Complaint Review: Bella Union Bath Company

I heard about Bella Union Bath Company from friends that had made some orders.  I thought it was a large and established business.  I ordered some of their handmade soaps for myself and my baby.  I was skeptical at first so I spoke to one of the owners, Ryan Dean via email and on the phone.  He assured me that the products were safe and made in a labratory.  He said that some of the soaps that I ordered were made with goat milk and natural ingredients.  

I proceeded to make a large order for me any my large family.  It was expensive, more so than any other shop I had seen but they assured me it was worth the proce.  They told me it would be delivered within a couple of days.  I had not received the order seven days later so I called and spoke to Stacy Collins.  She said she was the co-owner.  She assured me that the order would arrive soon and gave me a tracking number for the shipment.  The number didn't work on the UPS site so I waited.  I paid by credit card.

The shipment arrived after ten days and I immediately used the soap to bathe my baby girl.  It smelled good and I was imitially satisfied.  I took a bath later that night and used a different bar of soap.  I noticed that it had a small amount of dark, curley hairs in the soap, as it was packaged.  I looked closer and was horrified to see that it was clearly long pubic hair.  I couldn't beleive it.  I didn't use it.

I had already gave the soap out to my family that very same night.

I awoke that night to my baby screaming and crying.  I picked her up and she was so hot.  i turned on the light and she had a rash all over her body.  I rushed her to the hospital.  The doctor asked if she had been exposed to any chemicals, based on the size of the rash and its redness.  I could only think of the soap that I used on her from Bella Union Bath Company.  She was running a temperature of 104.

The doctor asked me to go home and get the soap so he could send it away for testing.  It took two days for my baby to come home from the hospital.  Teh rash left a very noticible scar and it is still sore to the touch.  

The doctor called me back a week later and said that the testing on the soap was complete.  He said that the goat milk that was used as one of the primary ingredients was rancid.  The essential oils that were said to be in it were completely synthetic.  I was aghast.

I called Stacy Collins to tell her about the health hazard and frankly, to coplain vigouously.  She was mean and rude on the phone.  She hung up on me and I called back.  I asked her if other people had complained or had trouble with her product and she said that she didn't care and hung up on me again.

I contacted an attorney in Ashland. OR where she has her business and I was in shock to find out that several other people had come forward with problems with her company.  The attorney used a private investigator to talk to Stacy Collins and look at her operation.  I was shocked to find out that Bella Union Bath Co. was being run out of a rental house that she shared with her mother and a large family of animals.  The investigator saw bars of soap on her floors when she opened the door to speak with him.  There was dog feces all around the front of the house.

Bella Union Bath Co and Stacy Collins do not have a license from teh health department to make soap.  Her landlord has no knowledge that she was operating a business out of her rental or using lye in her bath tub to make soap.  Again, I was floored.

I made complaints to the Health Department for fear that she might do it again.

My attorney told me that there was no use in pursuing her for a financial settlement to pay for my baby's medical costs and pain/suffering.  She said that Stacy Collins and Ryan Dean were habitual debtors and owned scores of other people money judgements for unsettled cout cases.  They own no property or assets.  The company is bogus and not even incorporated.  I am basically out of luck.  

I don't know if she even lives in Ashland anymore.  Apparently, she had just moved from Yreka California to start fresh.  The investigator learned that she fled because of very bad business proactices, unpaid rent, lawsuits, and more.  Apparently, she didn't even pay her house rent and her car had been reposessed.  This was a small town and she had a very bad name for herself.

Please be warned!  I am posting a list of her judgements below that are public record.

6 judgements for Siskiyou County California- (seach with her name under case search) - http://www.siskyou.courts.ca.gov