Mama Bath + Body

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to the sale this past week! It was such a great send off to this part of my journey. One long-time customer even brought me roses. I mean 😭😭

Everyone is curious about what’s next…and so am I! While I’ve unloaded many of Mama’s earthly possessions, the liquidation process is going to take longer than I anticipated (of course 🙄) so I’m sure I will be at that until the end of the year.

As far as the bigger picture, I have lots of ideas and pieces of the puzzle, but these last 3 months (well, more like 2+ years) have been all-encompassing and extremely draining to my mind, body and spirit and I need some time to recharge. So I’m taking a much needed break for the month of September and then I’ll have lots more to share.

I do know that I’ll be having an online Odds and Ends sale mid to late October to unload the rest of our inventory, so you’ll hear more from me about that when I resurface.

Have a great rest of your summer and I’ll be back in touch in early fall.

With love and so much gratitude,

Emilie ❤️

Our very last in-person Odds and Ends sale (warehouse edition) is in progress! I’ll be here today (Thursday) through Saturday from 10 to 4. The retail store is now closed so I have set up shop in our warehouse space, which is in the parking lot behind the former store location in Avondale.

I am also selling raw goods and container stock, furnishings and equipment (soapmakers looking to scale up, I’m looking at you 👀) Link in bio for these listings.

And don’t worry, if you’re not an Atlantan, I will be doing an online sale with what’s left mid to late October. 🤗

I heard from and saw so many of my long-time customers this past week. People who found me at festivals in the early days and followed me to our first little store on East College and then moved with us to Avondale and Krog and took our classes and drank our tea and kept showing up. People who have been with us our entire journey.

You don’t realize how you weave into someone’s day until moments like this and I am fully aware of what a gift that has been. The care and love that has come our way since I made this announcement has been overwhelming, in the best way possible. Despite how many tears I have shed (I quite possibly cried on you if you came into the store on Wednesday; sorry about that 😂) I am surprised to find that I’m feeling so much more gratitude than sadness. My heart is full.

A simple thank you just seems so inadequate. But thank you ❤️

*I bought this print from and it has been my mantra while navigating this year. Ever Forward!

**Link in bio for Emilie’s full statement

I have some news that I can barely believe I’m writing: Mama Bath and Body is going out of business.

If you’ve followed us for a while, I’ve shared here and there how much of a struggle these past 2+ years have been. My dream and my vision for Mama was a company of retail stores. We were doing just that and things were going great until March of 2020. (As many of you know, in 2020 we had to close our 2nd store at Krog Street Market and halted our lease negotiations for a 3rd store). After that, we lost a lot of momentum and given the many continuing challenges of a post-covid retail business, it became clear that opening more stores was not an option for the foreseeable future. Our best option to survive was to rebuild and grow the business as an exclusively online business, which meant a big change in my role and running a very different company. Online marketing is an increasingly expensive and ever-changing landscape with no guarantee of success, plus we have the additional hurdle of making products that are best experienced in person. It would require my day-to-day focus to change to things that I'm not particularly passionate about or interested in doing as a job. Not to mention, rebuilding a company takes a lot of energy and enthusiasm that I simply don’t really have right now. So after much soul searching, I came to the difficult but inevitable conclusion that this isn’t the right move for Mama. (Link in bio for full statement)

Some key details (for full details, link in bio):

The store will be open through June 26th

The website will be closed until next Friday (6/24) and then we will be accepting orders through mid-July

Our last day in business will be Friday, July 22nd.

Creating these products and cultivating such an incredible group of customers has truly been such a joy for me over these past 20 years and it's what kept me going through the many ups and downs of running a small business. I will dearly miss serving you and seeing your smiling faces and reading your sweet notes on your orders and everything else about this wonderful community.

With love and so much gratitude,

emilie