Hi, my name is Jake Collette! My wife Alison and I grew up, and still live in a state that most people have never heard of. We produce everything for Collette Classic Supply Company, together, out of Freeport, Maine. It’s a small town, but that’s what gives the town its’ charm.

Collette Classic came about one day when I was reheating leftovers from thanksgiving for us.

“Are you ready to try the Collette classic? You’re gonna love it!” I said.

I told her the story of how my dad and his family didn’t have a microwave growing up, so they just tossed all the thanksgiving leftovers together in a pan. There’s a certain method to the madness, that I won’t go into here, but that’s just how we always ate our thanksgiving leftovers. Once I told Alison about it, and made it for her, the name just stuck around. Of course we had to name our new company after it!

One day Alison, and I were driving home from our family dinner, discussing ways we could work together on a project. We bounced ideas back and forth, until finally landing on a soap and candle project. Now, she did not know at the time, but I had been going down rabbit hole after rabbit hole, learning about soap. How it’s made on a large scale, how it’s made at home, and how I could start making it myself. She had been thinking for years that she wanted to make candles, and never had. Well, we decided we should both start.

I had been looking to make my own shave soap, as I felt that the best soaps in the world were taking it further than necessary, and charging the customer for it. I also felt that the bottom end of shave soaps were just not good enough. You go to the grocery store to buy whatever they have on the shelf, and regardless of what you pick, you’re compromising somewhere. I thought I could make a soap that checks the necessary boxes, without setting out to make the BEST SOAP POSSIBLE. The best soap in the world is… well… the best soap in the world, but only hobbyists care enough to actually buy the stuff since it costs so much money. The grocery stores know this, so they would never bother stocking their shelves with it. My thinking was; Make it good, make it simple, and make it cheap. If I could deliver on all three at the same time, then people would love it.

Little did I know, that by figuring out how to make a shave soap, and by testing recipe after recipe, that I was starting with the most complicated soap I could have possibly started with. It was fairly simple at that point to back it off a little bit and figure out a recipe for a good bar of soap. This was the same deal as the shave soap. It’s awesome if I can make the world’s best soap, but if it costs $15 a bar then very few people will ever buy it. It had to be made, and sold simply and inexpensively, since you can buy bars of soap at the grocery store for basically nothing. Our soap costs more than nothing, but it also won’t cost you an arm and a leg either. We landed on a great recipe that balances cleansing and moisturizing. It lasts as long as any bar of soap we’ve ever used, and it comes in some amazing, but simple scents.

Here we are. Collette Classic Supply Company. We make soaps and candles that we’re proud of, that we use ourselves, and the we know you’ll love too. Give our stuff a shot just once, and you’ll never want to buy from anyone else!