How in the heck did we get here?
I guess you could say my soaping started out of needing a hobby and a little extra income. (Not to mention I had failed at literally any "art" I tried, I did not get any of the creative genes the rest of the family did). It started with some humble (not so pretty, but they did work) soap bars. It was love at first suds.
(The first bars)
The science behind making soap had me hooked! I had to figure out how this worked, and keep making more.
As I learned, I vowed to help some of my family's skin issues. One of the uhh "great" things about my family is that we all have various skin issues. Eczema, psoriasis, acne, dry skin, itchy skin—those of us that ignore "leaves of three let it be"—just whatever, you name it, my large family has it. Which is great since that means I have a LOT of willing humans to test out my science MUAHAHAHAHA!
I developed my lotions because my grandma went through so many steroids and prescriptions and nothing was helping her super dry, itchy skin. It took about 6 months, but she finally was able to get a little relief. Grandpa benefited too since he got to have his own set of baby soft, super hydrated legs testing out stuff (no more old people skin puffs! If you know, you know).
I should probably mention that I was my grandparents caregiver for the end of their lives. I absolutely make some jests, but it's all in love, and they would 100% give their approval. They were pretty cool people but that's a story for another time.
The Mission
As I grew and learned, I kept two major things in mind. The first is that I wanted to provide high quality, handcrafted skin care at a reasonable cost. Let's be real- reasonable costs are different for everyone, but I try to keep my prices in a range that just about everyone can try something.
The second is that I wanted to help our communities. I believe that building each other up is important to our future. I donate 10% of the profits from sales to... something. (Yes, that's broad, but there's been a lot of "somethings"). With your help, we've done a lot of things together!
We have donated to the Grainger County School System Hygiene closet to purchase socks and underwear for kids in grades K–12. We have donated to help revamp a school library in Knox County. We have donated to World Central Kitchen (one of the few "world" organizations instead of a directly local one). We've bought over 200 books for schoolchildren in K-12 in Tennessee and some in Texas (with the help of a TN native teacher).
On top of that, leftover products (such as out-of-season items or things that just didn't sell well) don't get marked down and thrown away. There are a few exceptions to this, because some products do have a definite shelf life; however, most soap is good "forever" if kept dry.
We've donated over 1000.00 in goods to Grainger Baptist Association, Canup of Greene County, and Greater Good of East Tennessee to name a few.
In short, we've worked together and reached a lot of people through a lot of walks of life, and we've donated to a lot of "somethings." If you have an East Tennessee organization that may need our help, please let me know!
With all that, I thank you. Your support over the years has made a dream come to fruition. You are amazing and loved!