History & Philosoph
The first handmade goat milk soap batch was made by Susan Bogue in 1973 in Ojai, California for the small artisan shop Dos Manos “two hands” of her mother Helen Bogue. Subsequently, she continued to make soap and develop new recipes until the brand Bogue Milk Soap was was officially established in 2009 when Whole Foods Market in Northern California began caring the throw back Goat Milk Shave soap Kits. Shortly thereafter, Susans son Adam Newton-Bogue returned to Ojai and joined BMS. After 25 years in the restaurant business creating dishes #farmtotable it was a small jump to begin creating products #farmtobath. Accordingly, Bogue Milk Soap creates all its products with a simple philosophy and commitment that every product is made with the best all natural ingredients available, handmade for superior quality, both healthy and effective. Subsequently, we use organic, sustainable plant based oils, botanicals, butters and herbs, growing or obtaining what we can locally. Secondly, only steam distilled Pure Essential oil no synthetic fragrance oils or dyes, and no sulfates or parabens. Markedly, our most used ingredients of fresh, raw goat milk, olive oil and lavender we grow or come from local farms. Lovingly, the organic botanicals of comfrey, calendula, chamomile, parsley, arnica, and cats claw to name a few are all infused in olive oil in the Ojai sunshine.
Susan Bogue
Early Life
Susan’s career has encompassed more than 40 years in sales and marketing, including retail, food, business-to-business software, sales & marketing programs and state level social marketing programs. She managed a sales force of twelve for a bakery of a chain of 32 stores, maintaining status as top store for 3 years straight; she developed and managed a sales force of five for a B2B software company that consistently blew away quotas every quarter, and developed a program and managed a remote team of account managers for statewide execution of a social marketing program for eight years, with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) as the client and community outreach organizations (CBOs) as the customer.
Northern California
In 1989 Susan moved to San Francisco, where she entered the tumultuous arena of the tech bubble of business-to-business (B2B) enterprise software sales. She spent 5 years building sales programs for, whose major competitors at the time were Oracle and Microsoft. In 1994 Susan’s Sybase moved some programs to Boston where she hired staff, set up systems, implemented and executed the program. She turned down the opportunity to move to Boston and manage the program, mainly because she had grown up in Boston and remembered well what the winters entailed. This decision was the preamble to her decade of consulting in the San Francisco Bay area to develop, staff and execute sales programs in startup tech organizations. It was during this time that Susan expanded her love of soapmaking into an entrepreneurial venture that brought her line to Whole Foods Markets in Northern California.
With the collapse of the tech bubble, Susan realized that the technology industry for her, was unfulfilling. She took her program skills to the public sector and created programs for social change in low income sectors. This was definitely more fulfilling, and fun, than the frenetic tech industry, but Susan found more of her energy focusing on soap-making and less on business programs over the next few years. All this changed with the recession when jobs were scarce and many people depended on their entrepreneurial skills to change direction, and for Susan Bogue, she never looked back.
While Susan spent much of her career in the business arena, one of her first jobs was with a handmade clothing shop in Laguna beach, CA where she was head tailor creating the main line of custom shirts for the shop. All her life, she spent her free time on creative endeavors.
Back to Ojai
In the 70’s, she and her mother Helen experimented in many handmade goods in upper Ojai, subsequently opening a shop called “Dos Manos” (Two Hands) with a couple of locations in neighboring downtown Ventura which became an outlet for local artisans. The native botanicals of Upper Ojai combined with the visceral, sensual effects of handmade soap first steered her to her passion for soap-making using local, organic and wild crafted materials. Susan’s passion for soapmaking grew with the challenges of the chemistry involved and the complexity of analysis for potential combinations to achieve a desired outcome, which ultimately culminated Bogue Milk Soap. The official BMS brand was born and she has been making her soap ever since; selling locally and building a following in Northern California.
Susan continues to contribute to many aspects of the soapmaking for Bogue Milk Soap, including research and development of new lines.
Adam Newton-Bogue
Adam Newton-Bogue’s philosophy encompasses working with people who have passion to match their talent – leaders from all design industries, artists or artisans in any medium, musicians, DJs & producers in the constantly changing music world, chefs and bakers and soapmakers, and of course farmers from whom it all starts and ends. He strives always to create projects, products and creations that are refined, artisanal, mindful & effective, healthy for the mind, body, spirit & planet.
Starting in OJAI, CA
Newton-Bogue spent much of his youth in the 70’s & 80’s traveling between west coast family in Ojai, CA and east coast family in NY & DC, with entrepreneurial families on both coasts. His family had restaurants and retail, such as a shop of handmade goods in Ojai/Ventura opened by his grandmother Helen Bogue and mother Susan Bogue in 1974 and a top notch bakery in DC opened in the early 80’s by his grandfather and run by his mother and father. This environment was the original impetus for his passion for fine food that brought him much acclaim.
Adams foundational principle is to make a product with integrity, whether it’s food or bath, refined during his time in the Food & Beverage Industry of New York City, continues to grow stronger. For him it is a simple philosophy: find the best quality ingredients as close to the original source as possible, select the best of the best for the unique properties they bring to the dish and hone a recipe to perfection; then deliver it to the customer as quickly as possible.
NEW YORK hotels and restaurants
Adam’s time in New York City began after college and a European fashion foray, settling there in 1991 to manage Restaurant 44 located in the renowned Royalton Hotel by Ian Schrager (Studio 54, Palladium, Delano Hotel, Mondrian Hotel, Gramercy Park Hotel, Public). It was this time in NYC during the build crazy .com tech boom of the 90s, opening venues around the world working with Schrager at Morgans Hotel Group designed by Philippe Starck, working also with prolific restaurateurs Brian & Keith McNally (Balthazar, Pastis, Schillers, Minetta Tavern, Morandi Tavern, Odeon, Lucky Strike…) along with Jonathan Nahamais & Michael Callahan (Indochine, Bond Street, Republic, Kittichai, Coco 66, Town House), and Geoffrey Zakarian restaurateur and Celebrity chef The Next Iron Chef, Chopped.
Newton-Bogue’s experience at Schrager Hotels and with designer Phillip Stark fueled the conceptualization of his visionary restaurant, CAFETERIA, a highly successful, trend-setting 24-hour Restaurant/Lounge he opened in 1998, and still as busy today as when it opened, after more than 20 years of operating every hour of every day. followed by “the carriage house”, a fine dining restaurant he opened in 2003.
At CAFETERIA, he worked with designer STUDIO GAIA of Thompson & W Hotels to create a unique atmosphere and menu for an ambiance often commonly described as “1960’s ‘mod’ meets 1990’s Philippe Starck” and “palm spring modern” that exploded onto the NY restaurant scene. Next, for “the carriage house”, inspired by fresh South American cuisine integrated with NY style seafood all blended with Latin flavors. Put forth in a venue of uniquely original design and cuisine that received rave reviews. The carriage house brought a bold, new design aesthetic to the scene with mid-century modern inspirations and 21st century bold statements like a 14’ by 70’ desert photo-mural reaching from the front door to the kitchen and a Richard Neutra inspired 12-foot bright yellow bar suspended from the ceiling by a network of cables. “the carriage house” became a regular stop for students on architectural tours.
The start of Farm to Table
It was at the carriage house in the early 2000’s that A.N.B. first worked with chefs to bring ‘farm to table’ organic, sustainable, locally grown food to a growing ingredient conscious customer, this philosophy has carried over into the bath, hair & body products of the mother & son business Bogue Milk Soap, which he calls ‘farm to bath’.
Later, in Los Angeles, Adam consulted on the launch of a CAFETERIA-inspired concept called Kitchen24 and stayed to take over the historic Sunset Strip diner “Dukes.” Seeing the potential after 42 years with one owner, Newton-Bogue brought Dukes current with new farm fresh dishes, brought back the original music scene and had a private lounge, The Morrison Room, designed and built above Dukes, paying homage to its one-time resident, the Doors Jim Morrison.
After these venues, he collaborated on projects on both coasts collaborating to restructure operations for older establishments like the St. Jerome’s Bar in the now bustling Lower East Side NYC, while beginning to develop the business of mother Susan Bogue which eventually launched as Bogue Milk Soap, whose first cornerstone product, a men’s shaving kit, began selling in Whole Foods Market in 2009 .
Adam Newton-Bogue’s brand philosophy encompasses working with people who have passion to match their talent. Leaders from the interior & graphic design industries, artists or artisans in stone, wood and metal, musicians, DJs, producers and most of all farmers & chefs. With this in mind Adam and Bogue Milk Soap indeavor to create products that are refined, artisanal, mindful & effective, healthy for the mind, body, spirit & planet.
Find out more about the Ojai Valley
NYT 2015
NYT 2005
NYT 1988