Meet Georgia Cobb | Founder of LadyBird Essentials, All Natural Bath & Home Goods

We had the good fortune of connecting with Georgia Cobb and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Georgia, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Even though I am an Arizona native, I used to volunteer at Fort Davis National Historic Site in Texas. To be a volunteer there, you must learn about how people lived during that time period. I became interested in how the early American settlers would clean themselves and their homes.

My mom and I started researching soapmaking. We make roughly the same recipe they would have used on the fort in 1889, but we have updated it for the modern person and made it plant based. The soap that LadyBird makes now is all vegan-friendly, and all of our ingredients come from the USA.

A good question to ask was why did soapmaking change? The short answer is that you have certain efficiencies by adding different chemicals to your soap. For example, you can make it melt away faster than the old way, but not too fast. Through the use of chemicals you can cure it faster. Due to mass manufacturing, circa WWI, soap was changed to make a worse product, but one that was ultimately more profitable for the soap seller. I wanted to make bath and home products that would be better for both you and the environment. Our soaps, and all of our products, are truly biodegradable. If you want quality, and non-toxic, bath and home goods you know where to look!

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Businesses ought to work to serve the human family and protect the environment, so we study the effect of anything we put into or on our products before they reach the market. Our products are all-natural, chemical-free, biodegradable, and camping-safe, with easy-to-understand ingredients in plain English. We have a dedication to using minimal plastic with any of our products. We know that plastic is an endocrine disruptor in humans. Something is an endocrine disruptor when it disrupts hormones and causes harm to the proper functioning of the human body.

Eventually plastic will break down into microplastics that then get into both animals and us. This means that the plastics are eventually ingested and absorbed into the human body. These plastics often contain heavy metals and chemicals that are harmful to the human family. Not to mention the fact that plastics also cause damage to the fragile ecosystems in our oceans and waterways. The Earth is a home that we all share, so we must take care of it.

Here at LadyBird, we package all our soaps in a cotton-based fiber, and we use a special type of label that is created out of rocks and biodegradable adhesive. All of our packing is biodegradable or recyclable and reusable.

We also only use clean ingredients that come from local United States businesses, and we don’t buy products from nameless manufacturers on Amazon. Ingredients and packaging from a single bar of our best selling American Lavender soap can be traced to Arizona, Alabama, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington. Most of our essential oils come from a small and high quality business in Chico, California called HBNO. Knowing where your products come from is something that is very important to us at LadyBird. We are always transparent about that.

My mom and I started LadyBird because people need clean, but to get clean, you shouldn’t be creating dirty. We know that the early American settlers didn’t create dirty, so we are doing it the way they did best, and passing it on to you.

Not all soap and home goods are created equal. With all of the work we put into every bar, and every jar, we and our customers are working together to make the world better.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I am an Arizona-native, and I truly believe that our natural areas are one of the things that makes Arizona a wonderful place to call home. When I am trying to get outdoors while in the Phoenix valley some of my favorite places to hang out are the Japanese Friendship Garden, the Desert Botanical Garden, and to hike the trails at South Mountain.

Another reason that Phoenix is a great place to live is because of the vibrant small businesses and artists that make our community amazing. Some of the best places to have fun and support them are at First Friday on Roosevelt Row and the Vegan Social in downtown Phoenix. Both events are a lot of fun – you also can never go wrong with just walking around and enjoying the art and city life.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My high school business teacher who never stopped believing in me – Mrs Heinz. She took me under her wing when I was having a particularly difficult time. It was because of her that I ended up taking all of the business classes my school offered, plus a few extra they created just for me! I ended up going to the University of Dallas, and majoring in Business.

Website: www.ladybirdsoaps.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/ladybirdsoapco

Other: Personal instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notablygeorgia/