Living Well: Natural skin-friendly products

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

By Teresa Griswold

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-“More of what your body needs and less of what it doesn’t,” is a catchy phrase that wellness-seekers strive for, and it’s the tagline for a locally-owned business founded by Kelly Chadwick who has turned her self-taught hobby of creating natural skin care products into a thriving enterprise.

Nearly 10 years ago, a friend gave Chadwick a recipe book for making body care products. “It sat on the shelf for two years,” she said. “Until one day, I opened up the book and discovered I had all the ingredients in my cupboard for many of the recipes.”

That’s when the experiment began. The ones that turned out became gifts for friends and family members. Lotions, salt scrubs, bath salts and baby bath powders were happily received, fueling Chadwick’s interest in potion-making, and sending her to the annual holiday craft fair at Snow King with jars of salt scrub five years ago.

Though she sold everything that day, a series of serious injuries kept Chadwick from building her business. Over a period of three years, she had both hips replaced and surgery on her back. Her will to become physically active again drove her to recover and a winter in Hawaii helped her heal. Starting with only three minutes on an exercise bike, Chadwick worked her muscles and built her stamina.
“I basically started from the ground floor to building up to feeling nearly 100 percent,” she said.

Now Chadwick is back to mountain biking, hiking and paragliding. And to building her once fledgling business. A year ago, she launched kaycee’s naturals (spelled in all lower-case letters), expanding from salt scrubs to a product line that includes lotions, creams and lip balms.

She prepares all of her products in a kitchen following a strict protocol for disinfecting everything and adhering to scrupulous hygiene. Concocting lotions and potions is somewhat like a chemistry project requiring glass beakers, heat and careful temperature readings to transform oil, water, wax, shea butter and other ingredients into cream.

For Chadwick, the process is like creating cocktails, “body cocktails” as she calls them; and her entire line of natural skin care products are named after favorite drinks. Coconut Chi Chi, Lavender Lemonade, and Mojito Mint all sound scrumptious, but it’s her newest, Juicy Lucy, a sweet orange, carrot and rosemary lotion that tops her list. JHW

Sample kaycee’s naturals and meet Chadwick at the Jackson Whole Grocer, noon, June 11 and 26. Purchase kaycee’s naturals at the Jackson Whole Grocer, Twigs, Ella’s Room and www.kayceesnaturals.com.

Photo by ANDREW WYATT
Kelly Chadwick of kaycee’s naturals

PERMALINK:
Living Well: Natural skin-friendly products | Planet JH News Article: Living Well

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