Erin Nelson's all-natural soaps, available through her Irish Twins Soap Company in Beresford, do wonders for the skin.

Soap That’s Good For You

By Rebecca Johnson

Erin Nelson of Beresford has always been health-conscious, striving to use products free from chemicals and impurities. “It’s made a huge difference in how my body and skin feels,” she says. When Nelson couldn’t find soap that fit her lifestyle in local stores, she started making her own. “I decided people have been making it for hundreds of years and I just wanted to know how,” she explains.

Nelson started her Irish Twins Soap Company in 2009. She hand stirs and pours more than 35 types of bar soaps in her downtown shop, including varieties for acne, psoriasis and eczema. Many contain French and Moroccan clays, and her Dakota Gunsmoke contains activated charcoal. “The clays pull toxins out of your skin and activated charcoal does too,” she explains.

Along with artisan bar soaps, Nelson makes soy wax candles, bath and body products and household cleaners. And she’s fussy about ingredient quality, using honey, beeswax, goat’s milk, herbs and botanicals from local farms.

This story is revised from the July/August 2017 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.