University,” said Sullivan, “there was nothing out in this area. This was just fields. It has grown so much, but the people are still so real, and I feel like we make soap for real people.”
They make every bar of soap on site from simple ingredients like coconut, olive, and palm oil. Other ingredients include gardenia, lemon zest, hemp seed oil, shea butter, charcoal, tea tree oil, and exfoliants like loofah bits, crushed walnuts, and poppy seeds. Customers even can watch the whole process. And at their making parties, guests can create their own soap or bath fizzies.
“You don’t have to be a hippie or a scientist to enjoy our soaps,” said Sullivan. “We try to sell at prices that everyone can afford. Good soap is not a luxury.”
Customers are loyal. They come back because of the quality products, and the chance to choose the scents in their products. Their most popular fragrance is called Narcissist. It is a combination of grapefruit, patchouli, and Egyptian musk. For men’s products, the top scent is called Ferocious Beast, a woodsy scent with cedar and citrus.
Besides soap, they make body butter, laundry soap, bath fizzies, and shower fizzies. Men will find a full line of shave and beard care products that make them totally touchable. Other products include bath truffles, epsom salts, shampoo bars, body and foot scrubs, shower oils, lotion bars, facial masks, toners, facial cleansing masks, and lip bombs. They offer monthly gift boxes that can be sent to your home or to a friend. They include a bath bomb box, a soap box, and a men’s box.
“We are proud to make our products from things that come from the earth,” said Sullivan, “and that you can pronounce.”
Buff City Soaps
2658 New Salem Rd, Murfreesboro
facebook.com/BuffCitySoapMurfreesboro
