About Us

Origins
Maui Tropical Soaps was founded on Maui in 1996 and now makes the best selling line of handmade bath & body products in Hawaii. Our product lineup includes glycerin & cold-process soaps, lotions, butters, oils, salon-grade natural hair care products, and there's more on the way.

Clientèle
Over the years, Maui Tropical Soaps has developed a very prestigious international clientèle. The company's products are sold exclusively through the upper echelon of boutiques, spas, and salons from Hawaii to Switzerland. We're also in select Japanese department stores, Duty Free Stores, and several of Condé Nast’s top resorts. In fact, if you ever have the good fortune to stay in a private estate on Maui, which can run upwards of $70,000 per week, chances are you’ll see our products featured in the loo.

Made from scratch
Maui Tropical Soaps is the only a few companies in the world that makes its own glycerin soap base, and is the only company of its size to do so. We are in full command of the entire process from start to finish, crafting each bar of soap by hand from our own proprietary natural bases. Our obsession with details, customer service, and quality has made Maui Tropical Soaps the number one line of handmade toiletries in Hawaii.

Our Product Philosophy

Our commitment
Maui Tropical Soaps is committed to making the safest, most effective products possible. We are also committed to making each of our products the best in its class, and you have our solemn promise that we will NEVER use ingredients that are dangerous or harmful in any way.

Natural v Synthetic
We all want safe ‘green’ products, but we also know that the majority of really green products don’t work very well. They are, as a friend of mine refers to them, “basically dirt in a bottle” and they perform as the name suggests. Most of Maui Tropical Soaps products use natural, organic, and wild-crafted ingredients; however, we also apply a great deal of science to our creations. In order to assure that our products are of the highest quality, we work closely with 3 chemists and a microbiologist who specialize in formulating very high-end natural cosmeceuticals.

We generally avoid synthetics; however, in some cases it is simply not possible to be 100% natural. When we are forced to use a synthetic ingredient due to a lack of natural alternatives, we only use those that are absolutely safe and effective.

Beware FDA approval
Many synthetics are very dangerous even though they are approved by the FDA. For example, sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES), is a detergent and surfactant commonly found in many personal care products (soaps, shampoos, toothpaste etc.). It is also commonly used to clean greasy car engines and factory floors (same stuff—different bottle).

SLES often contains low levels of the known carcinogen 1,4-Dioxane. While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration encourages manufacturers to remove 1,4-dioxane, it is not required by federal law.

There are many other examples of FDA approved ingredients that are widely used and extremely controversial, such as, germaben II (a carcinogen known to cause breast cancer), methyl and propyl parabens, phthalates, and the list goes on….

Buyer beware!
To make matters worse, many manufacturers lie about their ingredients, and I don’t mean little white lies. Many will publish a fairy tale ingredients list of organic ingredients and fairy dust, when, in reality, their products are nothing more than silicones from Dow Corning plus some of the nasty things referred to above. The FDA can hardly monitor our food supply, so they certainly can’t monitor the cosmetic industry. Unscrupulous manufacturers know and exploit this circumstance to the fullest. I am not passing on urban legend or folk lore. I know this information to be true from firsthand experience of people I’ve met and worked with… people that shamelessly exploit others for their own gain despite the possible consequences. There may very well be national brands, sitting on store shelves in your neighborhood, that aren’t what they pretend to be.

Buyer be smart!
So what can you as a consumer do? For starters, do some homework and only buy from companies you trust. Maui Tropical Soaps has been in business since 1996 and has earned a reputation for quality and service that has made it one of the most sought after brands in Hawaii.

Maui Tropical Soaps products are exactly what we say they are and we welcome independent testing. You can trust that our products are the best of nature and science.

So, the next time you want to indulge yourself with some fine products (Hawaiian or other), do so with the peace of mind that your products don’t just smell good... they don’t just feel good… they are good!

With our warmest aloha!
Richard Stillman, Owner