To gear up for our Summit21 Conference this year in Atlanta, 21Ninety has scored exclusive interviews with some of this year's participants.

Andrea Davis, a Chateau 21 vendor and the creator of Motherland Essentials, said she takes pride in curating luxurious, organic and responsible products. While she is doing her part for the environment, sourcing only high quality, eco-friendly ingredients and reusable packaging, she is also creating some bomb homemade soaps using the cold process method. This method of soapmaking is the act of mixing fixed oils (our oils are castor oil, coconut oil, palm oil, and shea butter) with an alkali (Sodium Hydroxide or Lye), according to Motherland Essentials' official site.

Photo: Andrea Davis

All products are handcrafted, with a lot of love and care, straight out of Charleston, SC.
Read our exclusive interview with Davis below:

21N: Can you give us a little of your background? What inspired you to create Motherland Essentials products? What was the vision behind the name?

AD: On September 18, 2014, at 20 weeks into my pregnancy with my 2nd child, Elijah Faraji Davis, I suffered from an incompetent cervix and lost our child. I was given only three days of bereavement before I had to come back to my job in finance and once I returned to work, I found that I was extremely depressed and angry with what little regard they had for me as a person, so I quit.

I wanted to find a creative outlet to battle my depression, so I looked on YouTube and found soap making. After some time researching and learning all that I could about the process, I finally created a line of soap and skin care products I was proud of and decided it was time to start my own business in 2017.

The vision for Motherland Essentials is to create a company that values people in a way that I wasn’t valued in my previous position. My customers are like my family, and I only want to create the best for them. I want to provide a company culture where everyone is treated with respect. I want to offer my community with education to make better decisions when it comes to their skincare. My overall ambition is to make my community better.

Photo: Andrea Davis

21N: How long have you been creating these body products?

AD: I’ve been creating body products since 2015. I officially started my business in 2017.

21N: What kind of work goes into the process of creating them? What ingredients are used?

AD: We use plant-based oils to create our soaps. They consist of castor oil, coconut oil, olive oil, palm oil, and shea butter. Using the cold process method of soapmaking, we mix lye/water and oils and blend them with a stick blender. Once we’ve reached a perfect consistency, we pour it into our molds. We unmold the soaps 24 hours later, cut them, and place them on our curing rack for four weeks to ensure the lye/water has evaporated from the bars.

Photo: Andrea Davis

21N: Which ones were the most fun to create? Any customer favorites?

AD: I recently created new citronella + lemongrass soap, which turned out beautifully. Our customers love our lavender bar as well as our oatmeal honey bar.

21N: What do you think makes your business/platform unique over others like it?

AD: What makes our business unique is our transparency and willingness to share our process. We have many videos featured on our Instagram, showing how we design our soaps, and we give insight into the importance of why everyone should use our products.

Photo: Andrea Davis

21N: What do you hope to gain from Summit 21 this year?

AD: I will gain sisterhood. I can’t wait to be surrounded by black women who are doing amazing things.

21N: Is there anything you wish to teach/inform the Summit 21 audience about?

AD: Be unapologetic about your journey. Be proud of every step that you take to become a better person. Whether you’re on top of your career with a gang of degrees or you’re still just trying to figure it all out, be proud of every step you take.

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Andrea davis