BY AUGUSTA STATZ
Growing up on a farm instilled a love of nature in Shoshanna Walker at a very early age. When her mother first started making soap, it was just a hobby. But, as her workspace expanded from the kitchen to the garage and closets, it was clear that this was more than a hobby; it was a passion.
“My mother’s passion for making soap had become more than about the product. It had become about the ingredients,” said Shoshanna Walker, owner of Nourish.
“My mother insisted on using only the highest quality blend of skin moisturizing ingredients to not only cleanse the skin but also improve its health and vitality—free of the chemicals, detergents, mineral oils, surfactants and parabens that harm our bodies and our planet.”
This love of nature and natural ingredients that was instilled in Walker at such an early age is what makes Shoshanna and her husband Corey’s store so special.
A store that thrives on being natural, Nourish, has one of its three locations located conveniently on Broughton Street in downtown Savannah. Savannah’s Nourish location has been open for about four years.
“We are a locally owned company. We make all of our own products, and we make majority of our products here in Savannah, as well,” said Jessica Leavitt, the store’s manager.
The opening of the store in Savannah was a long time in the making, but has been nothing but a blessing for the Walker family.
“We opened our first store in Melbourne where I’m from. My husband and I, before we were married, lived in Savannah for a very brief time, and I told him ‘At some point in my life I want to be back here’ because I was just in love with the city,” said Walker.
For years, the couple would revisit Savannah and walk along the streets of downtown, dreaming of one day opening up a store in Savannah.
“After a vacation in 2007, we were coming back from the mountains of Georgia, and we stopped in Savannah. We saw a for lease sign, and I started making phone calls when we got back home,” said Walker. “Within a month, we had moved to Savannah.”
The couple bought a small house when they moved, thinking Savannah would be a second home for them, but are now looking to move into a bigger house because they “want to stay here forever.”
Years later, they’ve made that happen and Nourish has branched out from soaps, to candles, bath fizzies and lotions. The products are made on a two week rotation, so these handmade products are constantly being replenished.
On top of all this, nourish is also green. “We don’t use anything that you wouldn’t want to use [for your body],” Leavitt said.
Leavitt describes the store’s green efforts:
• Use of sustainable materials in products
• Products are biodegradable
• Don’t use materials that aren’t grown with the environment in mind
• Recyclable packaging
• Use the least amount of electricity and water as possible
Yet, it’s really the human touch that makes Nourish stand out.
Walker admitted that the product that she “absolutely could not live without” are the bar soaps. “They really are our specialty,” she said. The recipes for the soaps were first created by Walker’s family and years later they’ve become a staple. “It’s a product that my husband makes by hand,” she said.
The full line of handcrafted soaps and other bath products can be seen online at the Nourish website.
Nourish is located at 202 W. Broughton St.
