Rose Whittle got the idea for her bath products business, Okanagan Fruit Scents, while looking at the peach tree in her garden.

"It suddenly struck me that I could incorporate local fruit into bath products," she said.

For Christmas 2001, she received a gift of homemade milk bath and bath balm from her sister. Whittle, who has always had a fondness for fancy soaps and bath products, asked her sister for the recipe. A few months later, she was sitting in her backyard looking at the peach tree and it all came together.

After 18 months of reading about soap making, taking courses in Vancouver and trial and error, she had Okanagan Fruit Scents soaps ready for the Christmas 2003 market. "It's gone better than anything I'd hoped for," she said, commenting on the popularity of her soaps.

As it says on Okanagan Fruit Scents labels, Whittle makes "fragrant fruit scents for all occasions." Scents of apples, cherries, apricots, peaches plus other fruits and berries are used alone or in combination with herbs and other ingredients to make a spectrum of soaps, for example: green apple cocoa butter and blueberry hemp cocoa butter. "Hemp is good for your skin," she said, with a wry smile.

Recently she has started to make scrub bars, such as a cherry oatmeal bar for a soft facial scrub and a lavender poppy seed bar for hands.

"Many people asked me for floral and herbal soaps," Whittle said. These requested soaps include scents such as rose, gardenia, lemon grass and rosemary.

Traditionally, soap is made from a combination of animal fat or vegetable oil, lye and water. Whittle uses canola oil, coconut oil, palm herbal oil, cocoa butter and beeswax, depending on the type of soap.

"Fruit juice and pureed fruit can be used in place of water," Whittle said. She freezes and dries fresh fruit for use later. Fruit soap is tricky to make because a preservative is needed and it must be dried quickly. Whittle uses vitamin E, benzoic gum powder and grapefruit seed extract as preservatives.

A colouring agent, for example sage, may be added as well as fruit, herbal or floral oils to enhance the appearance and smell of the soap. The final mixture is poured into moulds and left to solidify. The bars are trimmed and placed on racks in a warm dry space for up to a month.

"I've learned the importance of presentation - soaps arranged in old fashioned bushel baskets sell better than those presented on shelves," she said.

Being both thrifty and creative, she used the trimmings to create soaps with a mixture of scents such as flora bouquet, cocoa butter soap and fruit salad.
Looking to the future, Whittle wants to make other bath products including bath salts, bubble bath and bath balms.

"I plan to increase my focus on fruit scents," she said.

Whittle sees her business as a way of promoting Okanagan fruits and agri-tourism. She and her husband, Terry, owned the Beachside Motel in Penticton for a number of years. Terry helps his wife by doing the bookkeeping and making drying racks and other equipment.

Okanagan Fruit Scents soaps are available at select retail outlets in the South Okanagan. Whittle also sells wholesale and retail from her home in Oliver. She can be reached by phone at 498-0802 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

2004-12   Susan McIver