Finding joy in the simple life

Over the past 11 years, we slowly began to yearn for a simpler, more natural, more handmade way of life.

It began when I saw that my little guy had inherited his momma's eczema. In the past, I had slathered the pharmaceuticals on myself and my eczema abated for a while, only to come back in full force later. I couldn't bring myself to put the drugs on my small child especially since they never seemed to truly help much anyway.

So I started searching for a healthier alternative. I had intended to find a more natural treatment for the eczema that we would just have to live with but then I learned about handmade soap. Handcrafted soap doesn't have chemicals and detergents added to it so it doesn't exacerbate issues like eczema and psoriasis. I realized that I could make our family a natural cleanser that would moisturize their skin and help them feel better!

What began as tentative baby steps turned into a huge passion for making soap and shampoo bars. These products don't strip the natural oils from your skin, scalp and hair. Many detergent based bath bars and shampoos leave your skin defenseless, causing it to go into overdrive producing oil to try to balance itself out. This leads to more scrubbing and buying more products to continually moisturize your stripped-bare skin and hair.

Since switching to handmade soaps without detergents, neither my son nor I have had an eczema outbreak. Granted, our skin problem was not severe and there is definitely a time and a place for medicine but I love that we are not dependent on it anymore.

By using more natural ingredients we have been able to help our bodies help themselves. The momma in me loves that.