BERESFORD, S.D. | When Erin Nelson whips up a batch of pumpkin spice soap, the sweet smell of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg fill her big farmhouse in Beresford.

Right now, she has at least six different kinds of soap curing on bakery racks in her living room. Not all of them smell like pumpkin pie.

Her newest bar of body wash, Lumberjack Swag, is a masculine blend of essential oils – bergamot, bay rum, cedar wood, geranium and black pepper.

“I’m in it so much that I don’t smell it anymore,” she said. But other people do – everyone from the mail carriers to strangers on the street. People come up to her and say, “You smell really good.”

“It’s kind of embarrassing,” she said.

That’s the plight of becoming a professional soap maker.

She sells her products in southeast South Dakota supermarkets, regional craft shows and online. Nelson hoped to generate more business through a national competition.

Her company, Irish Twins Soap, was a nominee in theMartha Stewart American Made contest. Ten winners were chosen by the editors of “Martha Stewart Living,” while the audience voted on six category winners – craft, design, food, garden, style and technology – and one grand prize winner.

Nelson didn't win, but she was still happy to be recognized by the American Made community, which spotlights the maker, supports the local and celebrates the handmade.

About four years ago, Nelson started concocting handcrafted cleansers in her kitchen and never stopped. Her sister, who lives on the other side of the state, made the product for awhile, too – long enough to play a part in the business being named Irish Twins Soap.

They’re Irish all right, but the name actually comes from the siblings being born less than a year apart – thus termed “Irish twins.”

The name was also fitting because they grew up in a “green” household in Rapid City, S.D.

When Nelson would have friends over, she didn’t want them to look in the fridge. Her dad kept the kitchen stocked with liquid chlorophyll, grains, granola and coconut oil. He was always cooking with coconut oil.

His office was above a health foods store, which literally fed his fixation with all-natural products.

That instilled in her a desire to produce eco-friendly, sustainable soap for all skin types.

Nelson tries to buy local when she can. She gets goat’s milk from a local farmer, and a Beresford beekeeper supplies her with all the beeswax and honey she needs to make soap, sugar scrubs and lip balm.

She uses herbs, botanicals and essential oils to carefully craft each product from scratch.

“I’m really fussy about what I put on my skin,” she said. “I started making soap for that reason. About when that started…I lost my job.”

So, when life gives you lemons, make sweet lemon soap.

Nelson bought her first mold for $10 off Craigslist. Now, she has about a dozen molds that each make 46 bars of soap.

The house is bursting with supplies.

The dining table – also known as the marketing center – has been demoted to the living room, and a large steel table built by her husband stands in its place. That’s where she can pour, cut and wrap the soap after it has cured on the bakery racks for a month.

Her laundry room holds jars and lids for her sugar scrubs and new all-natural deodorant, and she keeps bins of soaps, oils and a mailing station tucked away in a room off the kitchen.

Oh, and her husband, Koalin, runs a small company called Dakota Salvage Works. Outside of his full-time job, he makes re-purposed furniture.

She hopes to have a soap shop on wheels once they renovate a 1965 Yellowstone Canned Ham camper, and she’s looking for a building downtown to house the operation.

“We need more space,” Nelson said. “It’s literally taking over my entire house…But I love it.”

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