Where it started
We are two sisters – Vicki (in Victoria) and Robyn (in Queensland), who have taken the plunge to produce, in Australia, a plastic soap shaker (May also be known as a soap cage or soap saver). Our inspiration was our mother, Melba May, who used a soap shaker for most of her married life from the 1950’s onwards, and we still have that one! The design of ours was based on Mum’s, with a few alterations. We also want to help our customers make easy changes, in their home, towards sustainable living. We can show you how to reduce your household waste, move away from using chemicals, save money and help you with household recycling. Once we decided that we were going to start our business in 2020, we had to do some research into finding a plastics company to manufacture the shakers. We were adamant it had to be made in Australia and it had to be recycleable. We were extremely lucky as we had a connection to Garden City Plastics, manufacturers of plastics products, through Vicki’s son who played football for Olinda Ferny Creek Football and Netball Club. Their major sponsor is Garden City Plastics! We made contact with them and the rest is history! They have been extremely supportive and guided us throughout the entire manufacturing process. We received our first delivery of the shakers in late February 2022. We have produced the only Australian made soap shaker. It is recycleable through pp5.com.au We only deal with Australian businesses for our supplies, like Bendigo Woolen Mills, Pental Soaps, Australian Cello Bags, Snap Printing.
Our mission is to offer practical, easy to use, durable products to reduce your plastic footprint. Reduce, recycle, reuse.
When you purchase one of our products, you are making changes toward living a sustainable life and helping our environment – it just takes one small change to start
We value sustainability, community, integrity, and enjoyment.
Fun & Natural
We believed there was a need for this product in the market, particularly given the versatility of it especially when hand washing dishes, in the laundry, as well as for making suds in the bath for children. When children are old enough, they enjoy making lots of bubbles in the bath, making bathtime a fun and enjoyable experience. The soap we use and recommend is a very natural soap, such as Sunlight or Velvet, which were the same as our mother Melba used. The soap bars, which can still be bought today, can be cut in half to fit the shaker. There are far less chemicals in these types of soaps, as opposed to dishwashing liquids. The shaker cage ensures that the soap is economically used to the very last piece, eliminating waste of small bits of soap. Mum called it a soap shaker, but you may have had it called a soap cage or soap saver.
Our Inspiration: Melba May
Eco-Friendly
We have a strong focus on recycling and our products are made from a very durable plastic which can eventually be recycled (in the case of the shakers), our dishcloths and scourers are made from eco-friendly products which can be put into the compost. All our packaging can be recycled or placed in your compost.
We are so excited to share our vision with you, and know that you too will enjoy using the Soap Shaker from Soap Shakin’ Sisters together with our associated products.
In the Media
ABC Australia
Vicki was on the ABC’s “Australia All Over with Macca” , when we started in March 2022
Both Robyn and Vicki were in the ABC studios with Macca in late April 2023, while in Sydney, for the Australian Small Business Champions Awards. He and his staff made us feel very welcome and we enjoyed every minute. We chatted everything Soap Shakin Sisters and laughed alot.
PODCAST
Vicki and Robyn, were fortunate to be on the podcast – Turn Up Your Volume with Alison Fraser. Alison is a journalist in New Zealand and has great tips on gaining free publicity. We talked about our experiences, how we divide up our business tasks and our favourite ice cream flavours.
MAGAZINES
Soap Shakin Sisters have had their story featured in Grass Roots Magazine in their October/November 2022 edition. We are very excited to be a part, of this informative magazine. Grassroots has been going since the 70’s and it is the go to magazine for sustainable living, fruit and vegetable growing, preserving, recipes, poultry keeping and much more. Head to their website, grassrootsmagazine.com.au where you can subscribe to it. Robyn and I can’t thank Megg and Emma enough for their work on the article. It shows what like minded people can do when they work together.
