Skin Therapy: My Story

Making mosaics involves a lot of repetitive motion. Nipping glass and tiles causes continuous contraction of the muscles and tendons in the hand. About a year and a half ago, I was working on a very large commission (a total of about 35 square feet of mosaic) and this repetitive motion caught up with me in a painful way. I had a tight deadline and so I was working 10 + hour days. One morning, I found that I couldn’t lift my coffee cup (a tragedy) and so I knew I needed to take action.  I had to keep working so I could finish on time!

The back story here is that for the past three years, I had been studying herbal medicine with a wonderfully wise and gifted herbalist, Brittany Nickerson www.thymeherbal.com and so I had learned how to use plants to make home remedies for many common things. I already believed in the power of plants to enhance our lives and our health. I had been reading about the importance of paying attention to what I put on my skin- as the skin is so permeable and whatever goes on the skin goes right into the bloodstream.  Avoiding products with unrecognizable and harmful ingredients was important to me. I’ll talk more about the specifics of this in another post.

I went to Cornucopia, a local health food store and asked for a skin salve that would help tendon pain. They recommended a wonderful product made by a company called Kuumba. Massaging this onto my hand, wrist and forearm (along with altering the way I used my glass nipper) reduced the pain in a miraculous way. Looking at the list of ingredients and seeing that they were all familiar to me, I began to think that I could make my own blend.

Over the past 10 months, I have been crafting a variety of herbal body products, using a few of my favorite plants and sharing them with friends to get feedback. The consensus has been “You have to start selling these products!”.  I”ve made salves for reducing repetitive motion strain and bruising, salves for cuts and cracks in the skin (grouting mosaics causes this in a big way!) salves for itchy heat rash and bug bites, lotions and body butters for moisturizing and nourishing the skin, lip balms, room sprays and massage oils. I feel really good about all of the ingredients I use. My rule is: if I wouldn’t eat the product, then I wouldn’t put it on my skin! (not that I necessarily recommend eating them, but it’s not out of the question!).

After months of trying out various formulations, recipes and having fun being creative, I am now finally launching my first two products, with a third on the way very soon and more to follow hopefully in the next few months.

My line of products is called Skin Therapy and the first two products are: Whipped Body Butter, and Hand Repair Moisturizing Salve. The label features a mosaic that I made of a calendula flower (one of the main ingredients!).

I make both of these in very small batches (6 ounces of product at a time) so that I can have a high level of control over the outcome. I infuse the calendula and comfrey into the olive oil in a way that does not involve heating the oil (which can cause the oils to break down and lose quality). I work in a professional and very clean manner, in my home kitchen. I infuse the products, and the process with love and the intentions of helping and bringing happiness to people. This part is important to me, regardless of whether you believe it makes a difference or not. I am happy to answer questions you may have about the products.

You can read all about these products on my website, including information about how to purchase them, as well as profiles of each ingredient. Click here

Please contact me with any questions.

This is my personal story and it is not meant to treat, diagnose or cure any illnesses or diseases and should not be used in the place of medical advice.