Every Day is a Gift

Our Philosophy

There are certain experiences in life that can profoundly change how we view everything. In my case, it was being widowed when I was just 39, but it could be any number of things: parenthood, career change, death, divorce, illness. These experiences are a part of life and happen to everyone, but they can be hard to navigate.

What I learned from my experience was to never take life for granted. We hear that all the time, but it’s true. It is just not worth our energy to get bogged down by the much smaller challenges we all face (cleaning the kitchen, the guy who cut you off on the highway, the kid who forgets their lunch). And yet, often, those are the things that get all of our attention.

I encourage everyone to treat every day as a gift because it is. I hope you'll join me.

The Amani Story 

In 1999, when my oldest child was one, I taught myself to make soap...because, why not? I liked to cook, I liked chemistry and I wanted a creative outlet. Soap making had all those elements. I conveniently ignored that it was probably a dumb idea for an exhausted new mom to be working with potentially dangerous substances.

Starting a soap business wasn’t even on my radar until many years later, when, after losing my husband to pancreatic cancer and eventually re-marrying, my second husband encouraged me to make a go at owning my own business. And why not? Wasn’t I always the one telling others to “enjoy every day” and “live life to the fullest”? It was time to take my own advice.

And so here we are. 

While I enjoy making products, I also love owning my business. I love controlling my destiny; pushing myself to learn more, be better. I love when customers tell me how much they enjoy my products--when the Rosemary Mint soap reminds them of a particular moment or how much they enjoy the Earl Gray candle. There are still so many more things yet to be done and along the way reminding people to hit the pause button, look around, and celebrate all the good things in life.

Our Products

At Amani, we make all of our products entirely by hand and never use any pre-made bases. We hand cut every bar of soap using our proprietary recipe of plant-based ingredients including organic unrefined shea butter. Our gentle soap will leave your skin feeling clean and soft. Coordinating gift and wood wick candles are created with sustainable soy and coconut wax and poured in a reusable tumbler. Our moisture-rich lotion is made with apricot kernel oil and mango butter.  We also hand craft one of a kind soap dishes with river pebbles, quartz stones and other found objects.

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