Welcome to my first blog post! My name is Nichole Fehr and I am the owner/ creator of LoveAFehr Essentials. I have been married almost 5 years and we have 2 toddlers (help!).
I have many hobbies such as landscape/nature photography, DIY, candle making, crocheting, baking and more! My family and I lived in California, but my husband and I decided we wanted to give our daughters a better life and be closer to family in Idaho.
In March of 2021, we quit our jobs at the family body shop, sold our condo and headed to Idaho! We now live in the Treasure Valley where we go on treasure hunts all the time. Just kidding. The only thing I hunt for these days are missing socks! Rewind to the summer of 2020. Our youngest was about 3 months old and I found myself questioning my life. Why am I at a job that no longer fulfills me? Why can't I stay home and raise our daughters? Why are we settling for a small condo without a backyard for our kids to run around in? All these questions in the front of my mind, pushing their way closer and closer to the surface. One day I was at work browsing Pinterest and I found a pin explaining how to make your own bar soap at home. I'm all about DIY so I clicked it! Boy has that changed my life for the better.
I went down a bigger rabbit hole than Alice! I found all these products I didn't even know existed: whipped body butter, foaming sugar scrubs, clay masks...I was hooked! I started doing lots and lots of research on making soap for my family.
I found 3 different ways to make bar soap: melt & pour (pre-made soap base you add color & fragrance to), cold process and hot process. In the course of my research, I discovered it would be best to start with the easiest method so I could just dip my toe in the pond.
I scoured the internet for all the blogs, articles and videos I could find on melt & pour soap making so I would be prepared to make my first batch. I decided to go with an aloe and lemon soap with a goat milk soap base. I handed it out to friends and family so they could test it out.
People loved it! My grandma loved it the most. It made me feel great and that's when I got addicted.
I began my research on cold process soap. In the making of cold process soap, you need to use sodium hydroxide (aka lye). Sodium hydroxide is absolutely needed to make cold process soap. In all the blogs I read and videos I watched, the authors made it sound so scary! I'll explain more about that in another post.
Needless to say, I was a bit apprehensive. I just kept watching videos and reading all about cold process soap making. Soon enough, I was ready to dive in!
My first cold process soap ever was an oat and honey bar fragranced with lavender essential oil. Let me tell you! When I was mixing everything together to make the soap, it felt like second nature. I didn't have any reservations or uncertainties. I felt like I had been making cold process soap for years!
That's when I knew I couldn't stop. I wanted to make every kind of bar I could think of from coffee soap to aloe vera soap. I was so excited to research and look up all the additives I could put in soap.
From there, it just snowballed. While researching everything I could add to soap, I discovered body butter. The fluffy, luxurious thing I'd been missing all my life. So what did I do? I whipped up my first batch and the rest is history! Isn't it beautiful?!
Of course, I gave out free samples to anyone who would take them! I even mailed them all over the United States. People loved these products I made. I was ELATED!!!
That's when I knew this is what I want to do. I want to make my own products that make my skin happy, and make others happy. There you have it! The journey of starting my own business from home.
I was recently featured in a blog post and assisted the writer with the post about my business. She said, "you should start a blog!". I thought, why not?! It could help my business and I could help people understand my brand and products. So, here I am.
In future posts you can expect to learn about your skin type, the products you should be using for your skin type, body and skin care routines, how to use certain products and more! I want to thank everyone that has supported me. I am so grateful for the business, the kind words, and all the support you have given me over the past year and 7 months! Stick around to see what else I have to talk about.
Great first blog. Congratulations!