One of Belleville’s newest businesses is a soap factory. Meet the artistic owner.
Working as an artist in Chicago for 30 years, it never occurred to Doug Coggeshall that he would someday return to his hometown of Belleville and open a soap factory.
Yet that’s exactly what he did.
The 61-year-old is converting a building on East Main Street into the headquarters for Waterfall Glen Soap Co., a business he founded eight years ago. He manufactures and sells 28 skincare products, including soap, body butter, beard oil and face cream.
“Our focus is organic and vegan ingredients and plastic-free packaging for healthy skin, healthy people and a healthy planet,” Coggeshall said.
Some products have Bulgarian names and contain essential oils from that country, reflecting the influence of Coggeshall’s ex-wife, Katia Ilieva, a Bulgarian immigrant, doctor and lover of nature and folklore.
Among the company’s signature products are frog-shaped soaps.
“They come in a box with air holes so they can breathe,” Coggeshall said. “Each one has its own character story. They are all related to each other, and they talk about each other, and they mention Belleville, and they come with a note that explains how to teach them tricks.”
Coggeshall sells products at about 20 stores in the Chicago area and ships through Amazon and Etsy. This summer, he’ll start operating booths at farmers’ markets in St. Louis and the metro-east.
Career in decorative art
Coggeshall is an Althoff Catholic High School graduate who attended Belleville Area College (now Southwestern Illinois College) and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and Carbondale before moving to Chicago to pursue a career in decorative art.
Coggeshall traveled all over the country, painting three-dimensional murals in homes and businesses, until the global financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 dried up business. He hoped it would bounce back, but it never did.
Coggeshall had been buying small-batch, handmade soap for health reasons after his father, John Coggeshall, died of melanoma. Then he started making it in his kitchen, using the old-fashioned process of mixing lye water and essential oils.
“My first soaps were terrible,” he said. “They would fall apart, and they wouldn’t last very long. But I was learning and trying and growing.”
Once Coggeshall perfected his formula and technique, he began selling soap to friends on Facebook and eventually to customers at farmers’ markets. He named the business after his former street, Waterfall Glen Boulevard in Darien, Illinois, near Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve.
Belleville customers included Steve Wilson, 65, a Metro East Community Chorale singer and retired salesman who went to school with Coggeshall’s brother, Steve.
“All the ingredients are pure,” said Wilson, who has bought several types of Waterfall Glen bar soap. “Nothing is added. You never know what chemicals are going to affect you. You always want to pick products that you trust.”
Former soil-testing lab
Coggeshall moved back to Belleville last year, figuring he could find a more affordable building for a headquarters in his hometown. For about six months, he made soap in the basement of his mother’s historic Victorian home.
“His artwork was beautiful,” said Myra Coggeshall, 89, a retired medical technician at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. “I’m really sorry that he had to quit that due to the recession. But now he’s got a new career, and that’s fine, too. Douglas is very inventive.”
In December, Coggeshall bought a white 1940 warehouse-like building at 1511 E. Main St. in Belleville. It had originated as a repair shop for fire trucks and later served as a paint store, soil-testing laboratory and stock-car workshop.
Myra Coggeshall was happy for her son, who needed more space for his business, but she missed the fragrance of soap in her home. Her favorite contains rose oil from Bulgaria.
“His bars are so big, I cut them in half,” she said. “They’re easier for me to manage.”
Doug Coggeshall has recruited family friend Nancy Bakay and her husband, Bob Rosner, to help with his entrepreneurial effort.
Bakay, a retired medical technician who formerly worked with Myra Coggeshall, serves as shipping manager. Rosner, a retired IT specialist at Scott Air Force Base, is overseeing renovations.
“It’s still a work in progress,” said Bakay, 68, of Belleville. “We haven’t finished yet. We want to have a front office with a storefront. We’re working on tiling the floor. But we’re trying to make soap and turn the warehouse into a factory and remodel the house, all at the same time.”
Bakay was speaking of a small, attached house that Doug Coggeshall plans to live in.
This summer, Waterfall Glen Soap Co. products will be sold at Vine Street Market in O’Fallon, Soulard Farmer’s Market and Tower Grove Farmers’ Market in St. Louis and Boulevard Farmers’ Market in Richmond Heights, Missouri.
For more information, visit the website (www.waterfallglensoap.com), Facebook page (waterfallglensoap), Twitter and Instagram pages (@wgsoap) or YouTube channel; email to waterfallglensoap@gmail.com or call 630-220-5242.
This story was originally published April 19, 2021 at 7:00 AM with the headline "One of Belleville’s newest businesses is a soap factory. Meet the artistic owner.."
