DETROIT – A Metro Detroit mother found the solution to her daughter's skin condition on her kitchen counter: her mixer.
Now, she's turned that solution into a nationwide business.
It was an emotional moment for Jasmine Matheney when she recounted how her 4-year-old daughter, Brooklyn, was cured of eczema. She said it wasn't an easy fight.
"She had a bad flare-up," Matheney said. "I'm like, 'What is this? Chicken pox?' I took her to the doctor. The doctor's like, 'No, it's not chicken pox. It's eczema.'"
Matheney tried her doctor's recommendations, but none of them seemed to work well enough to heal Brooklyn's skin.
"Somebody suggested we try shea butter," Matheney said. "I didn't really like the texture or the form of shea butter. ... Shea butter is, like, very stiff and solid."
Dr. Ali Amoiin, a dermatologist, said he has seen shea butter work for patients with eczema. In Brooklyn's case, her mother wasn't satisfied with the results.
"The consistency and the smell of it -- I wasn't really a big fan of the smell of it because she was so young," Matheney said. "I wanted her to smell fresh and clean."
Matheney made her own, all-natural concoction, calling it Brooklyn Body Butter, a skin care moisturizer.
The recipe starts with pure shea butter, and Matheney adds oils and mixes it in a Kitchen Aid mixer. She said she churns out 300 jars each week.
"I made it into a whipped consistency," Matheney said.
The ingredients are simple: shea butter, coconut oil, jojoba oil, apricot oil, grapeseed oil and fragrance oil.
"It's just adding more oil to the oil," Amoiin said. "So it really makes that much of a difference."
Amoiin said her only concern is the fragrance oil and making sure that anyone using Brooklyn's Body Butter isn't allergic to any of its contents. Matheney said she's thankful to have found something to cure her daughter's eczema and help others.
"I want to keep going," Matheney said. "I want to keep spreading love the Brooklyn way."