To be honest, I didn’t set out to become a natural bath and body maker. I sort of fell into the whole business! My daughter, who is now 3, developed weeping eczema when she was 9 months old. Yes, WEEPING eczema, and believe me, the eczema wasn’t the only one weeping. I had no idea how to deal with this condition and I could tell that the skin was bothering her. I talked to her doctor, and she recommended Vaseline. Yuk. The next suggestion, as she grew older, was hydrocortisone cream. Double yuk. I’d read that the hydrocortisone cream could actually thin the epidermis. Whether that’s true or not, I don’t know, but I wasn’t into slathering all sorts of junk on such a young baby. We all know that medications and other material that is supposed to be safe today will be the cause of numerous diseases tomorrow.I jumped on the Internet and found out about shea butter. I ordered some and was dismayed to find out how hard it was – I had to rub it between my hands then carefully apply it to her legs. A bit more research later, I purchased some evening primrose tablets, mixed it with the shea in my palm and applied it to her legs. It worked very well – her eczema cleared up, the scratching stopped (for the most part) but it was pretty messy. Then, the beginning of the end….I found candletech.com, now known as craftserver.com. Talk about bath and body heaven! I found suppliers for containers, fragrances and more natural fats than you could shake a stick at!I’ve made shea sticks (96% shea butter in a roll up stick), lotion bars (in tins) and finally I started whipping the shea with other oils and butters. Once it got to the point where a small corner of the basement was filled with my “stuff”, people were asking for shea sticks, or lotion bars, I decided to take the plunge.Yet more research….I finally decided to become a limited liability company in the state of New Jersey, got a post office box, insurance and obtained a tax id number. So in December of 2006, I was official. Wow! I put up a website (talk about trial by fire) and took a deep breath, because I knew my work was just beginning.
Through my own personal experiences, I've learned that at some point we have to be our own doctors to best take care of ourselves and our families. It's positive to know that out of that came a career. You are indeed an inspiration.
Comments
Keep sharing and stay positive,
lhenry