Shwoomp! “adventures in bathing,” a new retail store in Hillcrest that specializes in handmade soaps and other bath and body products, has created a new line of soap called Center Soap. All of the proceeds from the sale of the product benefit programs at The Center.

Allison Rynne and longtime friends Brent and Jennifer Altomare started Shwoomp! together, which opened the day before Thanksgiving. “We’ve known each other since Junior High — we all went to school here in San Diego,” said Rynne. “Once we got out of college we said, ‘What do we do now?’ We started talking about things we really liked doing, and this was one of them.”

About three years ago, the trio started developing Shwoomp! products, testing and retesting them, then asking others to do the same. The results were numerous handmade lotions, creams, bath balms, milk baths, scrubs and other bath and body products, all made in an onsite lab.

“We make everything but the soap,” said Rynne. “Soap requires certain chemicals, that, while we can use them, with our employees and everything, we didn’t want to use anything harmful in our lab. In addition, if we made all the soaps that we carry, we wouldn’t have time to do anything else.… We work with a local soap maker who does beautiful work, and she helps us with our soaps, but we make everything else with the Shwoomp! logo.”

The idea for Center Soap started as a way for the new store owners to give back to their community. “We were talking about how we all live in the community,” said Rynne. “Now that we own a business in this community, it’s not enough to just work in the community and live here. You have to really be a part of it. When we started talking about different aspects of the community that were important to us, one of them was The Center and how much good they do for the people who live here. We really wanted to work with them and do something with them to show our support, and really make ourselves not just a business here, but part of the community.”

Rynne and the Altomares met with The Center and proposed that Shwoomp! would raise funds for The Center by selling a soap bearing The Center’s name; the project took off from there, taking only a couple of months to plan and complete. Proceeds from the sale of the soap will be tallied and given to The Center, probably on a monthly basis, Rynne said.

“We’re grateful to Shwoomp! for their participation in both the Hillcrest business community and The Center,” said Shawn Ingram, director of development at The Center. “I think their inclusion of philanthropy as part of their business plan is a shining example of how small businesses can partner with nonprofits and support the community in which they’re working. We’re honored to be the recipient of funds from their cool “Center Soap” concept.”

Center Soap is sandalwood-based, and retails for $19.20/lb, though Rynne points out that that is a lot of soap. All soaps at the store are sold by the pound and can be cut to any size. When cut down to bar-sized chunks, Center Soap costs anywhere from $5-7.

“The scent is so yummy,” said Rynne. “I think it’s really unisex; something that I think a man would use and a woman would use.… It has a woodsy scent, but it’s not woodsy in the aspect that it would be manly, and it’s not too musky that it would be feminine. It’s very balanced.”

The Center Soap product unveiling, held Dec. 11, was designed to be fun and informal, featuring the music of regular Bourbon Street performers Leslie and Laura, and giving customers an opportunity to explore the rest of what the store has to offer.

“We’ve had a good response from the community, with people coming in and looking at things and getting stuff as gifts,” said Rynne. “We’ve got great stocking stuffers and things like that.”

Shwoomp! is located at 3827 Fifth Ave, and is open Monday-Saturday, 11:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m. and Sundays, 12:00 noon-6:00 p.m.