Let me introduce you to my company, Gracie Pie Apothecary, Inc., a woman-owned and operated goats milk skin care corporation based in Kankakee. Named after my daughter, Grace, at Gracie Pie Apothecary we create vibrant bath and body products that spark the senses. They not only smell fantastic but are made with sustainable, skin-loving ingredients like cocoa and shea butters. I started the company after spending 25 years as a journalist, but my love of color, art and self care collided when I taught myself how to hand-pour soap. The array of natural colors was magical, and the natural ingredients made my dry, ashy skin feel like silk. Today, we handcraft a rainbow of products – cremes, exfoliators, clay facials, anti-aging serums and men’s products – using one of the best things you can put on your skin: goats milk. Always farm-fresh (never powdered), milk helps calm skin problems like acne, eczema and dryness, leaving skin healthy and glowing. Better yet, herds of well-loved goats are milked by women farmers. Products are packaged by women at the Kankakee County Training Center for the Disabled. And, our products don’t contain phthalates, parabens, sulfates or detergents, and are eco-friendly, cruelty-free and not tested on animals. But when one thinks about soap, art doesn’t come to the forefront. But in my mind, it does. Growing up, my mother, a modern quilt artist herself, instilled a love of the arts from the colors she painted the walls to the artwork that hung on them. I came to admire the vibrancy in works by great artists like Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. It comes natural to me when designing my products. I close my eyes, inhale the scent, and imagine where it takes me. The first time I opened a bottle of our Teakwood and Bamboo fragrance, for instance, I imagined being surrounded by lush gardens of celadon and chartreuse, and stones and pebbles in dark, smoky tones, all surrounded by azure waters. We use ethically sourced and lab identical micas to color our soaps, ensuring no child labor was used in mining. I then use simple tools like chopsticks, wire coat hangers, spatulas and cutlery to create the swirls, stark lines and creamy tops that make each and every bar one of a kind.