The Love Story & Vision Page &How I Became An Alchemist!

A Big & Gracious Hello to You!

Thanks for spending your precious time checking out Made With Love's web site and our amazing skin care products!  I'm proud to create a skin care line that truly nourishes the skin using natural ingredients.  It's great to see and hear customers sharing how great their skin feels when using Made With Love products.   

 

 

 

How It All Began: 

That's me, Michele, in the picture jarring up a fantastic whipped shea body butter.  

I'm a New York State licensed massage therapist and have had a private practice for the past 16 years. After the first few years of working on lots of different bodies I got it that everything is connected.  How you were feeling emotionally showed up in your body; how healthy or not so healthy you ate showed up in your body.  I had an interest in herbs and essential oils and their medicinal properties and thought it would be great to use herbal tinctures, teas and essential oils to have available for my clients to help them be proactive with how well they felt in their day-to-day lives.  I completed a 9 month herbalist training.  It was great! Weed walks, plant identification and how to use the plants for what ailment was taught.  

The best part of the training occurred around the campfire.  Our group was learning how to make creme!  "Excuse me, we are learning how to make whipped cream?", I asked.  "Ah, no we're making a basic creme emulsion to moisturize your skin", replied the teacher.  "What?!? You mean you can MAKE BODY CREME! I thought you just went to the store and bought Nivea and slather it on" I replied to myself, in my head.  Mind you this was before the whole buy local, artisinal handcrafted movement.  Over the campfire we melted beeswax with oil, added water and whipped it until everything became one beautiful, light and fluffy moisturizer.  Pure essential oils were added for their aroma and medicinal properties.  

I was fascinated with this whole process of melting ingredients, whipping everything together and watching the transformation from liquid to solid.  The best part is working with pure essential oils - they are magic in a bottle and smell exquisite!  I truly became an alchemist, creating beautiful scent profiles and products that worked great.  For Christmas I made family and friends a basic creme.  Everyone loved them!  My mother brought her jar into work and shared her amazing moisturizer with co-workers who begin calling me to get their own jar of wonderfulness! 

Now I asked the question, "Why do these simple ingredients really work on nourishing and hydrating the skin much better than what I've ever bought, cheap or expensive?"  I researched the ingredients used in commercially made products and was horrified at what I had been slathering on my skin all these years.  Harmful chemicals, petroleum, fake fragrances, alcohols found in all of them!  No wonder I would have to keep reapplying "their" product to keep my skin feeling hydrated.  I have dry skin, why would I want to put alcohol on it to dry it out more?.  No wonder why I had to run past the body care store because the smells wafting out gave me an instant headache; their products were made using cheap, toxic fragrance oils.  I also found out that the health and beauty industry is under FDA regulation but not much of regulation occurs of chemicals and how harmful they are to our health.  

To share this information about the chemicals in commercially made products, what the potential hazards are and why natural ingredients are the way to go and having people experience Made With Love's products bringing the show on the road by having home parties.  Speaking at local breast cancer support groups, craft shows, trade shows and the website have increased Made With Love's message.    

VISION

The vision is to create skin care products that nourish your skin naturally and are handcrafted in small batches using the finest ingredients and pure essential oils for their aromas and healing properties.  We want to keep you updated on new, natural ingredients and how they will positively affect the health of you, your family and community.  Who said body care products have to be massed produced to sit on a shelf for years and years? 

Your skin is a living, breathing organ and absorbs what you put on it.  Our mission is to make you aware of what you put on it may have an impact on your health and environment and to give you a better option to take care of your health.  

OUR PHILOSOPHY & COMMITMENT:

  • Creating 100% handcrafted body care products with our own recipes on premises.  We do not purchase pre-made bases and then add fragrances and call it "handcrafted".  We make our own herbal-infused olive oils.  Our beeswax comes from Honeybrook Farms in Pine Bush.
  • We use high quality oils like olive, jojoba, coconut, grapeseed and sea buckthorn to name a few. Herbal-infused oils like arnica, st. johnswort and calendula are crafted on-site. We don't use poor grade oils like safflower, soybean, mineral or petroleum in our products. 
  • Our product's aromas are created through the science of aromatherapy, pure essential oils.  Pure essential oils are used not only for their wonderful fragrances but also for their medicinal properties. On occasion we do use phthalate-free fragrance oils due to prohibitive costs and plant species in danger of extinction like the sandalwood and rosewood trees.
  • Our products are gluten free, petroleum free, paraben free, soy free.  Some are vegan.  
  • Most of our products come in glass.  It doesn't leech into the products like plastic containers. 

Because we do not use chemical preservatives our crèmes are meant to be used, not kept on a shelf for years. Our products are carefully and lovingly handmade in small batches to ensure freshness and effectiveness. You can refrigerate crèmes to lengthen their life. Face and body crèmes do have an 8 – 12 month shelf life. Body butters, therapeutic balms, room sprays, bath salts can last up to 2 years.

With Love & Gratitude,
Michele Tomasicchio

Crème Artisan & Alchemist