BY BETH WEITZMAN
MamaSuds founder and CEO Michelle Smith creates hand-crafted, non-toxic cleaners driven by necessity and designed without compromise or hidden chemicals.
THE BEGINNING
The journey began in the nursery with a newborn, cloth diapers, and an urgent problem Michelle Smith couldn’t ignore. “When my second baby was born, I committed to cloth diapers,” she explains. “I’d invested in the best diapers I could find, but every detergent failed me.
Nothing cleaned well, and my daughter kept breaking out in chemical rashes.” Going back to disposables wasn’t an option for Smith. Her kitchen became a research lab where she pored over third-party safety studies — not marketing materials or fear-based blogs — and tested batch after batch. What kept her going was knowing her family needed something safe that worked.
The breakthrough finally came: a formula that cleaned cloth diapers without causing rashes. “Friends and family started asking for it,” she says. “I realized quickly this wasn’t just my problem — it was a gap for a lot of parents.” Then her family faced a health crisis that intensified everything. When her husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor, Smith’s mission took on new urgency. What had started as a quest for better cloth diaper detergent suddenly became about eliminating every possible toxin from their home. “That’s when MamaSuds shifted from being my personal solution to a mission for other families, too,” she says.
PRODUCTS AND SAFETY
Smith’s approach to product safety centers on one unwavering principle: if it isn’t safe enough for her kids or her dog, it doesn’t go into a MamaSuds product. From there, she builds each formula to tackle specific cleaning challenges — whether grease, stains, or soap scum — within that safety framework. Her ingredient philosophy reflects this commitment to transparency and simplicity.
She relies on wellresearched, third-party safety data and the chemistry of real, minimally processed ingredients, starting with olive oil to make genuine castile soap and pairing it with safe mineral cleaners. “My rule is simple: if I can’t make it from scratch myself, I don’t use it,” she explains. “No lab-created surfactants. No overprocessed ‘plant-derived’ additives.”
For Smith, “non-toxic” represents a rigorous standard, not a marketing catchphrase. Her products are built from scratch with ingredients that don’t leave residues, disrupt health, or hide behind vague terminology. “Non-toxic isn’t a buzzword here,” she emphasizes. “If it isn’t proven safe in independent studies and safe in my own home, it doesn’t make the cut.” This commitment to authenticity sets MamaSuds apart in a crowded marketplace.
“Many ‘green’ brands still rely on surfactants that have been broken down and rebuilt in labs. By the time they reach the bottle, they’re far from their original source. At MamaSuds, we draw the line at overprocessing,” she explains. Smith avoids synthetics on principle. “I stay away from synthetics because I don’t believe safety should be outsourced to chemical companies,” she says. “Regulations set the floor, but families deserve better than the bare minimum.”
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
When helping consumers navigate product labels, Smith emphasizes one key principle: transparency. Red flags include vague terms like “fragrance” or “surfactant blend” that obscure what’s actually in the product. She also cautions that “natural” doesn’t automatically mean safe, pointing to improper dilution of certain essential oils as an example. Her automatic deal-breakers include sulfates, phthalates, synthetic fragrances, and optical brighteners — ingredients she says have no place in truly safe products.
PERFORMANCE WITHOUT COMPROMISE
When faced with skeptics who question whether natural formulas can match conventional cleaners, Smith points to history. “I remind them that real soap has been cleaning for centuries,” she says. “It doesn’t need to be reinvented with synthetics. When paired with the right mineral cleaners, you get powerful cleaning that rinses completely away — without the baggage of overprocessed chemicals.” Her gold standard for launch is simple: “Two things: the data supports its safety, and I’d use it every single day around my kids and pets.”
BUSINESS AND GROWTH
Running MamaSuds has brought unexpected revelations, particularly around consumer education. People don’t just want safe products — they want to understand the science behind that safety, what makes one cleaner different from another, and how to decode ingredient lists. This educational component has become central to the company’s mission. Smith knew the brand had achieved real traction “when strangers started tagging MamaSuds on social media saying, ‘This is the only cleaner I trust.’” The ongoing challenge is “balancing growth with integrity,” she explains.
LOOKING AHEAD
Smith envisions MamaSuds becoming a nationally recognized name in safe cleaning while preserving its small-batch, fromscratch methodology. The product pipeline includes a scouring scrub, pet care items, and an expanded bar soap collection — all adhering to the same rigorous standards. For consumers beginning their journey toward safer products, her advice remains practical and encouraging: start with the cleaning product used most frequently, whether that’s laundry soap or an all-purpose spray. “Safe cleaning isn’t about being perfect — it’s about making progress,” she says. “Every swap matters.”
