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: Beauty and Spa Hand-made Health Care Supplies Home Based Businesses
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Welcome to Betula’s Botanica…a source for all natural, hand made products for body and well being!
Celebrating my 1st year anniversary with the launch of www.Betulasbotanica.com where you’ll be able to shop for hand crafted cold process soaps, sugar scrubs, healing and lip balms, and moisturizing creams. All products are carefully made in small batches using only premium plant oils and therapeutic grade essential oils. No synthetic colorants, fragrances, or preservatives!
Experience the Difference…A Little Nature Can Make!
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Originally Published: 3/11/2011 Share9
Slices of life: Handmade body products encourage well-being
By Courtney H. Diener-Stokes
Reading Eagle correspondent
Three years ago, after the death of a family member resulted in emotional struggles and financial challenges, Monica Dech of Birdsboro went through a transformation. That led to the start of her body care business, Betula’s Botanica, last spring.
She chose the name, derived from one of her favorite trees, because she felt it best represented the changes she was going through in her life.
“Betula is the genus for the birch tree,” she said. “It is a harbinger of spring and a new beginning.”
While trying to keep her family afloat, she took a hard look at herself and asked, “What are you going to do now?”
Dech has two daughters Emily, 18 and Hannah, 15.
With a horticulture, advertising and banking background, Dech, 48, decided it was time to learn something new.
“Now I’m able to use all of those abilities and skills to build my own business,” she said.
After spending a year doing research, starting with books to educate her on all aspects of soap making, she was ready to experiment.
“I brought a few bars to the garden center, and they sold,” said Dech, who works at her family business, Hopewell Nursery, in Earl Township.
Dech was educated in horticulture at Longwood Gardens, Chester County, and grew up around a family nursery business, so it’s no surprise that many of Dech’s products are made using plant materials.
“It gives me an outlet to show I can do more than just make their garden look pretty,” she said, referring to her clients.
She appreciates plants for more than just their scent and beauty.
“Plants are also there for their health and well-being as well,” she said. “I have always been interested in a holistic approach to health.”
Her cold-pressed, handmade soaps, with names such as her best-selling Winter Solstice, a blend of citrus, cloves and fir needles, are meant to do more than just clean the body.
“There is an aromatherapy benefit that goes along with it,” Dech said. “If you are looking to relax, use the lavender soap, and if you are looking to feel invigorated, use The Morning After, a blend of ruby red grapefruit, fennel, rosemary and peppermint, which is very bright, refreshing and soothing at the same time.”
Dech tries to use organic ingredients as much as possible, and in cases where she can’t, she uses premium plant oil.
“My mission is to produce a product that is all natural,” she said. “I don’t use any synthetic colorants or fragrances.”
She uses therapeutic grade essential oils to scent the soaps and other products she offers, such as healing balms, sugar scrubs, lip balm, bath oils and moisturizing hand creams.
“In the future I’d like to get into spray mists and bath salts,” she said.
Given the three- to four-week curing process of making cold-pressed soaps by hand, over the holidays she found herself making products every other evening after her full-time job.
“It is a bit of a challenge keeping the supply going,” she said.
With 15 different soaps from which to choose, Dech recommends that her clients consider accumulating a wardrobe of soaps to use to take advantage of the full range of aromatherapy benefits.
“Don’t just use it as a treat for yourself, use it every day,” she said, suggesting to place them anywhere from your bedroom bathroom to the kitchen sink. “Grab that Orange Breeze after work, and it will invigorate you, or that sugar scrub, and wash the day away.”
Dech is willing to customize items for clients.
“I am very appreciative of my loyal clients,” she said.
Dech described a good bar of soap as one that not only smells nice but has a scent that carries on from the first time you use it to the last. There are several components to her soaps.
“A hard bar that lasts long, lathers long, has a quality and fluffy lather and moisturizes well,” she said.
Dech sells products at at the Boyertown Farmers Market most Saturdays during the summer as well as at Hopewell Nursery. She enjoys providing goods locally where she can interact with her customers.
“I love the farmers market,” she said. “I can try something new and get feedback, which is valuable and keeps me motivated.”
: www.Betulasbotanica.com
: 484-624-2308
: Betulasbotanica@aol.com
: Monica Dech
: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Birdsboro-PA/Betulas-Botanica/172936309408717
: Birdsboro
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Betula’s Botanica
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