How Did Sally B's Get Started?

Sally B’s Skin Yummies has always been about more than just beauty. Since its founding in 2005, Sally B’s has been devoted to providing effective skincare made from the safest, highest quality ingredients available. This has, quite literally, been a life-changing mission.

Sally’s skincare journey started before all-natural lifestyles became trendy; her battle with cancer forced her to reexamine everything. Read Sally’s full health journey, and how creating nontoxic skincare became a part of her fight for her life.

In 1987, as a young mother of a precious 3 year old and pregnant with a second child, the last thing that I expected to experience was a lump in my groin. I thought it might be a hernia or other pregnancy related symptom, but my doctors waived it off and told me not to worry. It wasn’t until 2 years later when my niece, who was a medical school resident, told me that the lump was not normal.

With two toddlers at home, I was now rushing to and from doctors’ visits and undergoing a never-ending series of tests. The news was bad. A bone tumor was growing out of my pelvis. Growing up, no one in my family had experienced anything more serious than what aspirin could heal, so how was this happening to me? I was so healthy.

Three operations later and weeks spent in the hospital, you would think my homecoming would have been a joyous occasion, but I was laid up in bed with two concerned young boys. When they could have been playing with blocks, they were tending to me in bed with their Fischer-Price toy doctor kit. I put on a brave face for them, even though I had a long recovery ahead of me. Yes, the tumor resection was successful, but the tumor ended up causing a condition called Lymphedema. Our lymph nodes regulate our body’s fluid and help to filter out bacteria, but mine had to come out of my right leg. At the time I was told that this was a pretty good outcome considering that the alternative was to remove my leg completely. However the inability to exercise, the weight gain, the infections, and the larger than normal leg that resulted from Lymphedema didn’t seem like a “good outcome.”

I will never be fully recovered from this. I will continue to have the occasional leg infection or undergo periodic manual lymph drainage therapy to keep my health in check. But the silver lining in this whole recovery process was that I learned about inflammation and its negative effects on our bodies as a whole. Because of this, I became more mindful of my diet, choosing organic, healthy options instead of processed foods, and began using only non toxic skincare and cosmetics.

However, I made this lifestyle switch in the mid 90’s when organic foods and healthy skincare alternatives were not always readily available. I couldn’t find non-toxic lotion, so I began making my own as a hobby. It was such a rewarding process to learn about new ingredients, creating a product that complimented my new, healthy lifestyle and transformed my skin. I found that if I kept my skin healthy, I experienced fewer infections and was able to live a more “normal” life. The answer was in the high quality, organic ingredients I was using.

We hear a lot about healthy living today, and most of that information is centered around diet and exercise. What we don’t hear a lot about is how some ingredients in cosmetics, cleaning supplies, and our environment can have a huge impact on our health. Whether you’re on a personal wellness journey or simply looking to maintain good health, it’s important to pay attention to what you’re putting on your skin.

I never want anyone to be without healthy options. Sally B’s Skin Yummies is formulated with the most sensitive skin in mind so that everyone – even those undergoing stressful medical treatments – can nourish their skin and feel healthy, happy, and beautiful once again.

With love,
Sally B