Natalie Burks is the owner and operator of GLOWE Apothecary in downtown Vicksburg.

The business sells Burks’s luxury skin care products such as soap, body butter, lotion, and body oil, as well as candles made by her friend Shavonda Morrow of SMMooth Candle Company.

All of Burks’s products, save the candles, are made by her, she said.

“Some people will say, ‘oh, I’m a Dove girl or, I’m a big store-brand here, girl.’ I say, ‘Okay, well, I tell you what. If you can bring your store brand in here, and if you could pronounce every ingredient that’s in it without stuttering, I’ll give you a free bar of mine. Because I guarantee you can pronounce every ingredient that I put in mine,’” Burks said.

Burks said that after she turned 30, she developed adult eczema. She found that any commercial soaps and other products she tried exacerbated her skin condition.

“I noticed that I couldn’t use even gentle Ivory,” Burks said.

Burks remembered that her great aunt used to make soap, and wondered if she could do the same.

“So when it got to the point where I couldn’t wash my face with the things that I’m spending thousands of dollars on, (I said) ‘Alright, let’s figure out how to make it,’” Burks said. “So I figured out how to make it. So I make facial cleansers, facial serums, facial creams. At this point, if you can think of it for the body, I can make it.”

She set out to learn the craft of saponification.

“My first attempt at making soap, I absolutely bombed it,” Burks said. “I sat in the middle of the kitchen floor and cried.”

Her husband, Markeith Burks, encouraged her to try again. The next batch was much more successful. After she felt confident in her soap-making skills, Burks began to expand to other products.

The first kind of soap Burks made was an oatmeal variety that she said significantly helped with her eczema.

“So it started off with soap, then it went to body butter,” Burks said. “Because who doesn’t like to be moisturized? So I started making an oatmeal body butter that has oats actually in it.”

Burks said that her body butters have no preservatives at all, even the ones that have a fragrance. She prefers using natural ingredients, even when something requires a preservative like a water-based lotion.

“The preservatives that I use are derived from plants. So although it’s a preservative, it’s a more natural preservative than what you’re seeing on the shelf.”

When Burks does use synthetic fragrances, she is mindful of what is inside them.

“Even though they’re synthetic fragrance oils, they are paraben-free and phthalate-free, which is what causes most allergies,” Burks said. “So even for people who have skin sensitivities and are allergic to 90% of everything, like me, even the scented products that I have are safe for them.”

Burks, who was born and raised in Vicksburg, added that she hopes to open locations in other states as well.

GLOWE Apothecary is open 11 am to 6 pm on Monday through Thursday, 11 am to 7 pm on Friday and Saturday, and Sunday from noon to 3 pm. It is located at 1314 Washington St.