Meet Brittany Williams-McNair of The Body Cove in Midtown

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brittany Williams-McNair.

Brittany, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Soap crafting began for me in 2016 as a form of self-therapy. During that time, I was in a very toxic relationship, unhappy with my job, and most notably, unhappy with myself and where I was in my life. I was drinking and smoking excessively, partying every night, and finding just about every reason not to be at home where it felt like all the pain lived. Ultimately, my relationship ended quite terribly and my escapism became even more severe. At a point though, it started getting old really quickly.

One Sunday during a trip to the bookstore in search of some self-help reading, I wound up in the arts and crafts section and picked up a book on soap making. I have always loved natural bar soap but didn’t know how it was made and that I could make my own by hand. That week after purchasing all of the materials, I crafted my first batch of soap.

The relief and peace I felt during the process of crafting sent me into a spiral of experimenting and creating. I’d never felt such intention and purpose through my hands before, and the next thing I knew, my kitchen was full of bar soaps of every scent, color, and kind. Space became scarce, so I started giving bars away to my friends and co-workers. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and people were asking if I could make more when I ran out. It started becoming an expensive hobby, so I started charging for them. Initially, it was something I did exclusively for myself, but when people started sharing with me how my bars of soap helped to ease their troubled skin conditions, or how the scents elevated their mood, helped them wake up in the morning or relax before bed, I felt like I had found purpose through my pain. I could help to heal myself by healing others in some way. I never would have imagined something as seemingly simple as a bar of soap could make such a big impact.

Tell us about your business/company. What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc. What are you most proud of as a company? What sets you apart from others?
With anything you do, there are always challenges! Between ruining many batches of soap (which gets expensive), leaving my job, struggling financially, and my relationship ending, there were times where it became very dark for me. I can’t count the number of times I wanted to give up on not just crafting but on everything. It seemed as if the darkness was indefinite and there would be no end to the emotional, spiritual, and mental agony. This all happened in a very short span of time. It was the struggle of it all that facilitated my growth, made me appreciate everything I was, had endured, who I was becoming and all that I had. It’s easy to be depressed when it seems like everything is going wrong in your life. The challenge is learning to love the ride. If you push through, though, the reward is great. I learned to love, respect, and accept myself through the challenges. The struggle was healing.

I still struggle with the business side of things! I am a creative at heart, and I only really care about crafting high quality and purposeful product. Marketing, bookkeeping, taxes, and running a business, are things I’m still learning, as I am not the most business minded person. You learn quickly though, that just MAKING a good product is not enough to run a business! Especially a handmade one!

We’d love to hear more about your business.
The Body Cove is an herbal body care company that produces handcrafted botanical soap using the traditional cold process method. This method involves combining oils and butters such as cocoa butter, mango butter, sweet almond oil and coconut oil with an alkaline substance such as lye or wood ash. This causes a chemical reaction called saponification, which binds the lye and oils together and forms a solid bar of soap. The resulting product of the saponification process is glycerin, which is wonderfully moisturizing for the skin, and soap.

No lye remains in the finished product, as it has all reacted with the fruit and vegetable fats to create a completely new substance. Commercial bars or mass produced bars are not true soap, as all of the glycerin has been removed from the bars and all that is left is a solid form of detergents, artificial foaming agents, and synthetic fragrance. This is why the skin is dry after using store-bought bars. If the word “soap” is not on the label, it is not real soap and is considered a cosmetic by the FDA. “Body Bar,” “Beauty Bar,” and “Body Wash” are terms you’ll see often. Never “soap.”

All of the soaps are crafted, labeled, and packaged by myself. I am a one-woman show! My bar soaps are holistically formulated using ingredients exclusively found in the natural world: vegetables, plants, flowers, herbal extracts, teas, fruit and nut oils, butters, clays, mineral salts, and essential oils. No synthetic ingredients are used. I formulate bar soap intentionally for those with skin sensitivities, troubled skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis, and babies. The oils I use are infused in herbs like calendula, lavender, and chamomile to help soothe and moisturize the skin so that the skin is not dry out of the shower. The skin is cleansed and nourished.

What were you like growing up?
I was a very imaginative child growing up! I had varying interests because of my naturally curious nature. I have three other siblings whom I saw on the weekends, but they lived with their moms and it was just myself and my dad at home. When I wasn’t with them, I spent a lot of time alone in my room drawing, painting, writing short stories, and playing my keyboard piano. I was also a very active child and participated in community sports, cheerleading, and I loved playing double-dutch with my friends from school! I was somewhat shy but very fun-loving and friendly. I spent a lot of time outdoors as well, collecting caterpillars, butterflies, and lightning bugs!

Contact Info:

• Website: thebodycove.com
• Phone: 314-757-2419
• Email: bodycove@gmail.com
• Instagram: @thebodycove

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