OUR STORY
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Our vision for The Little Boutique is to bring you high quality, handmade, keepsake items using the most natural materials we're able to source, without blowing your budget! We're a Mum and Daughter team, Sue and Lauren, who dreamed up the idea of being able to do what we love, while living life on our small lifestyle block.
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Each one of our items is lovingly made by hand, meaning you truly have a one of a kind piece when you support and purchase from us. We love creating customised and create truly bespoke handmade clothing and accessories, jewellery and health and beauty products.
We love to see how you style our handmade items, and love seeing them come to life and be worn. Feel free to tag us on our social sites @the_little_boutique_nz_ or #thelittleboutiquenz
Browse through our product gallery and experience shopping with The Little Boutique NZ for yourself. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with questions, comments or suggestions.
SUZY'S STUFF
Sean was diagnosed with colon cancer in January 2014 and this (partly) prompted us to examine what we eating and drinking. Of course we knew there were chemicals and additives in the food we shopped for each week – everybody does. We made a decision to try and reduce these by growing and making as much of our food and as many of our cleaning products and personal hygiene products as we could.
Our attempt at chemically reduced living has been as interesting, as it has been challenging. You can visit 203 websites for information and get 203 completely different answers and viewpoints. Information can also be confusing and contradictory. So, armed with a little knowledge and a lot of enthusiasm, we set about making changes that worked for us.
We began by getting chickens so we could have free range eggs, knowing that our chickens ate healthily and really were “free range”. We were also lucky enough to find a local farmer who had set up a raw milk dispensing system where we bought milk to make our own cheese.
We planted veges and ate as much of our own produce as possible.
At the same time, we began making our own laundry liquid and cleaning products using ingredients that are mostly found in your pantry. As we are on a septic tank system, we also wanted to use products that were safe for the tank.
We then started making our own personal body care products and began with a basic soap.
Deodorant was next on the list, followed by lip balm, the herbal salve and hand scrubs. The list of products grew quickly and we were feeling quite happy with the positive feedback we got from family and friends who tried a range of products. They would ask “ do you have any of that stuff for eczema, have you got some of that hand scrub stuff” and that’s how it became Suzy’s Stuff!
My products are handmade in small batches using combinations of the following ingredients:
Coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, almond oil, vegetable shortening, lye, shea butter, cocoa butter, vitamin E oil, essential oils, lip safe fragrant oils (Lip safe fragrant oils are phthalate free), candelilla wax, arrowroot powder, baking soda, cornstarch, sugar, Epsom salts, herbs and petals from my garden (where possible).
As they do not contain chemical stabilisers, the coconut oil based products tend to melt in the heat and solidify when they cool. This is noticeable in the hand scrubs in particular. All products should be stored in a cool place.
The vegan products do not contain beeswax or any animal products.
It is always best to test a very small amount first to ensure you have no adverse reaction to any of the ingredients.
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