South Mountain Spring Festival
​Terressentials – Diana Kaye
Hi! You’ve GOT to make our amazing Terressentials boutique in Middletown Valley a must-see destination! Our fun and colorful store (and crafting studio) on Old National Pike has been open since 1996! We were one of the very first personal care products businesses in the world to earn USDA organic certification for our healthy, effective, and delightfully aromatic, small-batch handcrafted, real organic personal care products. (They are yummy!) As we are environmentally-focused artisan handcrafters, we truly appreciate the financial and marketplace challenges and creative energy that is required to produce unique specialty products. We were one of the first shops to commit to featuring a lovely curated array of distinctive global artisan-crafted fair trade, traditional and innovative new and sustainable goods that directly support women’s co-ops and marginalized individuals and communities around the world. Come and visit us!
Terressentials was born out of my struggle with the negative effects of chemo on my body and skin and the fear of experiencing cancer and a close call with death at a young age. After surviving cancer and radical, experimental chemo in the late 1980's, I found that I could no longer tolerate the conventional personal care and cleaning products I had been using prior to cancer. The experimental chemo protocol severely disrupted my endocrine system and left me extremely sensitive to synthetic chemicals in my environment, despite my intensive research, I could not find many products on the market that I didn't react to. I was cancer-free, but still very sick. I adopted an organic lifestyle, moved to the country, and learned to make my own organic personal care products in order to regain my health, ease my cancer worries, and feel normal.
In the beginning, my partner Jim and I carefully studied herbology and traditional medicine from a variety of cultures in search of organic ingredients to replace the synthetic chemicals in conventional body care. Because I was so sensitive after chemo, the first products that we developed were fragrance-free products. As my health improved, we expanded our research, and little by little, we developed our hair, body, facial, and baby lines. We've had many highlights along the way, including having our Pure Earth Hair Wash featured on Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe!
Nearly 30 years later, I still have trouble finding truly organic products body care products, even in health food stores. So many personal care products are labeled “organic” and "natural," but have few actual organic ingredients and many synthetic chemicals not allowed under the National Organic Program regulations. Just read the labels next time you go to the store and you'll understand my frustration. On a brighter note, I'm glad you found us because now you know there really are effective, high-quality, affordable organic personal care product alternatives to all the synthetic chemical fake natural, and organic poseur products! Thanks for doing your research and supporting our small organic business! I hope you enjoy our artisan crafted, small-batch pure, clean, and organic Terressentials products!
Terressentials
2650 Old National Pike
Middletown, MD 21769
301-371-7333