SDSU student turns lessons into bath & body business
Nov. 28, 2018
The first college student accepted into a business incubator program in Brookings will be selling her bath bombs and other body products at the 605 Made Holiday Market.
Laurel Diekhoff started Flume Bath & Body two years ago as a freshman at SDSU.
“I had seen soap-making videos on YouTube, and I got the idea to get into bath bombs,” Diekhoff said.
She did more research, submitted a business plan at school and became a student innovation client at the Research Park at SDSU. That’s where she does her research for new products and production for her line, which includes bath bombs, sugar scrubs, lip balms, lip scrubs, perfumes, essential oil rollers and menthol shower steamers.
“My parents, family and friends try out things for me,” she said. The junior studying entrepreneurial studies and business economics is grateful for the help she’s getting through the incubator program.
“The entrepreneurial community in Brookings is great. They are the biggest resource I could have hoped for.”
After testing various recipes and going through “a lot of failed products,” she came up with her line of merchandise, which continues to expand. She came up with the name of her business while she was working at 1000 Degrees Neapolitan Pizza. A flume is “one of those things that shoots fire into the pizza oven.”
Diekhoff started selling her products in May 2017 at markets, on Etsy and in Brookings and Huron shops. One of her most popular items is the Turtle Beach Bomb — it has a toy turtle inside.
At this point, she’s unsure of her long-term goal for Flume.
“Right now, I’m working to prioritize Flume in my life, and after I start nearing the end of my college career, I know I’ll have a more defined answer to that question. A focus of mine is ensuring that with Flume I continue to learn from my experiences and be proud of what I create.”
Admission is free to the 605 Made Holiday Market, which runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday Dec. 8 in the underground parking garage at Cherapa Place.
