12-year-old Navajo girl lives her dream with Nizhóní Soap in Mesa

Kamia Begay started her adventure as a soap maker when she was 10, in the comfort of her mother's kitchen in Mesa.

"I wanted to create something new and especially giving it a Native flair," Kamia said. "I chose soap because I love the smell of it."

Kamia's mother recalls that day vividly.

"When she was making soap she was like: 'Oh my gosh, I got an idea,'" Rhianna Begay said.

Kamia went to the kitchen, opened the cabinet and pulled out Rhianna's stash of Navajo tea. 

Navajo tea is a wild plant known as greenthread that grows in areas of the Southwest, including the Navajo Nation. The plant is often gathered during the summer months, dried, and then brewed into a tea. 

Rhianna said their family travels back to their hometown in Shiprock, New Mexico, on the Navajo Nation to pick Navajo tea every summer and, since it's a seasonal plant, having the tea is a luxury.

But that didn't stop Kamia from taking her mother's last bundle of tea to grind and pour into her soap mix. 

"What are you doing?" Rhianna recalls telling her. "Don't do that! You're wasting it." 

But it wasn't a waste. Kamia's first batch of soap was infused with Navajo tea, and her mother said it smelled so delicious she wanted to eat it.

The success of fusing Native herbs with soap led Kamia, now 12, to start The Nizhóní Soap Company, LLC, selling bar soaps, foam washes, sugar scrubs, and wax melts.

Nizhóní means beautiful in the Navajo language.

Kamia has gone from making bar soap for her family to operating an online business, a storefront in Farmington, New Mexico, and now, a second store in Mesa. 

Nizhóní Soap coming to Mesa

At Nizhóní Soap in Mesa, Kamia said her customers can expect a lot of great deals but also a chance to experience her Navajo culture firsthand.

"We built a Cha'a'oh in here," Rhianna said. "She wanted to share a piece of the Navajo culture."

Her store is decorated after a Chaha'oh, a Navajo shade house. Cha'a'oh translates to shadow, but for the Navajo people, a Chaha'oh is a place where a family gathers and socializes. The structure is made of tree logs as the posts, with leafy branches covering the top for shade.

"My nálí's (paternal grandparents) have one; I remember playing in it at a young age," Kamia said.

Kamia built a smaller version of a Chaha'oh inside her new store as a way to share her Navajo culture with her customers. 

Kamia is looking forward to customers getting to smell all the products and having the chance to talk to them about her soap, where she is from and who she is.

The store opens Saturday, with hours of 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The first 50 customers will receive a free bar of soap and every customer will get free frybread with a purchase. The store is located at 1954 South Dobson Road, Suite 1.

"We're super excited," Rhianna said. "I'm very proud of my baby,. She put in a lot of work." 

From the kitchen to a storefront

Kamia and her family did not expect her business to grow so quickly.

When she started making soap, Kamia gifted it to family and friends. But after positive feedback and encouragement, she decided to try selling it.

Her first sale was at a First Friday event in downtown Phoenix. The success there motivated Kamia to start exploring different products, scents and opportunities to sell her products.

That led her to the Native Art Market, an open-air market hosted every weekend at the Pavilions at Talking Stick in Scottsdale.  

Rhianna said Kamia loved to interact with the customers at that first store, where she could invite them to smell the products before purchasing. They started going to the market in October 2018.

Kamia set up photo booth props so she could take pictures with her customers and post them on her social media. Rhianna said her daughter would welcome people to her store, which sat under a canopy.

"That's where I got more recognized," Kamia said of the Native Art Market, which offered her more exposure for growing business. 

The Native Art Market recently opened a storefront in Old Town Scottsdale. Kamia sells her products at both locations. She announces on Instagram when she'll be set up at the open-air market.

The Native Art Market gave Kamia a good platform as a business owner because, at that time, she was new to the industry.

Kamia went to school during the week, made soap after school and, by Friday evening, would pack her inventory into her parents' van so they could head to the market on Saturday. 

"With her determination and discipline there she got noticed," Rhianna said.

Kamia soon developed partnerships with other establishments and now Nizhoni Soap products can be purchased from eight different locations, including Grand Canyon West in Peach Springs and Tyger Lotus in San Clemente, Calif.

She set up every weekend from October 2019 to March 2020 to sell her soaps, and when the pandemic hit last March, Kamia switched her business from in-person transactions to online.

That's when she launched a website for Nizhóní Soap, where customers can purchase her products online.

"She loves her customers, she appreciates each and every one of her customers," Rihanna said. She also likes to read the comments about her products.

"She likes to hear that a lot of Natives can relate to it," Rhianna added. Many tell her it's a little piece of home. "She loves that she can share that part."

She gets between 20 to 30 orders a day. Kamia also likes to hold specials for her customers. Occasionally she'll announce on Instagram special package deals with a variety of her products in one box. 

Kamia soon took over an entire family room in the house. Rhianna said she turned it into her small warehouse where she processes orders, monitors inventory and packs orders.

"She stays on top of everything," she added. Now, with the new store in Mesa, she has more space to do it.

"It's becoming a factory," Rhianna said.

Kamia operates Nizhóní Soap with her parents, but she is also a full-time student and big sister.

She said her routine often starts at 5 a.m. when she'll do her house chores and process online orders. She makes breakfast for her family before going to school at 9 a.m. After her school day, she'll go back to processing more orders.

"She's in the seventh grade and she's an honor student," Rhianna said of her daughter. "I'm so amazed by this young lady."

Her first real store

Kamia said when her products started to take off, she set goals for herself, including opening a store.

"I want to be the next LUSH, but with a Native flair," Kamia said. LUSH is a cosmetics company based in Canada but with stores all across North America.

She talked to her mom about her goals, and Rhianna told her if that is what she really wanted, she'd help however she could. 

"She's been very supportive and always there for me," Kamia said, and she's grateful for everything her mother has done to help her.

"I'm a medical assistant and I put my career on hold and give my daughter 120%," Rhianna said. "As parents, that's the number one thing we do for our kids. We put them first and that's what I did for her."

All her work continued to pay off when Kamia was able to open her first storefront in Farmington, New Mexico, near her hometown. 

The Shiprock and Farmington area is home for Kamia and her family, which is why she wanted her first store to be there. 

"I also want to give more job opportunities to my people," Kamia added.

Kamia fell in love with a second-floor shop located at 101 S. Orchard Ave, which is part of Farmington's main street and overlooks a local park. 

"She was like: 'This is my store. I'm going to have this store,'" Rhianna said.  "We signed the document and this young lady became a store owner."

Kamia didn't waste any time making the store her own. She chose the furniture and decorated it to reflect herself.

The ceiling is covered in floral scarves known as Sání scarves to Navajos because it is connected to what grandmothers wear. Sání means old in Navajo.

Kamia also saw the store as a chance to provide job opportunities for her people.

She posted an announcement on Oct. 1 to the Nizhóní Soap Company Instagram account that the first retail location would open in Farmington.

Soon after, on Oct. 15, she posted her first job opening for a sales associate. By Nov. 11, the doors opened. 

Kamia said opening her store was an amazing, life-changing experience.  

That 'Native flair'

Kamia said all her soaps are handmade, handcrafted with the help of her family using herbs she handpicks while visiting family back home on the Navajo Nation.

"I love how I get to design it and come up with these cool scents and even infusing it with the herbs that I use," Kamia said.

She spends time in the mountains in Cove, about 45 minutes from their family's home in Shiprock. A lot of the herbs that Kamia uses in her products are seasonal, so she'll go out during the different times of the year depending on the herb.

"Some of my products do represent parts of me," Kamia said. "They remind me of home."

For example, one of their popular items is the REZ DIRT soap. 

"I personally love the smell of dirt every time I go home," she said. "And I thought: Hey, what about a dirt soap, and then I made it."

When she had a bar of soap in hand she shared it with her parents. They both really liked the smell and that's how Kamia decided she'd add it to her shop.

"It really smells like dirt," the website states. The bar is dark brown with a gold shimmer inside and a light brown edge.

Kamia created a soap called Shima Red Rose, which is dedicated to her great grandmother, whom she was close with growing up.

The soap has a deep red layer and smells like fresh-cut roses, with rose petals Infused into it, according to the website. 

"My great-grandma Rose Ann use to have a beautiful rose bush in her front yard and this soap just reminds me of how those rose bushes use to smell," the website states.

Another favorite is her Picadilly soap, which she created simply because she loves eating Picadillies. 

Picadillies are like pickle slushies, which is are a frozen treat made of pickles, shaved ice, sweet syrup and Kool-Aid. It is a popular treat in many Indigenous communities. 

Nizhoni Soap's Picadilly soap is a layered soap with blue and red tones. "The aroma of the soap will remind you of the Cherry Kool-Aid in the Piccadilly," the website states. "The soap also is topped with fresh dill to bring the entire experience together."

Kamia's soap making process is simple: Think it, plan it, design it, make it and then test it. After she makes a new product the first people she tests it on is her family. If they all like it and it comes out how she wants, she'll add it to her shop.

The Nizhóní Soap Company now features over 30 unique scents, including sage, cedar, sweetgrass, and juniper.

Nizhóní Soap products prices range from $10 to $40. Follow her on Instagram @nizhonisoap for the latest updates on Nizhóní Soap products. 

Reporter Shondiin Silversmith covers Indigenous people and communities in Arizona. Reach her at ssilversmi@arizonarepublic.com and follow her on Twitter @DiinSilversmith.

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