A lot of scents and colors play with your senses when you enter Buff City Soap, the latest store to open in Main Street Oak Ridge.

But unlike scents simply named coconut, vanilla, or citrus, these scents are more likely to have intriguing names like Good Morning Sunshine, All Hail the Queen, Hey Headache, and — reportedly the most popular — Narcissist.

Not that the soaps and other products with fancy or funny names don't include those simpler named scents, but they're a mixture of these scent "notes."

And the products giving off these notes are reportedly safer for you than others you might purchase elsewhere. The products are plant-based. As explained on the store's website, "There are absolutely no surfactants, detergents, or preservatives in any Buff City products. Some items found naturally may contain contaminants from the environment so a manmade version is used for purity and safety."

What type of products are offered? Bath bombs, truffles, fizzies, scrubs, soaps, shower oil, laundry detergent, foaming hand soap, whipped body butter, shave soap, wool dryer balls, and epsom salts to name a few. There are also products geared mainly toward men such as beard balm and oil.

Cindy Strike, district manager, and Jessi Pittenger, training and development manager, talked about the products offered at the store, while the Oak Ridge store's General Manager Alexandra Sharp mixed scent into laundry detergent nearby. Cindy's worked with the company behind Buff City Soap for about 10 and a half years; Jessi for 11 years. 

"It's super fun," Jessi said of the work.

Asked about how well the products are handled by people with allergies or sensitivities, Cindy said people have fewer issues with their products than many others. In regards to the scents, she said local employees can work with customers to add scents that are less problematic if the customers have allergies or sensitivities to scents. You can also buy unscented products.

Local employees are also there to advise customers who might want suggestions or help picking out a scent, which are divided into categories: fruity, floral, sweet, herbal, earthy, clean, masculine, and unscented.

The store, located at 740 Main St. West next to TJ Maxx department store, opened June 9.

Products at the store are made each day at the store's Soap Makery. You can visit the store and buy such products as laundry detergent, made of only four ingredients, with the scent or mix of scents you like. Cindy pointed out that it takes the place of your detergent, fabric softener and scent booster.

And while you're looking around, younger customers can stop and decorate a bath bomb for themselves.

The Oak Ridge store is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Founded in 2013, the company website, buffcitysoap.com, states franchising began in 2018 and there are now more than 218 stores in 29 states. Nearby, there are stores in Powell and Turkey Creek.