Our story
A small studio
a mile from the Pacific.
WashWell Bio is a five-person workshop in Goleta, California. We formulate, pour, fold and ship every product from one address — and we have since 2020.
I am Yunan Hui, the founder of WashWell Bio. Before all of this, I spent eleven years as a textile engineer in Shanghai — working on dye-fixing and finishing for cotton mills. I knew what we were putting on fabrics. It was harder to find anyone who knew what we were putting on people.
In 2018, my husband Daniel and I moved to Goleta for his postdoc at UCSB. In April 2020, our daughter Mei was born — six pounds, one ounce, and with skin that reacted to nearly every detergent we tried. After three months of itchy nights and many calls to her pediatrician, I started mixing my own washes in our garage on Calle Koral.
Friends asked for jars. Then their friends. By the end of 2021, we were filing for an LLC and renting the back half of a warehouse two blocks from the house. The “studio” still smells like lavender and warm coconut oil most days.
Five years, slowly
A timeline.
April 2020
Mei is born.
First batches of detergent mixed in a 5-gallon bucket on the garage floor of 6556 Calle Koral.
October 2021
WashWell Bio LLC is filed in California.
First proper labels printed at a Santa Barbara letterpress shop. We sell 142 boxes that quarter.
March 2023
Sofia Reyes joins as Operations.
We rent the back of the Hollister Avenue warehouse and move out of the garage.
Summer 2024
Refill program launches.
Aluminum bottles for All-Purpose and Dish Soap. Customers mail back caps for 10% off the next order.
January 2025
Marcus Chen joins as Production Lead.
We bring saponified bar production fully in-house — every Meadow Mint Stain Bar is poured in Goleta.
Today
Three colleagues, one ledger, no plastic jugs.
Yunan, Sofia, Marcus and Dana Whitfield — and Mei, who is mostly responsible for quality-tasting the snacks.
The studio
Four people, one phone line.
Yunan Hui
Founder & Formulator
Textile engineer (Donghua University ’07). Goleta resident, mother of Mei.
Sofia Reyes
Operations
Runs production schedules and the refill program. Born and raised in Santa Maria.
Marcus Chen
Production Lead
Cold-press soap maker since 2014. Pours every Meadow Mint Stain Bar by hand.
Dana Whitfield
Customer Care
Answers every email within a working day. Knows your laundry quirks personally.
What we believe.
- Fewer, better things. We make six products and have no intention of making sixty.
- Honesty over marketing. If a sheet does not work in your machine, we say so on the label.
- Local first. Every order ships from Goleta. We pay California wages.
- The Pacific is a neighbor. We donate 1% of revenue to Channelkeeper and the Surfrider Foundation.