Primal Elements

Primal Elements is an American bath, body and home-fragrance company founded in 1993 in Huntington Beach, California, by Faith and Scott Freeman [1]. It is best known for colourful, heavily scented glycerin soaps, hand-poured candles and personal-care products, sold direct through its own website and through retailers in the United States and abroad. The company is family-owned, operating as part of In a Lather Company; the founders' son, Mitchell Freeman, now serves as its president [9].

The business remains active, with a live direct-to-consumer store and current-season product launches, including gift sets and bar soaps tied to the 2026 United States semiquincentennial.

The company grew out of a small bath and body shop that Faith and Scott Freeman ran in Belmont Shore, California. To stock the store, the couple began making handmade soap in a home kitchen — Faith Freeman has described the starting point as her mother's kitchen — and financed the venture after her mother mortgaged her paid-off home to raise capital, banks having declined to lend to the new business [9].

Rather than sell soap off a shelf, the Freemans developed what became the company's signature idea: soap sold by the inch. Bars were hand-sliced and wrapped to order, turning a purchase into an in-store experience. Freeman has said the approach came from a belief that shoppers "needed interaction" and did not simply want to pluck an item off a shelf, and that keeping customers in the store longer lifted sales. Other shop owners noticed the concept and asked to carry the soaps, which pushed the company toward wholesale manufacturing. The Belmont Shore retail store then closed to let the founders focus on production; the founder interview in Authority Magazine dates that closure to 1996, while the company's own account places it around 1997 [9][1].

By its own account the company began in a home kitchen and later moved into a dedicated manufacturing facility. In 1999 it expanded beyond soap into candles, introducing what it calls a patented "Paragel" technology that produces a stained-glass effect in its Color Bowl candles. In June 2000, Faith and Scott Freeman received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award [1].

Sources differ on the scale of the operation, reflecting different points in the company's growth. Primal Elements states on its own site that it operates a 25,000-square-foot facility with more than 60 employees [1]. An earlier profile in the Orange County Business Journal reported a 20,000-square-foot headquarters and around 40 workers, along with yearly sales of five to seven million US dollars and distribution across roughly 3,500 stores in the United States, Italy, Taiwan, Mexico, Spain and Russia [8]. That article also noted plans to move into mineral makeup and to enter more beauty-store chains.

Primal Elements Inc. operates as part of In a Lather Company and is based at Huntington Beach, California. It has remained family-run since its founding. Faith and Scott Freeman established the business, and their son Mitchell Freeman later took over as president [9].

The company positions its products as evolving from aromatherapy, hydrotherapy and botanical infusions, and emphasises a high glycerin content for moisturising. Its stated mission is to make effective products built on high-quality ingredients that, in its words, "provide the best bathing experience possible". Alongside this, the company frames itself as environmentally minded, describing its formulas as cruelty-free, free of animal ingredients, made with renewable resources and packaged in recyclable containers.

Charitable work is part of how the company describes itself. It says it has donated more than 43 tons of soap to families in extreme poverty, disaster victims and homeless-serving nonprofits through the Children's Hunger Fund, and that since 2001 it has run soap-making sessions for children with cancer at Camp Ronald McDonald For Good Times, held at the organisation's annual December celebration [3].

The product line centres on glycerin bar soaps, sold in forms ranging from standard bars to loaf soaps and novelty shapes, which the company markets as gentle and hydrating because vegetable glycerin acts as a humectant that draws in and holds moisture. Candles form a second major line, led by the two-wick Color Bowl candles that use the Paragel process for their stained-glass appearance and are made from a soy and vegetable-wax blend with lead-free cotton wicks. The personal-care range extends to bath bombs — built around shea butter, coconut water, argan oil and vitamin E — along with body scrubs, lotions, foaming washes, aluminium-free deodorant and face masks. Products are made in the United States using globally sourced ingredients.

On environmental and ethical standards, the company displays a B Corporation certification seal on its website, which it presents as a mark of social and environmental accountability [3], and describes its formulas as free of parabens and phthalates.

The founders' 2000 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award remains the company's most prominent recognition. Primal Elements has also been covered in regional and trade press, including the Orange County Business Journal profile of its expansion and growth and a founder interview with Faith Freeman in Authority Magazine.

Primal Elements is active. It operates a direct-to-consumer e-commerce site with a maintained catalogue and current-season releases, including "America 250" and "USA 250" gift sets and bar soaps tied to the 2026 United States semiquincentennial. The company continues to manufacture in Huntington Beach, California, remains family-owned.