Mission
To offer high quality, handmade, all natural bath and body products you can feel good about in more ways than one. Not only are our products made with all natural*, quality ingredients but we also try to support other local small businesses by purchasing raw materials from them when possible. Also, to promote an environmentally friendly mindset.
*exception: some fragrances are not considered “all natural”
A Nature Preserve beach located on the Yucatan Peninsula, MexicoAbout
Hi! My name is Shannon. I am a Small Business Owner (operator, manager, marketer, maker, janitor, etc.) and a Scientist. I went to Kent State University and have my Master’s of Science in Geology along with a BS in Geology and a BA in Earth Science. At the time I am writing this (2022), I have a full-time job working as a Hydrologic Technician¹ with the US Geological Survey while also trying to get my business off the ground. So, you might notice that the information I share will have some science based aspects to it.
I enjoy making my products because it’s always a science experiment and I have many reasons for wanting to share my creations with you. One reason is, like many other people, I try to cut down on my use of disposable, single use items. I don’t like the throw-away society we have become.
Though Bath and Body products are not the only business I could have started to attempt to combat such a thing, it is this next reason as to why it is what I chose. I live with Seborrheic Dermatitis (SD). I have a suspicion that those ‘fancy’, cheap, lab created compounds found in personal care items are partly to blame.
Side note: While searching the web for a site that could explain SD, for those that wanted to learn more, I came across this site http://www.seborrheic-dermatitis-cure.com/. It is a site that speaks to my suspicions and I want it to be true but, as a Scientist, I can not just accept it as fact! I will have to test it out for myself.
So, I started getting into homemade soaps and wanted to learn how to make my own. This desire grew as I started looking into the differences in melt and pour and soaps made with fats and lye. I am naturally an untrusting person and didn’t know if I could believe if what I was being sold was true soap or not. Were some of these sellers trying to pass off a cheap melt and pour soap as true soap?
I don’t know about them but, it takes me about 2 hours to make an 8-10 pound batch of soap. Melt and pour might take 30 minutes if you heat that much on stove top (about 5 seconds in the microwave if it’s just enough for a bar or two). That aspect alone is why their soap can be priced cheaper. Another aspect is given in this example of a Goat Milk melt and pour soap base:
International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI):
Sorbitol, Propylene Glycol, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Stearate, Sodium Laurate, Glycerin, Goat Milk, Titanium Dioxide.
Common Name Ingredient Listing (FDA Approved):
Sorbitol, Propylene Glycol, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Stearic Acid, Lauric Acid, Water, Sodium Hydroxide, Glycerin, Goat Milk, Titanium Dioxide.
If you happen to have read the information given on http://www.seborrheic-dermatitis-cure.com/, then you’ll know that 3 of these ingredients in the melt and pour soap base were mentioned as possible issues. Not to mention the common names for most of these ingredients aren’t any different.
Another side note: Melt and Pour soaps are technically required by law to have the ingredients listed because they are not completely actual soap. True soap does not because the process of making soap acts on all the ingredients making them into something different than what they started out as with the end result being soap.
SO! When I learned that one of my office mates (when working on my Master’s) knew how to make soap, I HAD to learn. And I did, in the Fall of 2017.
Over the years I started adding other items to my repertoire, I had to or my husband and I would be stacked to the gills with way too much soap. When those items started to stack up I started to give them away as Christmas gifts. But I am also a creator (and truly an introvert) and I knew that there are other people out there, with their own reasons, who look for the type of items I make and I wanted to share them.
And so, I started my business. Given that I did not study Business, I ask that you bear with me as I learn on the fly about various tasks and operations. All the while working at least 40 hours a week at my day job.
References