Body Butter: Onalaska Woman Enjoys Creating Her Own Cosmetics Line

A few years ago, Carla Belew decided she was fed up with the skin problems that had plagued her.

Determined to find answers, she turned to the Internet. And there, she began a journey that would eventually lead her to found her own skincare company.

Belew, of Onalaska, is the owner of My Miracle Body Butter, a small business where she makes all natural skincare products by hand in her own kitchen. She started her company about three years ago after deciding to try making her own moisturizers. She  had always lived with dry, itchy skin. 

“Nothing on the market ever gave me any relief,” she said.

Below began researching moisturizing and skin issues on the Internet and read about using olive oil as a natural wrinkle cream and softener. It worked so well, she became interested in what other natural products might help her skin problems. Eventually over a period of about three to four months, during downtime from her full - time job at the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Belew came up with a master recipe using olive oil, coconut oil and beeswax that created what she calls Miracle Body Butter.

At first, Belew made the body butter only for herself. But eventually she began making it as gifts for friends and family. And that’s where the idea for a business got jump-started.

“Some of my friends began saying, ‘Why aren’t you selling this?’” Belew said.

While she always made fairly healthy choices in her life, Belew said she never considered herself someone who was really passionate about organics or natural products. But as she has researched skin care products, she said she has really become more interested and more educated. For instance, one thing she said she learned was most commercial cosmetic products contain parabens, which are used as an inexpensive preservative. But the substance has also been linked to breast cancer and some have contended they can be stored in the body over time and create a cumulative negative health risk. 

“A lot of our products have stuff in them that we can’t pronounce and we don’t know what it is and most of it is just filler,” Belew said. “I feel a lot of what is causing many of our skin issues is these additives.”

On the other hand, Belew said coconut oil has a natural SPF of 4 and it is antimicrobial as well as being excellent for skin problems such as eczema and psoriasis.