Staff Photo by Allison Carter/Chattanooga Times Free Press
Danette Newton, owner of Simply Me Naturally, makes all-natural skin and body care products. Newton and her daughter Olivia currently make all the business' products from home, but Danette is in the process of moving her business to the Northshore.• What: Body and skin care products
• Company: Simply Me Naturally
• Address: 1607 Shelby Circle, Hixson
• Web site: www.simplymenaturally.com
• Telephone: 304-9564.
• Owner: Danette Newton
• What's special: Simply Me Naturally's products use natural substitutes for the chemical colors and fragrances used in other skin and body care products, which makes them better for use on people with sensitive skin, Newton said. For her moisturizers and masks, Newton also substitutes coconut milk, aloe or fruit gels for water, which makes up as much as 80 percent of some skin care products.
• The origin story: Newton, a biomedical engineer, decided to create her own skin and body care products after becoming dissatisfied with the antibiotic and cleanser her dermatologist prescribed to treat her own skin condition. After analyzing the formula of high-end skin care products and two years of experimenting with recipes, she created her first products, a grapefruit-based cleanser and strawberry-based exfoliater.
• How long does it take to make? On average, Simply Me Naturally products take 60-90 minutes to create.
• Where it's sold: Chattanooga Market during market season and her website.
• How long have they been making them? Newton said she began experimenting with homemade body care products four and a half years ago.
• Future expansions planned: Thanks to interest from a potential investor, Newton said she hopes to relocate her company from her home to somewhere on the North Shore by early spring. She said she also soon will expand into new product lines, including soy candles, berry-based soap products and mineral makeup and pigment bars.
• Lessons of the trade: Body care products were easy to develop, but developing recipes for skin care products was more complicated, Newton said. "There's not a lot of animals out there like it," she said. "You can look on the Internet and find 20,000 recipes for a particular lotion, but I'm not using water or any of the chemicals they're using. It took a little while for me to figure out."
Compiled by staff writer Casey Phillips, cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 424-757-6205.