Our business started because of a vast enthusiasm and dedication to organic and fair trade, to benefit the environment, the populations that harvest these ingredients, and the people that use our products.
We were crafters for years. I used to sell hulahoops, hemp jewelry, and deodorant out of my backpack at Dead and Phish shows and music festivals up and down the East coast.
My journey started in 2011, during a change in my lifestyle choices to start making the everyday health products I used—because my soap was making me itch, my deodorant was making chemical stains on my clothes, and my lip balm contained industrial chemicals in it (who knew?)
In 2012, I spent a semester studying in India. I was fortunate enough to spend time with local tribes--mostly from the Jenu Kuruba--women who had thousands of years of herbal wisdom under their belts. I learned a wealth of information that would later help me make great beauty and health products that were safe to use back in the Western Hemisphere.
As I was delving into the world of herbalism and harnessing the power of plants for everyday uses, I studied two plant materials that changed everything about how I treated my body and eventually changed how I would make my income: Arrowroot powder and essential oils. An ingredient that keeps you dry, and an ingredient that kills bacteria causing odor under your arms. The pair of ingredients that I would test over and over in new recipes to create the perfect solid-stick, organic deodorant with unique, attractive, personality-reflecting scents. A second degree to my platform remained: ethically sourcing the ingredients from local and fair-trade sources. All of the bees wax in Shakedown Acres products is locally sourced. All of the tropical materials (cocoa butter, coconut oil) are from fair-trade certified sources where families are paid a fair wage for their goods. Many of my sources are families that I have connected with in person on my numerous journeys either studying or working in the Far East.
I have boundless gratitude for the experience and the journey that lead to this final product.
Two years later (Winter, Spring & Summer 2014), I went back to India to work as a program assistant for a college research program. I was able to return to the village where those women live, who taught me almost everything I knew about horticulture and herbs--and I was finally able to give something back to them. I taught the women how to make deodorant, lip balm, and body butter out of local ingredients they were already foraging, growing and using to sell on the local and fair trade international markets. We worked together with the NGO I was working with to create a viable business for women to become financially independent. This was an area that was directly affected by Monsanto, and thousands of men were comitting suicide every year from crop failures, leaving many widowed.
So, our formulas are unique to Shakedown Acres. However, there are women in South India using the Shakedown Acres formula with similar local ingredients. So far, it has been successful. The women are seeing a significan return on investment, and have learned a skill that they are now teaching their children.
We hope to change a small part of your every day life—how you smell and how you feel—in a positive way.
And you can feel good about every last ingredient—
for your body,
for the environment,
and for any human who has a part in growing or processing any material in these products.
Our jewelry is also made from ethically sourced materials from similar areas. We buy fair trade and organic materials whenever possible.
