We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Marcha Charles a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Marcha, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?

Since I can remember, my sibling has had atopic dermatitis, and my mom and dad have taken him to the medical professional for treatment. It was rare to see him without a rash. I saw him scratching so intensely that he broke the skin. However, only recently have I learned about atopic dermatitis, so I can only imagine what he has suffered. As you continue reading, you’ll learn more about my target audience, which consists of people who desire a fragrance-free, colorless, herbal infusion body butter made of dried flowers and natural oils. My store’s best-selling body butter, ‘Your New Best Friend,’ is the first body butter jar my brother tried. He called me days later and said:

“Whatever CRACK in this jar, I need more of it” I laughed with joy in heart.

“I need a big jar of that body butter; my skin loves it” he continues to share.

Disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease.

Marcha, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

“Put Some Respect On Your Skin”

I am a proud mother of two who is passionate about God, family, and all things self-care related. As one who has worked in the healthcare field and a variety of other sectors for many years, I finally decided to release fear and listen to what God called me to do. After much prayer and spiritual counsel, I received the confirmation my heart was seeking and decided to step out on purpose.

Called Into Position…

I always made all-natural homemade products using botanical and therapeutic grade essential oils for myself and my children’s hair and skin; however, I didn’t know it was my purpose.

At a fellowship held in my apartment a woman I had just met that evening prophesied

“I see you doing skincare”. I chuckled.

My friend quickly replied, “I hope you are listening, because she is very prophetic.”

“God is calling you to skincare,” the woman continues.

I laughed within myself with unbelief like Sarah did when she overheard Jesus telling Abraham she would have a child in her old age (Genesis 18: 12-15).

I couldn’t even imagine starting another business while struggling to keep up with my previous hair business.
During the holiday season, just before the pandemic took on full force, I made friends and family face oils & body butter because I didn’t want to leave my home. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, everyone loved the products so much, and told me to go get my LLC to get this skincare business started.

The beginning of this new journey didn’t begin as rapidly as I wanted it to, as God wanted me to lead it. I began investigating my competitors’ strategies and actions as soon as I was appointed. After taking a look at YouTube videos, I bought a lot of shea butter and oils and began to make them with various colors. It appeared that colorful butters had better traffic than plain ones. I experimented with fragrance oils not knowing how dangerous they could be. That led me to ask my family and friends what they liked and disliked about our butter so that I could get a sense of what the market would like. I soon realized that I was throwing away or giving away batches of butter because they were not right. As a result, I began hearing people say,

‘It smells good, but I can’t use it because of my sensitive skin,’.

Being in such a rush to create a product after viewing a video on YouTube, I neglected to consider whether it would be suitable for my customers. The most important people for me to question about the fragrance were my brother and sister, both of whom suffer from eczema. The reason I was unable to solicit their opinions was that I had added chemicals to the products. As a result, I had to consider carefully whether I wished to develop a popular butter that smelled great and sold out quickly or whether I wanted to appeal to people who had difficulties finding all-natural body butters and oils.
I returned to God seeking guidance because I was perplexed about what to do. Then I recalled a moment when my pastor received a message from God and relayed it to me.

“I am using your hands to heal people”.

It was at that moment that I realized that this calling was not about making fast money, satisfying my personal objectives, or meeting my own needs. God didn’t want me to enter this purpose with the same selfish mindset I had when I started my last company. God took me through a significant mindset journey that transformed me on the inside as well as the outside. It felt as though he wanted to ensure that I was qualified for this job, and the strange thing is that I didn’t understand this until February 2022.

So, it is my honor to serve you. You who have chronic itchy skin that keeps you awake all night. You who wear long sleeves all year round to hide your skin. You who desire to live a beautiful and confident life, but your inflamed skin prevents you from doing so.

Our Promise…

We choose to continue using botanical infused oils and therapeutic grade essential oils over toxic ingredients like phthalates and parabens in our products. We do not employ any fragrance oils because they are formulated with unknown components that irritate sensitive skin.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

We started selling on etsy.com when a local newspaper in Rhode Island requested two features from us in November 2021 and February 2022: no shave November with our beard growth oil and the Valentine’s Day issue with our HIS & HER body butter set. Then, we launched our own website, www.amorisseau.com, and currently fulfill our best seller, Your New Best Friend Body butter and Squalane Rose Anti-aging facial oil on Amazon.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process./

Because of God’s specific call on my life to use my hands, I’ve decided not to manufacture any of my products. My goal is to create jobs for my community. I’d love to own a factory and teach my employees how every product is made, so they can one day open a skincare or haircare business of their own.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://amorisseau.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amorrisseaullc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amorrisseaullc

Image Credits
All photos were taken by PEONEEMOULL PECH