Our Company

Owner and operator: Kathleen Hembree, a home-grown green business artisan.

I have been learning about essential oils and creating products since 1997. My interest started with a book I received called "The Scented Home". It mentioned essential oils. I started buying many different books about essential oils and learning everything I could about the oils, safety issues, and therapeutic/traditional uses. It has been a wonder journey for this home-grown, "green" artisan. We have a mother-in-law apartment behind our garage that has been converted into our studio. Everything is created in small batches. I make my soap the way your grandmother would have done it, but without the animal fats. I started by researching the essential oils one would use for a specific condition. I started researching carrier oils and their benefits. At this point I start putting the two together. Each successive generation is a little better than the next. I have always been very good in the sciences and possess a very inquisitive mind. I don't have a chemistry degree, but our products are not created in a lab. We consider ourselves "Master Chefs". We are working with real ingredients, not chemicals. I have always created my own recipes in the kitchen. I used that knowledge to create toxin-free products.

We opened our first online store in 2002 at healing-scents.com. In 2014, Michael built us a new website and we were able to purchase the healingscents.com domain name. You no longer needed to remember the dash to find us. In 2019 it became obvious that most customers were using mobile devices to shop with us. Since our website was not mobile-friendly, Michael built a new website on the mobile-friendly platform that you are using today.

Healing Scents is a home-based, woman-owned business in Rockford, Illinois, USA; I start work at 7 a.m. Please understand that calling at that morning hour gets you a grumpy person. I do not always answer the telephone before 9 a.m. or after 5 p.m. We try to keep business hours within the 9 a.m.–3 p.m. central time range. (After 3, I am off to the post office to drop off packages.)

Barb is kept very busy making our soaps, lotions, butter, creams and oils. Michael is our web designer and technical support. Kathleen handles order fulfillment, customer support, website updates, finances, and everything else.

Our customers love us so much, we would not be able to maintain a family life if we did not place limits on phone calls. We are too small to have operators standing by 24/7. Our contact form or email is the best way to reach us after hours and will get our full attention.

We welcome visitors to our workshop by appointment. If you are near Rockford, IL or will be visiting, drop us a line.

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