Early entrepreneur

When Lauren Ax was seven years old, she wanted to go to the craft shows where her mom, Kathy Ax, sold ceramics she made in her studio. Not one to allow her kids to just run around all day while she sold her homemade crafts, Ax told her daughter she could go, but under one condition.

"My mom was doing stuff at the craft shows and I wanted to go with her," said Lauren, now nine. "She said 'why don't you sell something?'"

That's how Soapy Moose Bath Company was formed. Licensed under her mother's company, Alaska Northwest Designs, and registered as a Made in Alaska business, Soapy Moose is Lauren's bath and body business, which has proven to be quite lucrative during the last two-and-a-half years.

"I made $89 last weekend," Lauren said.

Lauren makes and sells bath salts, bath fizzies, body shimmer, body glitter, chap stick, bubble bath, shower salts, cream perfume and melt and pour soap.

While her parents fronted the money to get Soapy Moose off the ground, Lauren has kept the business going by taking a percentage of her earnings from each craft show and reinvesting into her company to buy supplies.

Lauren, who started the business making bath salts and now hopes to expand into making exfoliating creams and body powder, purchases unscented products in bulk then scents and dyes the salts, shimmers and soaps to sell at the numerous craft shows around the Valley and Anchorage. Last year she sold her goods at the Holiday Food and Gift Show at the Sullivan Arena.

She recently had a booth with her brother, who makes incense, at the Holiday Craft Fair at the Alaska State Fair grounds in Palmer, and will be selling her homemade goods at holiday fairs at Colony High School and the senior center before the holiday season is over.

"My mom does the big shows and we do the little shows," said Lauren, who plans to sell her products at the Saturday market next year.

Lauren has been saving part of the money she has made for a family trip to Hawaii this spring, and has spent some of it on decorating her room, which is covered with cheetah prints and cheetah figurines. She also puts part of the money away to help her with her dream to become a model; she participated in a charm/modeling school already, and hopes to continue modeling schooling when she becomes a teen-ager. And like the hopes of many aspiring models, she's already got one thing going for her: Her own beauty line.

"My favorite is making the shower salts," Lauren said. "It makes your skin softer and smells nice."

Lauren's favorite scent is papaya; one whiff and you'll want to eat the Soapy Moose product it's been infused into. Lauren manages to make her products during the evening after she finishes her homework, although with all the new product recipes she and her mother have found through Internet research, there is almost too much to handle. But as she goes through the different fragrance oils, figuring out new products and counting her hard-earned cash, she says it's been a lot of fun.

"Look at the body shimmer," she says smiling while smearing a bit on her mother's hand. "You could put it all over you and dress up like a mermaid!"