Member Interviews - A Conversation with Today's Green Leaders
Simply Green: An Interview with Michelle McLaughlin
By ECOoutpost staff
Michelle McLaughlin, founder of Simple Basics, is a self-taught creator of natural, luscious hair and skin products and an outspoken fan of honey. McLaughlin gets her honey raw, unfiltered from local beekeepers. In fact, all of the ingredients in her products are natural, from shea butter to essential oils---even the preservatives are "green". Plus, with each order you'll get a lovely sachet full of dried lavender as a treat! It is this kind of personalized attention that McLaughlin is quickly becoming known for. We ask her to tell us how it all began.
ECOoutpost: How did Simple Basics get started?
I began Simple Basics from a series of experiments. I had purchased a handmade organic lip balm, Lemon Verbena, and it was luscious. The seller explained her home, her farm, her schedule of goat milking. This thing, she had created, In her kitchen, between farm duties and children’s activities, was a lip balm, simple, in a small tin pot.
ECOoutpost: What are some of your inspirations for Simple Basics?
My experiments with beeswax and oils, shea butter and essential oils were received in awe from friends and family at Christmas time. These were unique products, that sang of health and the earth, a piece of me. And I remembered the days of summer, clad in moccasins, racing down to the creek, where I encountered frog after frog and dutifully tended to them, catching them up...embracing my time with the earth, the sun. The trips to piano lessons and recitals, my teachers farm house filled with handiwork, her lessons on churning milk to butter, fresh from her cows. My days, that led to years, in the country...of picking fruit, harvesting hay and gathering eggs...these things inspired me again.
ECOoutpost: How has Simple Basics changed since the early days of development?
Slowly, Simple Basics, has evolved into head-to-toe skin and hair care directly from the earth, with all its simplicity and healing powers. Making friends with local Beekeepers has further inspired the addition of honey into most products, a natural anti-biotic and healer. By concentrating on the needs of those who came to me for solutions, I developed the Skin Care Sets, Healing Salves and Creams, with remarkable results. I believe the earth has all we need for sustenance.
ECOoutpost: What projects do you have on the horizon?
Simple Basics has been successful from the beginning, and tends to amaze even myself. There is the promise of a two-page spread in Green Business Quarterly coming up, as well as a mention of my Acne Skin Care Set in TreeHugger Magazine. There are many things I'd like to let people know about and hopefully access Simple Basics.
ECOoutpost: Which is your favorite green product?
When asked which Green Product I could not live without, I’d have to say “honey”, Because it is such a gift, a healer and a life sustainer. For this reason, I have chosen the bee for my logo.
"My lips used to get really chapped, but now they're chap free AND smell of rosemary. How great is that?"
To read more glowing positive feedback from customers, or purchase your own rosemary lip balm, visit the Simple Basics online store at simplebasics.etsy.com.