Corinne Rietheimer
We first met Corinne Rietheimer back in our Spring issue of 2015, when we profiled her and her company, Shore Soaps, (along with other local soap makers) in the feature, “Soap Story.” This was a scant two years into Corinne’s soapmaking. Now she has her own little empire.
Back then, she sold a few of her handmade soaps at a couple of stores and various local festivals. Now? “We make everything from bar soaps to serums, scrubs, aromatherapy products, perfume, essential oils, and soy candles,” Corinne said. “The line has grown exponentially since our 2014 West Cape May Farmers Market days, when we had eight different varieties of bar soap and that was it. We now produce over 100 different products.”
Not only that, she has not one but two brick-and-mortar locations: right here in Cape May, at 658 Washington Street, and at 9803 3rd Avenue in Stone Harbor. But wait, there’s more!
“You can shop Shore Soaps products at either of our locations, and we also recently launched a Shore Soaps pop up for the holiday season at Pour Candle Bar on Perry Street in Cape May,” she told us. “We have a booth at West End Garage, you can find us online at ShoreSoapsCapeMay.com, or at about a dozen other boutiques up and down the east coast. This includes our most recent location, a boutique called Just Jersey in Newark International Airport!”
Oh, and that Pour Candle Bar she mentioned: Corinne owns that, too. The Pour Candle Bar + Chandlery opened this past spring at 405 West Perry. This pour-your-own candle bar has become a hot booking spot for bachelorette and birthday party celebrations, and other events such as Mother’s Day. As I write this, you can book a pour-your-own fall candle workshop while they screen a Halloween film. The event includes complimentary movie snacks and a cocktail or mocktail—the perfect girls’ night out and you bring home a candle.
Despite all this expansion, Corinne has a soft spot for the skill that started it all. “I love making soap,” she said. “Even though it is the most time-consuming product we make—with a cure time of six long weeks—it was the first product I ever made, and I love the chemistry and science aspect of it. It is truly a labor of love.”
If you’ve got a favorite thing you like to make…there’s typically a least favorite thing you like to make…less. “Shower steamers,” Corinne told us. “You have to work quickly after you mix the ingredients to get them into the molds before the mixture dries out, so it’s like a race against the clock. We are constantly running out of them because they’re one of our bestsellers. So, I’m making them numerous times a week now.” All this magic happens at her warehouse / production facility in Rio Grande. “It’s not open to the public, but all our products are made there, with the exception of some of our soy candles which are made in-house at Pour.”
Corinne of course uses her own products 98% of the time, “…but I’ve recently been using this IT cosmetics night cream on my face and loving it so far! It’s all cleaner ingredients too, which is a must for me.”
When she was little, Corinne wanted to be an architect, and her more recent background was in fashion design. “I love the idea of creating something out of nothing,” she said. “I also love designing in general, and I design all the labeling and packaging for the products we make. So, if I wasn’t doing this, I think I’d either do something in interior or graphic design.”
Is she resting on her laurels? Not exactly. “I’m always looking for the next thing. It is in my nature, I think, to constantly be changing, evolving, growing. I get bored when I stand still for too long. People keep asking me if I would franchise Pour, so that could very well be my next project. Who knows?” Corinne says the best part of being her own boss is the freedom. “I get to bring my best friend (shop dog Cecelia) to work, and I get to pick which 15-18 hours of the day I’d like to work.”
Understandably, Corinne struggles with a work/life balance. “I’m up answering emails at 11pm, sending invoices…the ‘workday’ never truly ends until I close my eyes. Maybe someday I’ll get better at disconnecting,” she laughed. “But maybe not. I love what I do, and even 10 years in I feel hungry for it. So, it doesn’t feel much like ‘work’ to me.”
