WASHINGTON — If you find yourself checking email as you leave work or constantly responding to social media messages as they trickle in, Becky Waddell suggests taking a break.
“You’re sort of just expected to go, go, go for the cause and people really don’t take the time that they need to make sure they’re not going to burn out — and especially in D.C.,” Waddell said.
And she’s hoping her new shop, Take Care, will be a refuge, of sorts, to escape life’s daily demands.
Located in the heart of Georgetown, Take Care sells plant-based skin care, beauty and home products, all of which are tested and trusted by Waddell.
There’s also dedicated space for community wellness events, such as yoga classes, latte workshops and even back-to-school meal planning sessions.
The 30-year-old shop owner’s obsession with natural skin care started several years ago.
“I was always thinking about [non-conventional] skin care — looking at ingredients, looking at products,” she said.
However, that obsession quickly turned to frustration when she couldn’t find stores dedicated to selling foundations or moisturizers sans synthetic fragrances and preservatives.
Taking matters into her own hands, Waddell opened Be Clean three years ago in D.C.’s artist warehouse O Street Studios, where she sold small-batch eye serums, body oils and candles.
What she found was a demand much larger than her studio space.
Customers traveled to Be Clean from all over the area in search of hard-to-find products, including meow, meow, tweet — a natural deodorant that Waddell says “actually works.”
“Not everybody likes tons of scent, tons of color. It can be very intense to shop at a place like Sephora, for example, where it’s just very stimulating, and it’s a lot of product and it’s not very intimate,” she said.
Waddell sources her products mostly from small, female-owned American companies, and tests every one of them.
“There are plenty of natural makeup brands that aren’t that effective, but the ones that we have are professional level, and it’s because we’ve tried them and love them,” she added.
But Take Care encompasses more than just pretty products arranged on rope-hung shelves. Waddell hopes the shop serves as both a creative and self-care outlet for Washingtonians.
“It’s evolved from wanting a little vegan skin care collection to a real, devoted wellness community concept,” she said.
Take Care’s grand opening is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 17 from 6 to 9 p.m. The party is open to the public, but registration is required.
Workshops will kick off Aug. 22 with yoga class, followed by a fall makeup session on Aug. 26 and meal planning basics on Sept. 1. Visit Take Care’s website for more information.
