Home-grown calendula is incorporated into such products as Solace’s body powder.
Rachel Dolnick wants to remind people how important it is to take time for yourself when life gets busy and expectations pile up. “There is so much asked of us and we get run down and sick,” says Dolnick. But a simple act like drawing a bath can “allow yourself time to slow down.”
Dolnick is one of the founders of Solace Apothecary, which is not — as the name might suggest — a compounding pharmacy, but a new line of “self-care” products like bath salts, incense, salves and soaps.
Dolnick, along with friends Jenna Klink and John Painter, joined forces this fall to create a variety of products with simple ingredients that can be used for relaxing, healing or cleansing. Dolnick takes the lead on incense and bath salts. Klink, an herbalist and forager, focuses on salves and body powders. Painter, a biochemist, makes the soaps.
As vendor relations manager for Renegade Craft Fair, a company based out of Chicago, Dolnick knows a lot about running craft fairs but also considers herself to be a bath expert. “I take so many baths,” Dolnick says. “It just made sense to start making my own bath salts.” One of her favorite creations is a bath soak made with green clay, eucalyptus leaves and peppermint essential oil. It’s “meant for letting go,” she says.
Klink has been interested in health all her life. She received her master’s degree in public health from Tulane University before moving back to her home state of Wisconsin in 2011. While working at UW-Extension in the environmental programming field she saw a flyer for the Midwest Herbal Conference. She attended the conference in 2012 and was inspired to start making her own products, using plants she could gather easily outside her home.
An elder leaf infusion will eventually power a healing salve. Fir needles scent soap; incense boasts mugwort, sage, rosehips and more.
Klink now enjoys foraging for herbs and plants, the ingredients for her Solace Apothecary products, at her parents’ property near Richland Center. She makes one salve with only a few ingredients via a cold-infusion method, where she steeps herbs in olive oil for six weeks. Klink hopes products like that one encourage people to learn more about plants and to think about what kinds of things they are putting on their bodies. “There’s a sense of power when you use something handmade that works,” Klink says. As the mother of two young children, Klink was concerned about the ingredients in commercial baby powder. Now she makes one out of arrowroot powder, ground oats and chamomile.
Painter became interested in making soaps in 2011 to reduce some of the toxins in his life. “Almost all corporate brands of soap contain some type of toxin — SLS, fragrance, Triclosan, artificial colors — to name a few. Since soap was a product I used every day, I decided that soap would be a great place to start.”
His soaps are made using only organic ingredients, and no toxins. Body soaps, which retail for $6, include an unscented bar made with coconut oil, which Painter notes is naturally anti-bacterial, and a lemongrass poppy soap bar made with coconut oil, olive oil, lemongrass essential oil and poppy seeds.
The trio launched their line at the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago in September and their products can now be found at Hatch Art House, 1248 Williamson St. Klink hopes Solace’s products can help people find calm in a busy world: “Anything you can do to find peace is important to minimize exposure to stress.”
Solace Apothecary
Solaceapothecary@gmail.com
