ShakespearesBathtub

Hello!

My name is Mikaela. I’m a vegan cosmetics-enthusiast educated in the sciences and local to Kitchener, Ontario. Let me tell you the story of Shakespeare’s Bathtub: It was the autumn of 2015 when I turned over a bottle of shampoo in my hands to peruse the ingredients list. Feeling curious, I began to google a few of the ingredients and much to my unhappy surprise, I found that many of my favourite brands filled their products with poor ingredients. These included substances shown to have phototoxic properties or to be irritants, allergens or carcinogens. I knew that I did not want these substances on my skin – my body’s biggest organ.

More searching led me to notice a gap in the market for Canadian, vegan products made with only the safest ingredients and sold at reasonable prices. Having been raised with the idea that “If you see a problem, you should fix it,” I began my journey towards creating my own line of such safe, vegan cosmetics.

The journey began with plenty of reading – legal requirements, business practices, web design, ingredient acquisition and reputable empirical research. This moved into making acquaintances with Canadian ingredient and packaging distributors, ordering ingredients and developing my own formulas. Everything became official when I took the step of obtaining my own web domain and shop design. After much brainstorming, I settled on the name Shakespeare’s Bathtub. I found it allowed for fun, sitewide branding that could mesh together my love of safe cosmetics with my love of literature. By January of 2016, www.shakespearesbathtub.com was open to the public, who were just as excited as I was!

Since then, Shakespeare’s Bathtub has been rapidly growing – releasing a new product at an average rate close to one product a week. The company’s reach has expanded from my hometown to the country to the continent and, recently, internationally. Shakespeare’s Bathtub has vended at local craft fairs, supplied gifts for weddings and events and collaborated with popular bloggers. I have big hopes for the future of Shakespeare’s Bathtub and can’t wait to see how this journey continues. I invite you to hop along for the ride by subscribing to the newsletter, following on social media or perhaps even trying out a product or two for yourself.

Let’s join together in the pursuit of healthy, happy—and affordable!—living,

Best wishes,

Mikaela