At first glance, Stone Bluff might not appear to much different than any other small Oklahoma community.

Wide open spaces.

Hills dotted with native trees.

Miles upon miles of crop-filled fields and an endless supply of blue sky.

But follow your nose off the beaten path of Highway 64, a little way down the country road past Stone Bluff Baptist Church, and you'll find yourself at the doorstep of the Stone Bluff Soap and Gift Shoppe, a sweetly scented oasis of handmade skin-care goodies.

The heavenly smelling shop is one of several area businesses that, in recent years, have made Stone Bluff a popular tourist destination and an attractive getaway for urban residents.

For the past five years, sisters Norma Patterson and Eileen Whitesell have run the shop, creating and selling creamy bars of soap, smooth lotions, silky body butters and invigorating bath salts on their rural properties located in the tiny burg in northwestern Wagoner County.

Their handmade

The sisters attribute their sudsy success to a three-generations-long tradition of soapmaking. As children, they rarely used storebought soaps, instead using bars their mother mixed and molded by hand.

"Our friends always had the pretty pink Dove bars and we didn't," Patterson said. "We always wondered why we had to use the other kind."

Though they sometimes wished they could use the same soap everyone else did, Patterson said she and her sister enjoyed one benefit their peers did not: an absence of blemishes.

Both she and Whitesell credit the wholesome, unprocessed ingredients and the soothing properties of the handmade versions for giving them a lifetime of smooth, healthy, glowing skin.

"We never had to use Clearasil or Noxema because of the soaps," Whitesell said, adding that they were proud of the fact that they got their great skin from homemade cleansers instead of mass-produced versions.

That appreciation for the benefits of handmade soaps carried over into adulthood for the two, who decided to go into the soap-making business a few years ago after attending a flea market at which shoppers showed an overwhelming interest in natural skin-care products.

Both sisters drew upon their childhood experiences and began researching how to make soap.

Whitesell also took small-business courses at a local college in preparation for starting up the soap company.

Then the pair moved on to the manufacturing process, experimenting and stirring up small batches in their kitchens before achieving the desired results.

"The first year was pretty much research, and trial and error," Whitesell said. "The soap was too soft at first and then it turned out too hard and crumbly. We had to learn every single thing as we went along."

Once they had their recipes in place, the sisters began churning out their creations in a building located on Patterson's property.

The recipes, which are cooked up in special enamel and stainless steel pots designated for soap making, include all-natural base ingredients such as olive oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter, shea butter and honey.

Those ingredients are heated in one pot while lye and water are heated in another. When they reach the appropriate temperature, the two mixtures are combined.

Essential oils (for fragrance), commercial-grade colorants and extras such as flowers, herbs and oatmeal are also added to the mix. Then, it is poured into molds and allowed to cool for a day.

The cooled bars are removed from the molds and allowed to cure in bins for 30 days. The curing process produces a richer, longer-lasting soap.

Some people might be surprised to hear that a caustic ingredient such as lye is used in the soaps, but the finished product is not harmful and the lye actually helps produce a better soap, Patterson said.

The lye quits working after 24 hours, becoming inactive and leaving behind an extremely gentle bar of soap.

Today, the Stone Bluff Soap and Gift Shoppe offers more than 30 varieties of soap and other products.

Included are herbals such as peppermint, tea tree, cinnamon and lemongrass; florals such as lilac, plumeria, gardenia and jasmine; fruity varieties such as lemon meringue, grapefruit and cucumber; and woodsy fragrances such as sandalwood. The line also includes unscented varieties, as well as special holiday spice scents.

In addition to the multitude of soaps, there are exfoliating bath scrubs, healing skin lotions,soap-infused loofah sponges, talc-free baby powder, anti-chap lip balm, essential oils and sachets, which stock the shop's shelves along with handcrafted items such as soap dishes made by Whitesell's artist husband, John.

Lavender soap is among the most popular varieties, according to Patterson and Whitesell, who import lavender plants from France to create it. The lavender plant is prized in the aromatherapy world for its calming benefits, and it is also known to have antiseptic properties, they said.

Many of the pair's other skin-care products are also created with aromatherapy benefits in mind.

Peppermint, which is used in the company's soaps and bath salts, is well-known for its cool, invigorating scent and can be used in a variety of ways such as treating insect bites and soothing itchy rashes.

Another favorite item is the company's Buttery Body Bar, a super-rich skin smoother that comes in solid form in a cup.

The bar, which is concocted from jojoba oil, vitamin E-saturated wheat-germ oil, shea butter, cocoa butter and hemp, can be popped out of the cup and rubbed over whichever area of skin needs a bit of extra softening (think dry, cracked heels or hands chapped by freezing winter winds).

Though it might seem difficult to choose between so many different varieties, most customers don't seem to have any trouble doing so, Whitesell said.

"Everyone's different," she said. "Their nose tells them what they like the best."

For more information about the Stone Bluff Soap and Gift Shoppe's line of skin-care products, call 482-3780 or 482-4019. Or send e-mail to: sbsoap2@hotmail.com .

Other locations featuring Stone Bluff soap products include River City Trading Post in Jenks and the Stone Bluff Cellars Winery in Stone Bluff. The products will also be displayed at the annual Autumn Harvest fund-raiser, which will be held Sept. 21 at Bishop Kelley High School, 3905 S. Hudson Ave.