Essentials, LLC dba Pure Shea Store was born out of the need for a premium hand-made soap created the way Grandma Pearlie and Dee Dee once made it. The company was founded by Chris Thigpen in 1999 in his garage in Maryland. Pure Shea Store had its growing pains like most small enterprises but has grown and thrived. Our passion in natural products started as a hobby almost thirty years ago in rural North Carolina and suburban Illinois. Our founders grandmothers made soap in the old fashioned way, in an old black cast iron pot with herbs, flowers and wood ash in the yard. As a kid, the family would make soap to barter and trade with our neighbors and friends.

As the years passed, so did both Pearlie and Dee Dee, but the tradition of soap making still lives on in the Thigpen family. Chris eventually grew up, went to high school in Louisville, Kentucky (St. X: Go Tigers!) and college (Louisville: Go Cards!). He started a successful 15 year career in IT, Printing, and Media with IBM and Eastman Kodak as well as two small start-up companies (he has great stories about this). Throughout this time he continued to make soap and other body products giving them to friends, family, colleagues and selling them at DC, Virginia, and Maryland Outdoor Markets.

To this day, all products are still made with the same love, care and attention to quality that was used by Dee Dee and Pearlie. The recipes for soap remain relatively the same with a few minor changes. All animal fats have long been replaced with Shea Butter, which is core to every product we make and the most incredible natural moisturizer on the planet. All products are completely natural and created without animal testing, parabens, GMOs or other harmful ingredients.

We focus on providing our clients and friends with products made with the best possible ingredients on and of the earth. All products are made by hand in South Carolina and Maryland with the same love and care used when they were just creating them for our friends and family. Enjoy!