Speaking Of Handwashing, Have You Heard About Goatboy Soaps?

The Goatboy Soaps success story may take on more relevance these days because we are all so fixated on washing our hands. But actually, I’ve been obsessed with Goatboy Soaps ever since I discovered them a few years ago at the Elephant’s Trunk flea market in New Milford, Conn. Made with very few ingredients apart from fresh, whole goat’s milk, olive oil and essential oils, these sweet-smelling blocks of perfection inspire simple bursts of joy with every use. And now that I have read other customers’ reviews on Goatboy’s Facebook page and the comments on every scent in the lineup, I know I am not alone in my infatuation.

Okay, enough of the commercial. The company’s backstory alone is charming enough. It began with a boy who was severely allergic to a lot of things but who could tolerate goat’s milk; and his mom, who gave him the nickname Goatboy.

“At seven, he wasn’t going to take that without having his own goats,” said the mom, Lisa Agee. He became obsessed with goats, so she bought him a goat manual from Cornell. Bobby carried that manual back and forth to school every day. When his teacher told the class to follow your passion in life, Bobby announced to Lisa he was ready for his test. His goat-tending test.

“I started off thinking I was the smartest mom in the world,” Agee said, “but I wasn’t.”

Bobby got his goats. First there were two. The family bred them and ended up with a lot of milk, but what were they going to do with all of it? Agee experimented with a few soap recipes and created her own long-lasting, creamy blend. The neighbors in New Milford might have thought they were nuts, Lisa said, but then they began asking for more product and telling their friends about the now-named Goatboy Soaps.

Agee’s husband Rick, who worked in IT in the city, came home one night to discover $36,000 in their checkbook. He asked why.

“You told me to sell the soap,” Agee replied.

What would you do in that situation? Probably what Rick did. He quit his job (it was really stressful anyway, and he was away a lot), taking a huge leap of faith to leave behind a nice income and insurance, and, well, ending up in foreclosure a couple of times. They didn’t have any big accounts and sold the soaps at just a couple of farmers markets.

But they went to every show and fair they could, and priced the product ($4.99) so it could be your everyday soap. They haven’t raised the prices since they began and they use local suppliers and sustainable ingredients. Now the soaps are available (pre-COVID, anyway) at Union Square Greenmarket, fairs throughout Connecticut, and stores from the RI region down to Virginia. Last year, they produced 100,000 bars of soap.

The company is still family run, and although Bobby left the goats to get a degree in criminal justice, his wife Michelle fell in love with them and works with her in-laws now. They’ve kept their herd to 12 or 13 goats, and recently put up a new barn, thanks to an order that might have been email scam. But it was RJ Reynolds, interested in a humungous order for their American Spirit brand, figuring Goatboy Soaps would be a clean product to send to its customers.

With fairs canceled for the season, the family is relying on mail order and farmers market that are offering drive-by pickups. Agee mourned the fact that people aren’t visiting the farm, aren’t coming to see the baby goats. Over the years, these visitors/customers have become like family, just like the goats are part of the family. Last year the Agees produced an event, Goat Days in New Milford, which attracted over 5,000 people. They’d like to do it again someday.

The goats getting ready to take up residence in the new barn.

Now, about those soaps: While I am wild for their dreamy fragrances, others rave about how good the soap is for sensitive and dry skin. There are about 30 scents (and one unscented), with seasonal versions added every year. The all-time bestseller is Red Clover Tea; Serious Citrus, Lavender, and Heavenly follow closely behind. There’s also a Gardener’s soap that contains orange peel, pumice, coffee grounds, and orange and anise essential oils.

Before the shutdown, I had plans to take a drive to visit the goats and stock up on my favorite bars. Guess I’ll have to make a big order online.

“We don’t have a huge distribution,” Agee said, “but what we have is crazy. We have really loyal customers.”