Founder and Maker of Bramble & Bear Soap Co.
Hello, I'm Elizabeth, the founder and maker of Bramble & Bear Soap Co.
From Technology to Handmade Soap
My path to soapmaking wasn't an obvious one. I came from a career in technology, working with business systems across finance, operations, and manufacturing.
It was a world of systems, problem-solving, deadlines, and detail. But alongside that analytical side of my life, there has always been a creative one.
Scandinavian Design and the Inspiration Behind Bramble & Bear
Travel shaped my eye as well. Through my work, I had the opportunity to spend about six months in Scandinavia and time in Northern European cities including Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Bergen, and Tallinn.
What stayed with me was a sensibility — thoughtful design, openness, natural surroundings, and an ability to make everyday spaces and objects feel beautiful without unnecessary excess.
Architecture, Simplicity and Imagination
I've also long been fascinated by architecture and interior design. I'm especially drawn to the work of Kazuyo Sejima, including her work with SANAA — particularly its extraordinary lightness, transparency, simplicity, and sense of open space. It reflects something I find compelling: simplicity can be quiet and restrained without ever feeling ordinary.
I admire Zaha Hadid from a different direction — for the imagination to rethink familiar forms and create something unexpected. Together, those influences have reinforced an idea that has stayed with me: simplicity and imagination don't have to be opposites.
Those ideas find their way into the things I'm naturally drawn to — uncluttered spaces, interesting forms, the openness of the coast, fresh air, quiet woodland paths, and details that feel considered.
Creating Bramble & Bear Soap Co.
When my professional life reached a natural transition point, I began thinking about what I wanted the next chapter to look like.
I wanted more room to make, experiment, and create.
Bramble & Bear became a place where the analytical and creative sides of my life could finally come together — structure and imagination, travel and memory, nature, fragrance, and design.
Small-Batch Soap, Made by Hand in Texas
Bramble & Bear is very much a one-person studio. From my workspace in Texas, I make the soaps in small batches, with careful attention to consistent, thoughtful production practices.
From Product Development to Every Order
I'm involved in every part of what you see here — from developing the products and creating the packaging and imagery to writing the copy, building and maintaining the website, and preparing each order.
Where the Soap Ideas Begin
An idea can begin almost anywhere — with a landscape, a fragrance, a season, a favorite dessert, a memory of a place, or simply a color combination I want to explore.
But Bramble & Bear is also about what I hope those ideas can bring to someone else.
After years in a demanding professional environment filled with projects, deadlines, and travel, I came to appreciate the value of quieter moments — fresh air, open spaces, a walk near the water or through the woods, or simply a few minutes when the day feels less hurried.
That feeling became part of what I wanted Bramble & Bear to offer.
Turning Everyday Soap Into a Quiet Ritual
Soap is an ordinary part of everyday life, but the ritual around it doesn't have to feel ordinary. Through fragrance, color, texture, and the places that inspire each bar, I hope to offer a small moment away from the pace and noise of modern life — something refreshing, grounding, and quietly beautiful.
A little room to breathe.
I hope that somewhere in these pages, or perhaps in one of the soaps, you find something that brings a little interest, enjoyment, or quiet escape to your day.
Explore More From Bramble & Bear
If you have a little more time, I hope you'll wander through the Bramble Journal as well — a place for stories, ideas, inspiration, and some of the thoughts and places behind Bramble & Bear.
Or, if you'd like to see the soaps themselves, you can explore the full Bramble & Bear soap collection.
Thank you for spending a little time here, for getting to know the person behind Bramble & Bear, and for visiting the world I've created.
Elizabeth Mika
Founder and Maker
Bramble & Bear™ Soap Co.
The Soap in the Woodland Air