Your Own Kind of Beautiful
By Liza Long Walton
For Eagle’s Jeanne Kissman, healthy, effective, natural skincare products are a passion.
“I’m up to my elbows in sugar scrub,” laughed Jeanne Kissman as I stepped inside the home studio in Eagle, where this wife, mother, entrepreneur and cancer survivor makes Plum Hill’s all-natural skincare products. I closed my eyes as the luscious aroma of coconut and lime transported me briefly to a tropical clime. But Kissman couldn’t join me in savoring the moment. With two local salon orders to fill as well as her regular retail customers to satisfy, she was a busy lady—and despite her success, she is still a one-woman operation. “As fast as I can make the product, it’s out the door!” she said.
Like so many great ideas, Plum Hill started simply in Kissman’s kitchen. She had suffered from dry skin for years, a problem exacerbated by living in a desert climate. Kissman started experimenting with natural oils and essences to counteract the negative effects the harsh environment had on her skin. “The ingredients used in the Plum Hill product line today are the same ingredients that I have personally used for years, with positive results,"she said.
Over the years, she shared her home-concocted skincare products with friends and family, wanting them to enjoy the same positive results she was seeing with her own skin. Their rave reviews pushed her to take the leap into entrepreneurship.
In 2005, Kissman launched Plum Hill, her own line of skincare products. She started marketing the fragrant sugar scrubs, moisturizers,
and lip balms online and at local trade shows, spas and boutiques. Locally, you can purchase Plum Hill products at Salon Couture, the Eagle Day Spa, and at both the Boise and Meridian St. Luke’s Regional Hospital gift shops as well as directly from her website, which has delivered products to satisfied customers as far away as Australia.
A regular fixture at the Eagle Saturday Market for the past few years, she has started to move on to bigger things, including a trip to the Academy Awards with her daughter Casey and friend Val Jones last March, where she was able to demonstrate her remarkable products to movie stars, models, and Hollywood directors and producers. “They all wanted larger sizes,” Kissman laughed.
Karen Cadle, a noted director and producer, orders Plum Hill all the time. When asked about her favorite product, Cadle picked the sugar scrub. “It’s fabulous,” she said. “I’ve told my celebrity clients about it.” Kissman is also in talks with an exclusive Scottsdale spa which is interested in a private label version of Plum Hill’s scrumptious products.
Plum Hill’s all natural skin care line has always centered on three basic steps: cleanse, exfoliate, and most importantly, moisturize, which is especially important during winter’s dry months. In her constant effort to find the best natural products, Kissman recently discovered Tamanu oil, a traditional Polynesian folk remedy used for centuries to treat skin conditions from scars to eczema. “It’s an amazing oil,” she said. “It’s a perfect facial moisturizer that helps to fade sun spots.” Her newest scent is launching just in time for the holidays, and the name takes its inspiration from an Eagle neighborhood that captures the essence of Idaho living. “I was riding my bike one day, and I thought, ‘Island Woods’ is perfect,” she said. The popular body butters have also been reformulated to have a lighter texture. Kissman is calling the new moisturizer, which looks like a whipped lemon chiffon pie, “nourishing body crème.” The olive oil and aloe vera ingredients make the crème slide across your skin like silk, leaving dry, cracked skin plumped and moisturized.
Kissman’s energy and enthusiasm for her products, as well as her constant search for innovation and excellence, make Plum Hill products truly stand out in the competitive skincare product marketplace. Her company’s slogan captures the essence of this dynamic entrepreneur; Jeanne Kissman is a living example of what it means to “be your own kind of beautiful.”
Article as appearing in the Nov/Dec issue of Eagle Magazine
