Du Jour: Elizabeth Hill, Handmade by Homestead

Red beans and rice are a ubiquitous part of regional food culture, but they’re playful material for natural cosmetics maker Elizabeth Hill, founder of the local company Handmade at Homestead. Her Red Beans and Rice Lotion Bar features a layer of tiny red beans meant to serve a soothing purpose. Body heat causes all-natural shea butter lotion in its solid form to gently melt when rubbed on the skin. Meanwhile, red beans create a massage-worthy texture. It’s not the first time Hill, a former executive, has used foods as raw materials in her beauty products. Her new New Orleans Collection includes Café au Lait soap, made with local coffee, and King Cake soap, containing raw sugar. She’s fond of using real lemongrass and sage for fragrance, and turmeric and spinach as natural colorants. Shea butter is a mainstay in her lotions, and she has a mild facial soap, featuring peppermint, tea tree oil and parsley, which she says works well on acne. Her best-known food-based cosmetic is a sugar scrub, a natural exfoliant that doesn’t dry skin, which she sources from Homestead, the West Baton Rouge Parish sugar plantation on which she lives. Click here to read more.