Chelsea Selby founded the occult bath & beauty company Witch Baby Soap in her kitchen under the Blood Moon of October 2013. Soon after, her bubbling caldron of entrepreneurial goodness overfloweth. Today, a full-fledged team of witch babies produce and ship products from a 5,000 square foot ravioli factory turned DIY office, with plans to open the first brick-and-mortar store this fall.

She is a New Jersey Witch. A Bro Witch jazzed over everything from pro wrestling to roller derby. Above all else, she’s A Stay at Home Mom Witch. A unique spirt embracing all that she has to offer and running with it. She has single-handedly built an atmospheric cult brand catering to the unconventional, yearning for an elevated bathing, and perhaps, life experience.

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@stayathomewitch

Witch Baby products are created with the goal of traveling to another time or place through scent. They evoke a submersible experience with the help of Chelsea’s cosmetology license, a Bachelor's degree in the Science of Alternative Medicine, evocative mood boards, atmospheric playlists, a community of adoring fans, and symbolic bath ritual guides:

Capricorn Bath Ritual

Solstice Bath Ritual

Aquarius Bath Ritual

Last year, I was at Trader Joe’s buying flowers for myself, and an older man shuffled over to ask me which flowers he should buy for his wife. He had been standing there, visibly frustrated well before I arrived. Most people would suggest something safe, like a dozen romantic roses, but not me, I suggested a bright bushy batch of stargazer lilies. He turned to look me straight in the eyes, and barked “LILIES ARE FOR DEAD PEOPLE!”.

Fast forward to present day, when I received a curated a box of products including the Graveyard Bath Bomb, which smells like carefully arranged funeral flowers and freshly dug dirt. Connecting over scents with someone this way is a breath of fresh air... dare I say we’re scent mates? Either way, I was instantly hooked on everything she picked and awaiting a replacement order soon after. Tis’ the season for bath soup!

I love combining bath products with fresh herbs, flowers, and fruits (aka dinner scraps and garden clippings) to create bath soup. It’s a calming reminder that the mundane moments of life can be transformed into magical experiences with a little extra effort.

All of the products are handmade without parabens, sulfates, phthalates, urea, or formaldehyde. It’s my cruelty-free alternative to the social anxiety experienced while an energetic stranger rubs lotion on my arm in the mall… if ya know what I mean. Plus, I like knowing where my money is going and this is a company I can wholeheartedly support.

My absolute favorite combo is the body scrub followed by body butter to keep my legs happy through winter. The body butters are delightfully whipped and will leave you smelling like a goddess.

Researching Witch Baby was a black hole for me. I expected to take two weeks writing this post, but here we are over a month later. Where the hell have I been?! At the library starting an herbalism journal? Yes. Walking to my local occult store for some mugwort? Yes. Doing breath work in bath soup? Yes. Replacing my morning coffee shop runs with slow adaptogen matcha rituals? Yes.

Learning about Chelsea’s journey by listening to interviews with Biddy Tarot and The Serpent Podcast was super fun and informative. She’s mastered the art of creating from her personal experiences in a way that would be hard to duplicate. For instance, the unique aroma of Rest in Peach (formerly Melanie Body Oil) is based on nostalgia surrounding a late-childhood friend who drank peach tea and smoked Lucky Strike tobacco.