“It’s a feeling. Nurture your skin with a touch of the tropics.”

Handmade soaps, bath, and body products by Island Fresh Skincare invite you to take a long morning walk in the healing air of a warm tropical island. Years ago Marilyn Dice was frustrated that the soap and skin care products on the market were not taking proper care of her dry skin. But, Marilyn comes from a long line of soapmakers and is a lover of tropical climates. Born and raised in Ohio with roots in rural Georgia and Florida she remembers a big black kettle that her grandmother used to make the family soap over a fire in her backyard. After spending inspired time near the sea on the Florida coast, and exploring tropical soap ingredients in Hawaii, she launched Island Fresh in 2007 with her first batch of handmade soap, which eventually became her signature Aloha Africa Luxury Soap.

Today, Island Fresh Skincare offers various soaps, body butter sticks, body crémés, bath balms and salts, hand poured candles, and more, all made in small batches by hand in Marilyn’s new Homewood studio and production facility. Traditional, pure ingredients from tropical climates are incorporated into luxurious soaps and bath products for any skin type, but especially those with dry skin. Island Fresh’s unique Mama Sallie’s Old Fashioned Soap is a tribute to Marilyn’s soapmaking grandmother and is made with creamy, unbleached tallow and skin nourishing oil, allowing for a hard, long lasting soap with a dense lather. The Aloha Africa Luxury Soap – made with African shea butter and kukui oil (a hair and skin treatment discovered in Hawaii) – and Coco Mango Butter Luxury Soap lay the foundation for an entire line of bath and body products with a wide variety of soothing, playful, and cheerful scents inspired by the tropics and Marilyn’s Southern heritage.

Marilyn is a member of the founding cohort of ORIGINS, a PG&H sister program and platform that celebrates and supports Black makers in Pittsburgh; learn more at ORIGINSpgh.org.