Self-care is a “divine responsibility” says Jasmine Banks.
As Jasmine Banks watched her mom endure cancer, she considered the link between common products everyone uses and this awful disease that doesn’t discriminate. One look at what was in her toothpaste and she was scared.
Banks discovered many of the common personal care items in her bathroom had ingredients that she didn’t want to be using, like triclosan in toothpaste and aluminum-based compounds in deodorant. And so she started making her own, after her mother passed away in 2012.
Through Facebook, she garnered enough interest to organize a bazaar with some other crafty friends in February 2016 to sell her products and, thus, Perfect Imperfections was born.
The current product line includes deodorant, lip balm, body oil, natural scrubs and whipped body butter. Banks also sells a mango body butter, which is a little less greasy than the whipped body butter and can be scented. Banks advises that a little goes a long way with both body butters, which absorb into your skin much better than the traditional store-bought lotions that list water as their first ingredient.
One of her bestsellers is a lemongrass poppy seed goat’s milk soap. She uses a hot process that starts with purchased goat’s milk soap in large blocks; she slices , and double boils the soap so she can add essential oil for fragrance and some type of seed for exfoliation, then places it in silicone molds where it takes about an hour to set up.
Body scrub (left) combines Dead Sea and Epsom salt with dried rose and calendula buds. Soy wax candles burn clean.
Her newest offerings are lavender and flax seed neck and eye pillows that she sews herself, which can be put in the microwave, dryer or freezer. She’s also recently introduced soy wax candles because of a customer’s request. In fact that’s how many of her products come to be, she says.
While Banks’ mother was the inspiration for the products, her father provided the inspiration for her product line’s name: “My dad was a perfect dad who had his imperfections,” says Banks.
Because Banks works full time at Operation Fresh Start, she does not sell her products from a website or by mail order. She does sell a selection of products at JNJ Craftworks, 1051 North Edge Trail in Verona, and from a small display case at Synergy Coworking, 5201 Old Middleton Road in Madison. Banks also sells at least once a month at various craft fairs, a list of which she keeps updated on her Facebook page.
Her goal is to make the business her full time job by 2020. She’d like to sell wholesale and to have her products featured in boutique hotels.
Soap, body scrubs and body oils and butters range from $5 to $15.
“My mission is that self-care is a divine responsibility,” says Banks. She wants to give people permission “to slow down a little bit and take care of themselves. We move so fast. By the time you know it, our journey has come to an end. I hope the quality and the affordability of my products gives people the permission.”
Perfect Imperfections
facebook.com/perfectimperfections608
