When Erin White returned home from grad school, she was devastated to see her sister’s skin condition. Both White and her younger sister suffer from lifelong eczema, but when her sister went to college, it grew worse due to stress. White looked everywhere for trustworthy, eczema-friendly products, but she was disappointed by the harmful ingredients. So she took matters into her own hands and started experimenting with natural ingredients at home to see what she could create.
In 2016, the Baton Rouge microbiologist started local skin care company Thomas Therapeutics. Through trial and error, White concocted skin care products from plant-based ingredients that helped soothe her sister’s skin. But she didn’t stop there.
“I wanted to make products that are beneficial to the skin and protect your natural flora,” White says.
The 38-year-old scientist makes products from herbs, teas, essential oils and other plant-derived ingredients. She sells gentle soaps, body butters, moisturizers, toners, cleansers and bath salts. White makes custom products for people with special skin conditions or allergies. She has helped customers with eczema, psoriasis, seborrheic dermatitis (itchy, red scalp) and keratosis pilaris (rough patches with acne-like bumps on the skin).
Since COVID-19, White has focused her efforts on her online business and plans to offer soap-making classes. Two weeks ago, White hosted the Black Women’s Wellness Panel, which she created to curate a place for Black women to talk about wellness, trauma, financial literacy and mental health.
“When I started Thomas Therapeutics, it wasn’t necessarily with the goal of becoming a part of the community in that way exactly … I always wanted to have some part in making the community better,” White says. “That’s why I stayed in Baton Rouge and that’s where I wanted to have the effect. So I was thinking if I could just started the conversation.”
White says she had four friends who are experts in different sorts of wellness, so she decided to get them together to do a virtual panel on Oct. 9.
“It turned out really well, we’re going to do another one next quarter,” White says, adding that she and the other women on the panel plan to get the word out more for their next event, and they want to host it in person when it is safe to do so without worries about the novel coronavirus.
Thomas Therapeutics is sold online, at The Cadeaux Market Boutique and Gift Shop in Zachary and local markets like Mid City Makers Market. This article was originally published in the October 2020 issue of 225 Magazine.
