Art Bath Soul: Small Business Success

On the mor­­­­ning of September 12 at San Francisco's Pier 39, Catina Stavroulakis gazed across the bay. She thought about her beginnings - building her now booming business from supplies in her kitchen.

Stavroulakis started her career in the Silicon Valley as an aeronautics engineer, but she spent her weekends researching aroma therapy, oils and salts. With her knowledge of engineering principals coupled with her salt product ambitions, she designed and developed a line of aromatic body scrub.

When the tech boom crashed, she devoted her time fully to her passion-The Salt Project. Research became more intense. Bath salts and moisturizing body oils were added to her line of products and she studied sea salt and olive oil in-and-out for quality, usability and their health benefits. She studied the effects of the salt color as well, "colors affect our health and emotions, "said Stavroulakis.

She analyzed the structural components of bath scrubs. "I studied every scrub I could find. I went to every leading manufacturer, every drugstore manufacturer, and farmers' markets," testing jagged scrubs and exotics. "I found many things I didn't like and many things they didn't have that I wanted."

Her experiments sent her in search of the finest salt minerals on the market. The groundwork of quality salt scrub lies in the quality of the salt she explained. Her Salt Project line uses salt cleaned and milled to a maximum of 99 percent purity.

"I get all my salt and olive oil from Bay Area manufacturers. Operating business in the Bay Area is not cheap," she said, "I think these relationships are important for commerce and stimulate the local economy."

The Salt Project operates out of a 1,500 square foot Milpitas workspace, distributes to more than 80 independent sales consultants and occupies space on store shelves all over the United States.

The Salt Project product line includes body scrub, moisturizing body oil, foot soak, and bath salt in 16 aroma therapeutic scents. You can access the Art Bath Soul experience online at thesaltproject.com.