Taralyn's Bio

Early Years

Taralyn was born and raised in western New York State, along with two brothers and a sister. Childhood memories include being outside all day, making apple sauce with Grandma from freshly picked apples, playing along the Erie Canal and fishing trips with Dad on Lake Ontario.

High School

In tenth grade, Mom moved east to the greater Albany region, after a marital separation. Life was certainly different in the city, adjustments and growing up seemed hard during this time, but high school holds memories that have lasted a lifetime.

Also, Mom was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis during this time, which was life changing for the entire family. Exploration of healthier ways to eat and live have been a lifetime learning process that evolves with every experience.

Five Rivers Environmental Center

Taralyn's first job out of high school was working for the Biometrics Unit of New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation. Collection of wildlife data was their aim, and we entered this into old vector computers on 8" floppy disks. This unit was also in charge of operating deer check stations, in which we gathered age, antler, and other data on the deer population. Although secretarial in nature, this job grew into a huge love of science, nature and wildlife.

After the summer position in biometrics, she spent time as the lead secretary for the Game Bird Unit. Other than general office duties, tasks included helping to organize hunter training classes, processing permits for turkey and other wild fowl seasons, and assisting in relocation efforts for wild geese.

Her passions led her to the Wildlife Pathology Unit, where she was able to nurse orphaned and injured wildlife, assist in necropsies and other lab work (staining slides for distemper, etc.) as well as working alongside the State Wildlife Pathologist in fights against pollution in landfills and other EPA sites.

We successfully put together data for litigation against Ciba Geigy to eliminate the use of the pesticide Diazinon on large areas such as Golf Courses. This chemical kills wildlife, especially birds, but amazingly we had an infant child in the data set as well (it's still available to purchase for home use, but yeah...don't use that stuff...)! We also worked in collaboration with the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation, collecting and analyzing biome samples and helping them fight the pollution they faced along the St. Lawrence Seaway from the large corporations of Alcoa, Reynolds and General Motors.

Rock Climbing, Skiing, CSU & Colorado

Ed came into the picture during the Five Rivers era, while taking night classes at the community college. Rock climbing in the Shawungunks, skiing in Massachusetts and night school all gave way to the idea of moving to Colorado to finish up degrees together. We got married soon after - Hudson River ceremony on a river boat! Honeymoon in Maine/Nova Scotia.

Fort Collins, Loveland

We lived in Fort Collins while attending Colorado State University. Jobs during school included data entry at Collins Cashway Lumber, secretary/payroll/drafting at Abrahamson Engineering, National Seed Storage Laboratory and Paul Laybourn's laboratory at CSU. We had our first child with a year and a half left to complete our bachelor's degrees. Heidi and I met during undergraduate years and have been friends ever since.

Loveland was our home after graduation, during Ed's master's degree, working at ATI and in Marv Paule's laboratory. Our second child was born while in this house.

Poughkeepsie

After Ed graduated with his masters, we had a short stint in Poughkeepsie while he worked at Regeneron. Tara stayed at home with the kids and quality time was spent with family in Albany during this year and a half.

Back to Colorado

Although there are certain benefits of living closer to family, we felt a huge pull to move back to Colorado. Ed got his job with Amgen in 2000 and we made the move to Longmont. We love Colorado and can't imagine living anywhere else - we definitely take advantage of the beauty found here!

Taralyn took a position at a biotech company in Boulder working on DNA/LNA analogs. After 9/11 it seemed more important to be home with the kids and she started providing childcare in her home.

Heidi and I started making soap around 2003-2005, and we registered the business entity of Almost Sisters' Creations in 2009. In 2012, we split this venture into two separate companies, and thus ASC Soapworks was born. Once the soap company started taking off, the child care hours tapered and ASC Soapworks took full attention.

Pandemic Challenges

The last few years have posed their own flavor of challenges. Taralyn's daughter was in Malaga, Spain and took this photo in March of 2020. This started a cascade effect where all wholesale opportunities dried up, no venues were available and people were tied up in fear and not willing to spend much money. So, although sales plummeted for a while, they have been on an upturn.

Taralyn had the added bonus challenge of being diagnosed with breast cancer in August of 2020, with subsequent surgery and radiation treatments throughout the fall/winter of that year. Although this was and continues to be a difficult trial, a few awesome products came from this journey. Have you tried our body butter? Or our SLS Free bath bombs? Changes in personal care routines led to the creation of these wonderful items.

Taralyn's Mind's Eye

All of these experiences have brought Taralyn, your soapmaker, to a place where she doesn't want to add any further stress to her body (or her loved ones bodies...) through unnecessary ingredients and chemicals. Reducing these, researching the effect they have on our health and maintaining an awareness of how our surrounding environment changes - or can be intentionally changed for the better - has become a guiding focus of everything she does.

ASC Soapworks products will not contain sulfates, quaternary amines, parabens, oxides, micas or many of the ingredients you may find in other brands. We are committed to keeping it clean in our body soaps, body butters, scrubs, bath bombs, dish and laundry soaps. Colorants are plant based, natural and organic ingredients - researched to ensure human safety, as natural does not always equal safe.

When it comes to Eco Sustainability, responsible manufacturing should be the conversation of the day. Try doing a shopping trip without putting plastic into your cart - a near impossible task. Where is the accountability of the manufacturer to give us sustainable choices? Removing plastic shopping bags at checkout and charging the customer a fee (that has no designated use) is doing very little in the fight to keep plastics from leaching into our environment from our landfills. Sustainability should be at the forefront of your mind when you consume - look for products packaged in cardboard, paper, glass or metal.

We CAN change the world we live in with our purchasing decisions.

Are you also up for the challenge? Make a commitment to do better today!