About

An Organic Journey to Beautiful.

Let me tell you a story ….

Once upon a time in villages and cottages all over the world, women took care of their hair, skins and bodies by making cosmetics from ingredients that grew around them. At the dawn of the modern age, women turned to cosmetic companies to make them beautiful.

Companies hired chemists to make shampoos, skin creams, shaving creams and fragrances with ingredients — like petroleum (oil) by-products, formaldehyde and detergents — that enabled them to package, ship and stock their potions on store shelves so they could make their fortunes.

Not all of those ingredients were good for people. Women realized they’d almost forgotten the old ways of natural beauty from the earth. Just in time, they remembered they could make beauty products in their kitchens that are just as good, if not better than big companies.

You can make it yourself!

Homemade living is a dying art. Many old ways in the world have faded in the shadow of modern convenience and technology.

Aunt Lucy’s Folk Sense revives ages-old traditional folkways while harnessing 21st century science to empower women to be uniquely and healthfully beautiful just as you are.

Who was Aunt Lucy?

Lucy Cross Jones at 100 years old.

My great aunt Lucy Cross Jones was beautiful and quirky. She was born in Townsville, North Carolina — her grandmother’s home — in 1900 and lived most of her adult life in New York — not far from her father’s hometown.

My mother called her “Auntie Mame” because she was the queen among queens in our family.  Although she made a living as a milliner (hat maker) and domestic for wealthy Jewish families, she walked with an air of big city glamour. She mimicked what she saw while serving the people living the life she couldn’t live in early-20th century New York.

She was obsessively frugal.  She recycled aluminum foil, gift wrapping, swatches of material and yarn — probably a habit cultivated during the Depression.  She also pickled, canned, made her own dandelion wine, grape brandy and ginger beer.

She drank a daily concoction of apple cider vinegar, water and honey “for your pressure and digestion.” She was almost excessive with garlic but knew how to mask the smell.

She returned to her childhood Henderson, North Carolina home during her 80s. There, in her perfect little cottage, she raised a small vegetable garden that yielded a variety of vegetables and herbs that invariably ended up in her dishes.  One of our favorites: mashed carrots. Yeah … mashed carrots. Who knew?

Aunt Lucy died in 2008 at age 108 — six months after she voted for our country’s first African American president. Evidently, her careful attention to diet and folk know-how paid off.

Who am I?

I’m Sharon Shelton Corpening and, about a year ago, I stopped using all but one store-bought product for my hair, skin and body.  I guess I’m like my Aunt Lucy that way. I believe God provided everything we need and that it’s right at our fingertips if we look for it.

I’ve been wearing my textured hair “natural” on and off for decades. Armed with natural knowledge and cosmetology training, I started a whole new hair, skin and body regime.

Doing this hasn’t just improved the appearance, texture and health of my hair, skin and body. It’s given me a sense that I’m obeying and honoring God, my Creator — not only by wearing my hair in its natural state — but by taking the time to feed it with the ingredients He gave us.

There’s peace in that.