Alegna Soap

Alegna Soap offers organic soaps and skin care products made in small batches. Angela Carillo decided to take her career in chemistry in a new direction after her children left home. Through a journey that led her from library research to classes, conferences and communities of other soap makers, Alegna Soap began as a business in 2010. Her products are now in local bed & breakfasts, specialty shops and available online. Angela teaches classes in soap making to adults in NYC and on Long Island, and skin care classes to elementary students. She has written for The Soap Collaborative, and Making Soap Cosmetics & Candles (previously known as Saponifier). She reached an even wider audience when she was invited to show host Kevin Pereira how to make soap on TV’s Hack My Life.

Donating her time and products to help others in need is also important to Angela. She was one of a group of soap makers who traveled to Haiti to teach women in tent camps how to make soap and perfume as a way to support themselves. Through her initiative, “Soap for Soup,” Angela regularly makes a special batch of soap products from which the proceeds go directly to a Bethpage, NY, food pantry because of their generous help for a friend of hers years ago.