My journey started off at a very young age knowing that I was unable to use most moisturizers and body washes available in the market because I have psoriasis. My hubby challenged me back in 2020 to try and make something that would personally help my skin. If it worked for me then that would have been an accomplishment in itself.
I remember when I was in my teens really wanting to put luxury, beautiful scented showergels or moisturiser on myself. But my skin would react straight away and would become sore because of all the chemicals that were in them. I was so disheartened because all I wanted to do was to smell and feel good. The struggle was real.
As I went through my teens, got through uni life and ended up being part of the cosmetic industry, working on various makeup counters, I started to learn a lot more about skin in general. I realised that having a scent in a product is something that is essential.
A scent reminds a consumer of a special moment in their life, or reminds them of a certain emotion, but most importantly it makes them feel a certain way. I started researching different cosmetic ranges of body butters and found that most body butters have fragrance in them. This is something that I wanted to change and I started to educate myself about essential oils. Essential oils are compounds extracted from plants. The oils capture the plant's scent and flavour, or “essence.” This was definitely the best way to make sure my butters smell good but to also have a positive effect on the skin.
I also wanted to use the purest ingredients without using any chemicals. On the other hand I loved the feel of the body butters as they were so smooth and silky, but felt like they were very similar to the texture of a moisturiser. I wanted to make my body butter texture lighter, with a little more air in the formula and for it to feel non-greasy. I’m not asking for much am I?
The next challenge was to understand what the best ingredients were to put in the butters to help skin issues like psoriasis or eczema. What I did know is that I wanted the ingredients in the butters to make the skin soft, reduce pigmentation, give the skin a glow and have ingredients in them that are superfoods for the skin. I eventually narrowed down the ingredients, which was not easy because I wanted all the good stuff in my butters.
Once I got all the ingredients together it was time to make the body butter and get the methodology right. This took nearly 20 attempts of melting, whipping and freezing until I felt it was the right consistency. The scent needed to be perfect and my method also had to be correct.
Everytime the formula didn’t work I felt disappointed in myself and this made me realise how much I really wanted to make my body butters work. I needed to prove something to myself but I also loved the whole process from start to finish. It’s almost therapeutic. I honestly didn’t think I would enjoy making body butters so much, but to see the end swirl in my own frosted jar with my name on it makes me super proud.
The journey from educating myself on various ingredients, to experimenting with formulas to finally seeing my products come together was extremely long winded, but definitely worth it. The months and months of research and learning, the countless test batches and tweaks to the formula, and the stress around ensuring the packing truly represents me and the brand goes into the heart and soul of my products.
