Monday, November 4, 2013

Homemade Harvest 2013 Artist - Natural Goodness Skin

This upcoming weekend is my 7th Annual Handmade Harvest Open House. I'll have three returning women business owners and three new entrepreneurs joining me in a makeshift pop-up shop in my living room. I thought it might be fun this year if you got to know the ladies that will be sharing their handmade harvest with you, so I've asked them all interview questions. Today we will get to know Victoria from Natural Goodness Skin.

Tell us a bit about yourself? Apart from being ‘creative’ what do you do?
Aside from Natural Goodness, I work full time at Boeing in the Finance organization. I started creating my own skin care products around the time I was pregnant with my son. I became a health-nut, because I wanted to give my son the best start possible. I started learning about skin care products and all of the awful chemicals in the products that we put not only on our own skin, but on our kids skin, too.

I started researching, taking classes and making my own products out of frustration. I couldn’t find a product that was moisturizing enough, or rejuvenating (without costing hundreds of dollars). What amazed me the most was that once I started making my own skin care, I could immediately see an improvement in my skin. After a while I began giving my products to family and friends as gifts; I decided to start sharing them with other people, too, and I opened my etsy shop.

My new love is really aromatherapy. I started taking classes at Bastyr last year and this year hope to finish up their aromatherapy certificate program by the end of 2014. Essential oils are really awesome and so versatile. Using essential oils has really transformed how I deal with every day things such as a simple cold (which can be miserable with a sick 3 year old) or how to deal with “monsters under the bed” (check out monster blaster aromatherapy room spray).


What inspires you to do the kind of work you do?
I really had my “a-ha” moment on a cruise to Alaska with my family. I didn’t have time to get a mani/pedi before the cruise, so I thought I’d just get one on the ship. The woman doing my nails was an early 20’s eastern European girl who clearly spent a lot of time on her makeup based up on the strategic placement of the false eye lashes.

My mani/pedi was spent with the nail tech/esthetician belittling me. I had spent the morning outside (sans makeup) with my kids, looking for whales and seals. The nail tech was quick to point out my skin has slight rosacea and my big pores… and, oh, don’t my big pores bother me… it was an hour and a half of criticism. I left feeling really low.

Afterwards I was sitting on the top deck of the ship with my kids, drinking hot chocolate, looking at an incredible glacier and I saw a woman… she was by no means attractive. She had a long pointy noise, narrow face and hardly had a chin. She was with her daughters, playing with them, hugging them and it hit me… this woman is beautiful, from the inside out. By conventional standards she would not be considered attractive, but there she was, a beautiful, loving mother who was showering her kids with love.

It hit me…every beautiful woman out there may not know she’s beautiful. Most women I know are busy. They’re someone’s mother, daughter, caretaker, cook, confident. They keep the house running and the kids happy. Or maybe they’re the career woman, blazing trails and moving up the ladder. By offering skin care products that work naturally, I want to inspire women to become the best version of themselves. To wake up every day thinking that today they will be the person that they’ve always wanted to be: brave, confident, self-reliant and own their own beauty 


Do you look up to anyone? Who? Why?
I look up to lots of people. The first of which is my Mom. I lost her almost a decade ago, but she still continues to inspire me. She always told me I could be anything I wanted, choose any path for my life and to dream big. I try hard to be the same kind of inspiration to my son that she was to me

What other passions do you have in your life?
Aside from my family, I really enjoy a good glass of wine and just spending time with family and friends. My husband and I like to travel, but honestly traveling is different once you have kids. It’s more about comfort and less about traveling to far off, exotic destinations.


How do you promote your work?
Right now I’m just promoting my work through my etsy shop and by talking with people directly about their skin care needs. Before the 1st of the year I hope to launch my web page.

In the future I’d like to be...
I would like to continue to grow my business and see where it takes me.

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