When you’re going to a friend or family’s house for a Shabbat meal, it is customary to  give the hostess a gift for having you. As time goes on, people end up accumulating hundreds of platters and the concept of giving flowers is fleeting, to say the least. In today’s day and age, one is typically searching for a more personal and unique gift to give to their loved ones and, luckily, The Soap Bar Brooklyn has the solution.

The Soap Bar Brooklyn offers hundreds of combinations of beautiful gifts for all price ranges. The mother and daughter duo, Rachel Schweky and Esther Chrem Cohen, opened up shop in December of 2015 on East 2nd between Kings Highway and Ave S in Brooklyn, NY and the two have been putting together beautiful gift packages for all occasions ever since.

The Soap Bar has products that make you feel good, help you relax and de-stress from our sometimes hectic lifestyles. They are all about aromatherapy and finding the best scents from around the world.

“Whenever I traveled, I found myself gravitating towards soaps and bath products unique to each place. I would bring them back and gift them to my friends,” said co-founder Rachel Schweky.

From unique French soaps, to products like bath bombs handmade in the United States, all can be found in this special boutique.

“What sparked it was the desire to do something on my own. I was tired of commuting to my job and wanted to be my own boss,” explained Mrs. Schweky, “I would spend hours researching things I enjoyed and it came back to what I love to shop for the most: soaps!”

Since their start, the business has grown and branched out into different directions. The Soap Bar BK now carries a complete line of bathroom accessories such as hand towels, scented diffusers, candles, and beautiful vanity trays. They also carry a complete line of swanee (customary gifts given by the bride and groom to one another before their wedding) items for both women and men.

“We aim to be a one stop shop for swanee items. We have gorgeous travel & cosmetic bags, modern candlesticks, evening bags, picture frames, and much more,” explained Rachel of their new addition of products in their store.

They cater to both men and women as well as infants and children. Everything in the store is also perfectly safe & healthy to use products. Their baby gift packages are stunning, different, and helpful to new mothers. With organic baby wash, baby powder, lotion, and a natural sea sponge all packaged beautifully in a bassinet shaped wire basket ready to gift to anyone who may need it.

Each holiday, Esther and Rachel put their minds together to construct special and original hostess gifts. On Purim you can come in and select two food items as well as food shaped soaps and other bath items to fill your one of a kind mishloach manot baskets.

For this upcoming Rosh Hashanah, they have some great packages in the works as well. Rachel loves to shop for specialty items such as orange and lavender flavored honeys, to be put in lucite honey jars. They also have things like apple shaped candles and honey soaps, you can choose to have them work within your budget to make a package or come in and select whatever you’d like to include from their vast variety of products.

For more information head to their Instagram @The_Soap_Bar_Bklyn or just head to the store!

Frieda Schweky

Frieda@sephardic.org

Frieda Schweky is Sephardic.Org's official community events reporter. For inquiries and to get involved with our site, please contact Frieda via email.