Pooka Pure and Simple | The Healthy Beauty Project -by Todra Payne

Donna, Dawn, April and Tricia

Dawn Fitch, book author and founder of Pooka Pure and Natural, a line of healthy bath and body products that’s sold at 35 Whole Foods across the country, tells The Healthy Beauty Project how she came to own her successful personal care line.

HBP: What was your inspiration for starting Pooka?

Dawn: Actually, I didn’t plan to have a business. I’m a graphic designer by trade and I was working in the music industry before I started Pooka. But then I got sick… for four or five years. I went to various doctors. They told me I was fine. But, I knew I wasn’t. So I decided to change my lifestyle and see if that would help with my health. It did. I got better.

HBP: What specifically did you do? Were you exercising more, eating healthier, what?

Dawn: I changed my diet and started reading labels on everything. I loved body products, but when I turned them over and started seeing the ingredients, I was shocked. There were all of these toxic ingredients. I didn’t want that in my system.

HBP: I totally understand. That’s one of the things we try to stress here at HBP. I hear a handful of cosmetic formulators saying, “Those chemicals don’t end up in your system. It’s all scare tactics created by organic cosmetic companies to sell their products.” I don’t believe it. There are too many women, like you, who I’ve talked to about the health/products connection.

Dawn: There’s definitely a connection. I try to live a holistic lifestyle. What you eat, where you live, what you’re putting on your body. I will never say that petroleum, SLS and other things “aren’t that bad.” I am not going to adopt that into my lifestyle. And I’m not putting it in my products.

HBP: Of course, not all chemicals in cosmetics are bad. But many of the questionable chemicals are in products to prolong shelf life. That’s a big argument by companies who want to put in their products what you leave out.

Dawn: I wouldn’t eat food that was on the self for two years, why would I use products that were on the shelf for two years?

HBP: Exactly. So how did you get from reading labels to creating an amazing bath and body line?

Dawn: So that I could have healthy bath products, I started making them myself. And then they sort of took over. (Laughing) They were all over my house. I started to give products out to people for fun. They were Christmas presents. Birthday presents. And the graphic designer in me needed everything to be pretty. So I started to design labels for the jars so they’d look good.

HBP: I’m going to assume here that you had an “Aha Moment” when friends said the products were wonderful.

Dawn: Yes. I was at the point where friends were ordering custom made products. And I was able to make them. People told me, “You’ve got a great line! Why don’t you take it to a festival, sell it.” I asked my friends and my sister to help. I bought a $200 table, put my products out and we sold the entire booth. We sold out. And people had never heard of this stuff. We were like, “Oh wow. We have a business.”

HBP: There are four of you running the business, correct?

Dawn: Yes, there’s my sister, Donna (Lynn) and my two friends, April Reeses-Matthis and Tricia Akinwande. We’re all like sisters.

HBP: Who penned the company, “Pooka Pure and Natural?”

Dawn: My mom used to call all of us her little Pookalitas. I have no idea what it means, but it’s loving. I wanted to call the company that, but it was too long for the labeling. So, I shorted it to Pooka.

HBP: That’s sweet. Your mom must be honored. I read that your products are hand-made and poured. As you grow, do you anticipate manufacturing it on a larger scale in the future?

Dawn: We’ve been making the products like this for ten years. I don’t see Pooka manufactured. There are so many things you have to give up once you go big time. You have to have chemical preservatives if you’re in Macy’s. I see having my own warehouses and training people how to make our products. Then I can control what’s in there. I want warehouses across the country that send out products fresh and quick.