Lemon Balm Herb Lip Balm, Melissa officinalis balm, Organic Ingredients

Welcome and thank you for visiting my shop. My name is Gabrielle and I live in South Louisiana. In 2014 my husband and I built a new home with a special room called my soap room.  Most of my day is spent here making my herbal salves and soaps.  My daughter helps be package and ship my products to my customers. Other family members help me by saving their packaging materials which I happily recycle in my shipping boxes.  Sometimes my grandchildren and great grandchildren help me by harvesting some of the herbs in my gardens which are used in my products.

This is a story which I would like to share:                                                                                 

With a love for God and nature, plus a fascination with herbs. and a desire to create natural herbal soap I began my dream. My husband, Herb, and I loved gardening and nature and started a pecan orchard and small herb nursery which we called Gabrielle Acres Farm. 

In 2004, my husband, Herb, and I were vendors at our local farmer’s market when a customer lost control of her car and crashed into me as we sat at our booth. Years of quiet time and rehabilitation became a life-changing experience. Soapmaking would now become a reality. In 2008, I opened my Herbfriend's shop on Etsy! After that experience I had time to rethink my life. One of my dreams was to make handmade soap and to learn more about the herbs that I loved, those growing in my garden and those growing around in our natural environments. I had put those things on the "back burner" as I went along keeping busy each day; hoping, one day, to find time to do it. My husband, Herb, and four grown children, plus seventeen grandchildren are now wanting to use my products for their families. It is a nice complement and I love doing this. It is so much fun doing something that I enjoy and something that I had dreamed of doing. Now I make time for those special things! All of my products are made using natural ingredients, many are wild-crafted or certified organic. No artificial colors or scents are used in my body products, only natural oils, butters, herbs and essential oils. (It is with a heavy heart that I let my customers know that I lost my husband, Herb, in 2017. I give thanks for our little herb business (Gabrielle Acres) which helps give me the desire to get up each morning, I know Herb is watching me and smiling as I continue what we began together.)