Our Story

About 1996 I had read a story about the chemicals being used in personal care products including; soaps, shampoos, makeup, lotions, etc. I was shocked at what I was reading and thought, "Surely it couldn't be true that our government wouldn't allow these things on the market if they know these chemicals cause anything from simple skin irritation to cancer." I started researching and found out more than I really wanted to know about the topic. One of the first things is that I found the so called "soap" made commercially are not actually soap. They are actually detergents. I took a trip to the local store and bought about 10 different bars of "soap" to examine closer. The first thing that stood out to me was that not one bar actually said soap anywhere on the box or label. This piqued my curiosity even more. What I discovered is that it cannot be called soap unless certain criteria is met. If you are curious, just go look at your local supermarket and see for yourself.

By 1997 we had found a couple of companies that made soaps, lotions, shampoos and conditioners that I was feeling comfortable enough to use on my, then young, family. During that time I kept researching, reading, asking chemists and doctors. I found other ways to do things such as using oats and honey as a moisturizing mask or yogurt as an alpha-hydroxy treatment. But I still couldn't find a local source for soap, shampoo and things of that nature. I began my journey into soapmaking that year. It was all research at that point

In 1998 I jumped in with both feet and started my first batch of soap. It was cold processed and took about 4 weeks before we could use it. It was a very simple olive oil soap that took a lot of work to get it to "trace". It was very slippery in the shower and almost became like a gel when it was left in water. But, my family had soap they could use and it worked well and met the requirement of being natural. From there I was bitten by the soaping bug. For the next few years I tried many recipes, made many of my own recipes and studied with other soap makers about the craft of soapmaking. It is truly amazing what you can learn on your own. I would send out soaps to friends and family and anyone who would try the soaps to find out what they liked best.

During this time we experimented with lotions, bath salts, bath bombs, infusions and balms. There were many trials and errors, as with the soaps but we found some great products from the testing, formulating and retesting process. These products are still a staple in our line of personal care products.

In 2001 I created the "PERFECT" recipe. This is the base recipe for all our soaps now. After 3 years and literally hundreds of batches of soap, we finally found the greatest soap ever. From that time forward I started looking into ingredients to solve skin issues that we had had in our family. I started looking at additives, things added to the soap for the benefits they they were known to have. I started with essential oils because they are natural. I combined essential oils to solve certain concerns that we had. It was fabulous and some worked better than others. Thankfully everyone was patient and gave a great amount of feedback. There were definite favorites and some that were definitely not good combinations, more for scent purposes than anything else. We found our top sellers this way.

At one point I wanted soaps that smelled pretty like the shops like Bath and Body produced and other brand name places that used fragrance oils to scent their products. I had always had issues with fragrances in commercial products so I didn't hold out much hope but I had to try. I found some reputable fragrance oils that were more to the natural side, certain chemicals were avoided and alcohols that were drying too. I found out that it wasn't the fragrance oils that were causing the skin irritations I had before. Friends and family with sensitive skin were leery but trusted me enough to try them and were pleasantly surprised to find the same thing. From there I branched out into a few fragrance oils and combinations that were most popular at the time. From time to time I will test new things that are popular and remain pleasantly surprised that there is still no skin irritation from them. In 2003 fragrance oil soaps were added to our line.

By 2003 I had decided to start working on shampoo and conditioners because we still had those little bumps on our arms, in my family anyway. When we changed over and started using natural shampoo we found two things. One, the bumps (skin irritation) went away and two, we didn't need conditioner any longer. It was amazing. Natural shampoo doesn't lather like commercial shampoos and is much thinner which took a lot of time to get used to. Being who I am, I researched and found what needed to be changed in the shampoo and how long to "cook" it to thicken it also. Finally in 2004 we created our current shampoo recipe that works well. We have only shared this with family and friends until this year.

Where did I have to go from there? Well, I have very sensitive skin and would turn red at just about anything. I had to quit wearing makeup because it would break me out every time. I found a couple of companies that made "natural" makeup so I used them for years, until they would go out of business or quit producing their line. This last time I gave up and started creating my own line of mineral makeup and skin care. This is still in the works and being tested. I look forward to perfecting these items and offering them to all of you as well.