If you’ve experienced a change in mood based on a pleasing scent, a favorite song or an inviting setting, you’ll like walking into Sunrise Soap. It’s a game changer. All of these elements surround you as you enter, and you’re suddenly in a different world.
From the aromas of more than 100 types of soap to the harmonies of the Grateful Dead and the bright palette of bohemian accessories, Sunrise Soap embodies, as they put it, “peace, love and good vibes.” Here, you can learn what it takes to make 1,000 pounds of soap, which they do in their York store every week. The staff will give you an impromptu tour or an official one like they do on TV, or you can make your own bath bomb (they’re the really hot item this year). Actually, if you’re looking for a new way to pop the question, they’ll help you place an engagement ring in a bath fizzy for a proposal that’ll be retold for generations.
This shop was born when its owner, Chris Clarke, decided she needed a hobby. She’d gone to work straight out of high school for a law firm, then for Pfaltzgraff. It was in those places where she developed her work ethic, which still serves her well, because she now works “probably 14 hours a day, 8 days a week.” When her daughter was born, Clarke decided to focus on taking care of her. Enter the hobby of soap making, which has grown into a flourishing constellation of destination shops.
“I started making soap at home, and when I looked around, I saw I had thousands of bars of soap,” Clarke recalls. “I realized I should probably set up at a show.” Eventually she opened the store on North Beaver Street, and it became an anchor store, open seven days a week. That was 11 years ago. Being there seven days a week has helped the store’s success, and the staff tells customers they’re open every time they ring them up. Clarke says, “Now that there are a lot of people from out of town walking around, and people exploring the restaurants, we’re getting pretty touristy.” Buses from across the country pull up for special tours, and the back of the shop is often full with girls’ nights out, bachelorette parties and the like.
Now with four locations, Sunrise Soap is no longer just a York County thing: It’s been featured in the “Washington Post,” the “Tampa Tribune” and on TV maker shows. It’s definitely been celebrated locally, but now that there are stores in three counties, word’s getting out along the East Coast and is heading west, north and south.
Clarke loves what she does and says the only problem is that the business conflicts with her love of concerts. She has to make decisions like “whether to go see a bunch of concerts” or open a new store. (This past summer she limited herself to two live shows and opened a new shop at Park City Center in Lancaster, her first mall venue.) When the Grateful Dead was still touring, she saw them in concert 150 times. You can see the band’s influence in the clothing the store sells, the tee shirts the staff wears and even the labels on the soap.
The store’s ambiance is an homage to the band, but you don’t have to be a Dead Head to fit in. Your visit can be all about the soap and other offerings, like candles, whipped cream lotions, bubble bath, Sunrise’s own new brand of makeup, lip balm and more. But let’s start with the soap. Planning ahead, because soap has to cure for 30 days, the staff at Sunrise chooses the scents for the next couple of batches. For the holidays, they are working ahead on frankincense and myrrh, sugared spruce and spiced cranberry.
They make 120 different kinds of soap in small batches, and the names are as fun to read as they are to sniff. There’s peppermint-cinnamon-coffee, anise, blueberry Cabernet, watermelon, chocolate and happy henna shampoo bar. They use only high-quality, natural, moisturizing ingredients, like coconut, olive, vegetable and castor oils as well as cocoa and shea butters. All are free of artificial ingredients and parabens. So it’s all good for you, says Clarke, a lot better, than what’s in commercially-made products.
So take your nose for a spin. If you drive by, you’ll see obvious, happy signs that Sunrise Soap’s open. The flag and the sidewalk sign are out, and the bubble machine is cranking. Seven days a week.
