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Local high school student finds success with pandemic-driven business opportunity

By Tabitha Johnston - Chronicle Staff | Oct 20, 2023

Sol Care owner Sol Aguilar, of Shepherdstown, talks about her hand sanitizer with a couple of customers at a festival earlier this fall. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — While the rest of the world was overcast by the cloud of the COVID-19 Pandemic, after it shut down the world in 2020, one local teenage girl was able to look closer and find the silver lining in that cloud, while shopping for hand sanitizer locally.

“I would go to the stores, and the only hand sanitizer that was there in stock smelled horrible, felt horrible and dried out your hands,” said Sol Aguilar, of Shepherdstown.

According to Aguilar, this desperate need for high-quality hand sanitizer inspired her creative and entrepreneurial side.

“I began building my small business by making homemade hand sanitizer during the pandemic of 2020. I did a lot of research to develop my own strong, effective, fragrant and non-drying hand sanitizers,” Aguilar said. “I tried to make a hand sanitizer that smells good and is moisturizing. The product I came up with has aloe vera in it, which makes it super moisturizing and smell amazing!”

At the same time as she was creating this product, Aguilar was entering her freshman year at Jefferson High School. Now in her senior year, Aguilar has developed a number of popular items using clean ingredients, which she sells through Sol Care’s social media accounts and at sales venues throughout the area.

A latte-scented soy candle, pumpkin spice-scented soy candle and tube of lavender lip balm are some of the products currently on sale this fall by Sol Care. Courtesy photo

“Once my hand sanitizer blew up, I began to experiment a little bit more with other products, such as soy candles, bath bombs, body scrubs, essential oil car diffusers, lip balms and more!” Aguilar said, noting she wittily used her name as a homonym, when incorporating it into the name of her business. “To me, self care is one of the most important things to keep your soul happy and healthy. Doing so by using products with all-natural ingredients, such as Sol Care’s, is a great way to calm yourself and relax.”

While her hand sanitizer remains a popular product today, Aguilar said one other product has edged it out for the position of top seller.

“My biggest seller is always my lip balm!” Aguilar said. “My lip balm is 100 percent natural. Other lip balms, you know, have some fragrance oils, to make them smell better, but my lavender lip balm — it smells amazing, feels amazing and looks amazing, without adding anything artificial to it. It’s just made with coconut oil, African shea butter, white organic beeswax and lavender essential oil, so it also has a lot of benefits for your lips. That’s probably why it’s always my best seller.”

After graduating from Jefferson High School this coming spring, Aguilar indicated she plans to focus on growing Sol Care, by increasing her product development and selling via online e-commerce marketplaces.

“It’s a fun hobby that I enjoy doing,” Aguilar said. “I’m only a senior in high school though, so right now it’s just a side gig. But once I can put more time into it, I’ll try to expand my business more.”