Everyday People: Buffy Dougherty, concocter of all-natural homemade beauty products

When Buffy Dougherty’s favorite beauty products started getting a bit pricey, the Cole Camp resident turned to her kitchen for replacements.

Seven years later, the scented scrubs she created have spawned a growing sideline for the cosmetologist at Hair Etc. in Sedalia.

Wake Up Call, a facial scrub designed to refresh skin and control acne, has an olive oil base. Dougherty mixes in rice flour — which she said is less abrasive than sugar or salt — honey, herbs and essential oils.

“I just stand here and make a whole load of them,” she said while mixing up a batch of her signature scrub.

Dougherty tries to use all local ingredients. The honey, which comes from a farm in Sweet Springs, not only acts as a preservative for the products — which contain only all-natural ingredients — but can help people with allergies, she said.

It’s taken a while to perfect her recipes. She brought her homemade products to market two years ago.

“Lots have been dumped straight down the sink because they didn’t smell right or the consistency wasn’t right,” she said.

She has started selling the scrubs — joined recently by makeup she’s sourced from an independent lab — to clients around the region.

She began with the salon where she works.

Once Val Corpe, owner of Hair Etc., tried the products, she told Dougherty she needed to sell them.

“They’re wonderful. Your skin feels so good,” Corpe said.

Dougherty was a stay-at-home mom of twins Braiden and Delaney, now 8, when she started developing her beauty products. The twins are her “first-line testers” for any new creations, she said.

“They’re my good scenters. They tell me if it smells good or not,” she said.

Her line includes exfoliating body scrubs such as Girl Scout Cookie and Vanilla Mango, and foot scrubs including Cool Mint Lemonade and Mango Mojito. She also does custom scents.

“Any scent you can think of, I can re-create,” she said.

Corpe said Dougherty works hard to develop scents such as Creme Brulee, one of Corpe’s favorites.

The first time around, the coffee was a little bit grainy, Corpe said, but Dougherty came back with a new formula “that was perfect.”

“She’s always willing to learn and try something new,” Corpe said.

Now Dougherty has clients from Springfield to Kansas City. Corpe said the salon gets a lot of calls from people who want to order Wake Up Call, one of her most popular products.

Dougherty, who described herself as “a country girl who just can’t sit still,” is excited about the response to her products.

“It’s kind of scary, because it’s just little old me,” she said.