Brookline resident Mike Arsenault didn’t set out to start such a rapidly successful herbal skincare business; he simply wanted to soothe his infant daughter Emily’s eczema without using harsh steroids. As an acupuncturist with over a decade of experience, he was trained in the use of Chinese herbal remedies, and wanted to help his daughter safely and naturally. So he consulted some traditional Chinese medicine texts and set to work on a formula, without realizing that in less than a year he would be the proud owner of a successful company called Emily Skin Soothers.
He based his formula on remedies that are around 4,000 years old, but pared them down until they contained the fewest possible ingredients, since what he was making would be used on a baby’s skin. “Traditionally in Chinese medicine, many different herbs – as many as eight or nine – work together to complement each other for an adult remedy. But because this was for four-month old Emily, I wanted it to contain as few ingredients and be as gentle as possible,” says Arsenault.
He used the three Chinese herbs in the solution (angelica sinensis (Dang Gui), Potentillae Chinensis Herb (Bei Zi Cao) and Mentha Haplocalyx Herb (Bo He/Mint)) to “vent heat” from and strengthen the skin, and to nourish the blood, and added sesame oil and beeswax as a base for the ointment. Within two weeks of using the ointment daily on baby Emily, the eczema that she had been suffering from cleared up completely.
Thrilled with the results, he shared the ointment with some of his patients, and found that it was just as successful treating their skin conditions as it had been for his daughter. Since then, he has received many testimonials from people who have experienced relief with his product – people who have suffered from skin conditions such as eczema, dermatitis, and psoriasis for years without benefiting from traditional treatments and medicines. The testimonials remain the most gratifying part of the whole experience for Arsenault: “It never gets old to hear that the products have helped someone.”
These powerful testimonials are in fact what led him to start marketing the ointment. As a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist, he has always used combinations of herbs, both internally and externally, to treat his patients, customizing combinations when appropriate. However, the overwhelmingly positive responses from people of all ages to this particular formula led him to make bigger batches and bottle and distribute it locally, calling it Emily Skin Soother. He did make one change to the original formula: he replaced the sesame oil with less fragrant olive oil. “Some of my patients couldn’t stand smelling like Chinese food all day,” Arsenault laughs.
Demand increased, and news spread about the product through word of mouth, acupuncture newsletters, and the local press. Within a few months, Arsenault was selling his products in more than 15 states, as well as online. He was persistent about getting it into local shops, such as Coolidge Corner’s Beauty and Style, where it has become a popular seller. With the help of family and friends, Arsenault did all of the manufacturing, bottling, labeling and distribution himself. “In the beginning we had a couple of ‘raise the roof’ type parties where people came and formed an assembly line to help bottle and label the products.” Arsenault’s aunt, a graphic designer in Vermont, designed the labels along with Arsenault, and his wife helps with the business, too.
The birth of his business took place while Arsenault was seeing patients six days a week – three days at his office in Ipswich and three at his office in Woburn, which is affiliated with Winchester hospital – and being the proud dad of baby Emily. “I need all six days to fit all of my patients in. I found that two days at each office just wasn’t enough. I’ve always been a hard worker – although never as hard as this! I guess I don’t think too much about it. It seems natural to me, and I love what I’m doing, which makes all the difference. And the time that I do spend with my family is quality time.”
Arsenault grew up in Connecticut, and then came to Boston University for college and went on to attend the University of Massachusetts for a degree in teaching. He became an English and English as a Second Language professor at Roxbury Community College (RCC) after he’d earned his degrees. Active and athletic, he was frequently injured from playing sports, and he felt as though there must be some alternative ways to heal his injuries other than the usual painkillers and muscle relaxants his doctor had been offering him. During his Tai Chi class in Boston’s Chinatown, he asked around for alternative solutions, and found an acupuncturist from Hong Kong who quickly made Arsenault a believer in the holistic approach of traditional Chinese medicine. After having his own injuries healed so successfully by acupuncture, he began bringing his friends to be treated, and eventually he did some research and discovered that the oldest school in the country for acupuncture was right here in Watertown. With his acupuncturist as his mentor, Arsenault completed the three-and-a-half-year program at the New England School of Acupuncture and became certified while still teaching at RCC. For a couple of years he built up his private practice while continuing to teach, but in 2001 he left teaching after nearly a decade to practice acupuncture fulltime.
Many of his patients are new to acupuncture, and come to him after conventional medicine has failed to help them, or because their medications are having too many side effects on them. These patients are often amazed at how much Arsenault can help them, and how quickly – much like the dry skin sufferers who use his all-natural skin soother. “You are usually given two choices when you go to see a doctor: a medical intervention, or medicine.” Traditional Chinese medicine offers a more natural, holistic approach to treating ailments. “I am not against medicine by any means, I just feel that the less of anything you have to use – my products included – the better,” says Arsenault.
He believes that “alternative” therapies such as acupuncture are gaining popularity across the country because there is a heightened awareness of these therapies now. “It’s on Oprah – doctors Weil and Oz are constantly talking about it – and more and more doctors are recommending alternative treatments to their patients to be used in conjunction with conventional Western treatments.”
Arsenault is a proud signer of the Compact for Safe and Healthy Cosmetics, which guarantees that everything he makes and sells is free of chemicals that are known or strongly suspected of causing cancer, mutation or birth defects. The growing awareness of campaigns such as The Campaign for Safe and Healthy Cosmetics (www.safecosmetics.org) is proof that more and more people are concerned about what ingredients are going into the skincare products they are using. As Arsenault says, “Every product that you put on your body goes into your body.”
In addition to the original Skin Soother, Arsenault is now also making a version that is scented with lavender, as well as Skin Soothing Soap. And while he still makes all of the products himself, he no longer does it in his kitchen, but rather in a small commercial space that he rents. He sends the ointment out to be bottled at the Chelsea Bottle Company, Inc. and then on to Opportunity Works in Newburyport (a company that employs developmentally disabled people), where the products are labeled and made ready to ship. Having the bottling and shipping done by others is a great help. “I used to have to make it, bottle it, and then load up my car and drive to the post office to ship everything myself,” says Arsenault.
Business is growing fast. In September, he had a three-week back order after Channel Seven News picked up his story and ran it nationally on some NBC stations. “Calls began coming from across the country asking for the products, and I just couldn’t supply them fast enough,” Arsenault says. Whole Foods stores in over 15 states (including the one in Brighton) have added Emily Skin Soothers to their inventories, and more local shops are selling them now, too. Arsenault has no plans to become a fulltime businessman, however. “I’m not an MBA or a CEO, so if it ever got to that point, I would probably just hire the appropriate people.”
After missing a planned family trip to Taiwan in October so he could catch up on his orders, he’s made sure to have more stock on hand. “Things have been insane since September, but I feel that everything is reasonable and manageable for now. I have an inventory, which is great, and I can stay on top of my orders for the time being at least. Being this busy is a good problem to have, though, and I’m really driven to make sure that everything is taken care of with the business so that I don’t miss anymore family vacations.”