Cathy Keefe-Shafer is the perfect blend of flower child, healer, and nerd. She’s a night owl who blends lotions and lip balm into the wee hours of the morning, only to bounce back to take care of her spirited 3-year-old daughter, Laura, each day. Her wide brown eyes express her curiosity and zest for life, and the calming aura about her makes it easy to see why she is a great massage therapist. But her true vocation is creating products that soothe the body with all-natural — and largely local — ingredients.
Cathy is the founder and sole proprietor of Upstate Herb Works, whose tagline on Etsy is “Wholistic Body Care Crafted with Pure Essential Oils.” Her serums, balms, butters, and infusions calm angry skin and wild hair better than any department store potion — and they smell just as enticing.
A native of Needham, Massachusetts, Cathy graduated from Cornell University with a degree in anthropology and took pre-med classes at Le Moyne College as well before pursuing a degree in massage therapy from the Finger Lakes School of Massage.
“I’ve been interested in physiology and chemistry for a while. When I went to massage school I got my first real introduction to aromatherapy,” Cathy said.
Her curiosity was ignited even further when her friend Naomi introduced her to polarity therapy, which harnesses a person’s “energy field” for healing purposes. Through tutorials and distance education, Cathy taught herself how to blend essential oils for health and beauty purposes.
“I believe that people have the power to heal themselves as far as all sorts of ailments,” she declared. “My products are designed to support our own ability to heal so my products work with your body using only plant-based materials.”
Cathy’s educational background and the influence of her mother, a native of Chile, lent themselves perfectly to these pursuits.
“I’ve always been in love with the outdoors and grew up gardening with my mom so I have a love of plants,” Cathy said of her upbringing. “You have to love plants to do what I do.”
For Science, For Nature
When it comes to choosing the ingredients for her creations, Cathy is meticulous. She studies the botanical families from which her essential oils are derived. In Freedom of Espresso, she emptied her purse onto the table, revealing tiny vials of labeled oils, and explained the subtle differences and commonalities among the different varieties of sandalwood or geranium oils. Much of the process involves “training your nose to pick out chemical families” to find the best scent combinations.
“Keeps me on my toes. Keeps my brain going,” she grinned. “There’s no shortage of combinations of anything in the world, so there’s no getting old.”
She also researches the chemical properties of her ingredients, listing her findings in the final product description. Her Birch Butter “is very high in methyl-salicylate, a precursor to aspirin. This makes it a great pain-reliever,” she wrote on Etsy. This rub is used to soothe sore muscles and is gentle on sensitive skin as well.
As a mother, Cathy is concerned with the health of her customers and their little ones. She marks her products if they are contraindicated during pregnancy — that is, if an ingredient is harmful to a pregnant woman or her unborn child. Such ingredients include juniper and rosemary.
Science isn’t the only factor in choosing ingredients. Cathy keeps her focus as local and natural as possible.
“I’m very mindful of the source, so I try to buy it locally, and if I can’t find it locally, I’ll try to find it fair trade, and if I can’t find it fair trade, I’ll try to buy it organically,” Cathy said. “So that eliminates a lot of things because I don’t use anything synthetic.”
Unfortunately, many of her chosen ingredients can’t be found in Central New York, so she must get them shipped to her home in Lafayette. The cost of materials and the labor Cathy puts in — she spends four nights a week blending for five to six hours per session — makes Upstate Herb Works a bit pricey, but for Cathy, living naturally is worth every cent.
“I pay a lot in shipping because we live rurally. I took a hard line in [this decision], so that drives my prices up, and that’s hard to explain to some people,” she admitted. “One of the ingredients I use in almost all of my products I’m lucky enough to get from my neighbor and that’s local beeswax.”
The Shop
When it was time to expand her business, Cathy looked to the Internet. This solution allowed for a more flexible schedule so she could spend time caring for Laura.
“I love being able to work around being a mom. My daughter helps fuel my creative fire too, so it works hand in hand,” Cathy said. “I had been blending essential oils for my clients and friends and people were looking for things, and a good friend told me, ‘There might be a market for you on Etsy,’ and that’s really where it took off.”
The Upstate Herb Works shop on Etsy offers more than 100 items, and has reached nearly 1,500 sales since Cathy opened it in October 2010.
Cathy boasts 834 “admirers” on Etsy — that is, people who have added her shop to their list of favorites. What’s more, her reviews — of which there are 1,055 — are 100 percent positive.
“This made a few of my skin boo-boos go away almost over night [sic],” gushes a comment on Cathy’s Regenerate Healing Balm. “Dare I say it’s love? Yes, yes it is. Looking forward to finding many more uses for this amazing balm!”
“I have ordered several time[s] from UHW and always have been happy with the product, service and philosophy Catherine brings to her shop,” offered a commenter on Happy Hair Conditioning Cream.
Cathy’s philosophy of holistic living doesn’t stop at her business; it extends into her personal life as well.
Living Local
Although she has expanded her blending business from custom mixes for massage clients and friends to shipping balms and rubs all over the world, Cathy has kept her focus local. She and her husband, Kurt, purchase meat, milk, and eggs from local farmers and grow much of their own produce.
“I feel like there’s a lot of value in handmade and support your community and buying local. My wedding dress was made by a guy in Lafayette from scratch,” she explained about her locavore lifestyle. “It makes sense economically because you save gas, but from an energetic level it feels good.”
She tries to promote local and natural living through Upstate Herb Works.
“I think it helps raise awareness. In the sense of buying local, I think people use body products every day and if you were to support in one small way a small business such as myself…it’s community-building when you buy locally,” she said.
As for the buying local movement as a whole, Cathy said, “I think it’s just growing. CNY is very proud of its growers too and keeping it local and most of the contemporaries I work with are young farmers and young women ranchers. It’s growing but pulling people closer simultaneously.”
Back to Business
For Upstate Herb Works, business is booming, but it’s a learning process too. When she first began selling her blends, Cathy didn’t concern herself with the presentation of her product. She thought the contents alone would be enough of an argument. Cathy realized that big stores — the Bath and Body Works types — were selling chemical-filled, synthetic products for big bucks because they were wrapped in pretty packages.
“I couldn’t just be a lab rat. I had to think about packaging and labels. I never took a business class,” she recalled. “I’m grateful for my husband — he’s creating databases and inventory.”
Kurt helps her with inventory and record-keeping, skills that she admits do not come easily to her creative mind. Cathy hopes that one day the income she generates from Upstate Herb Works will be enough to support her family.
“I only started selling in really the end of 2010. It’s been amazing, the growth I’ve been able to sustain, despite the hard times, which I think shows that people are more choosy about what they’re spending their money on,” Cathy observed. “Instead of five mediocre ChapSticks, you can have two really good ones.”
All economic benefits aside, Cathy seems truly fulfilled by her work with essential oils.
“I’m amazed that people find so much relief from the things I make. The muscle rubs, I’ve had people tell me they can’t sleep without certain rubs I make. That’s really gratifying,” she remarked. “I really appreciate that people support a handmade product. It blows my mind and I’m very grateful. I have a lot of gratitude. People go out on a limb a little bit over the Internet or even locally try something out, and I appreciate it.”
For more information about Upstate Herb Works or to purchase Cathy’s products, visit http://www.etsy.com/shop/UpstateHerbWorks.
Reporting Syracuse 