Helen Luo II COM201 II Professor Anderson II  2016

Feature Profile on Helene Matteson, founder of Urban Kitchen Handmade

Tucked away in Allston, MA, on the second floor of the factory-esque Braintree Street Reality LLC, lies Helene Matteson’s studio for developing organic personal care products – Urban Kitchen Handmade. Aromatic smells – be it floral, earthy, or fruity –overwhelm your senses the moment you step in. It’s as if you were a child entering a candy store, only rather than satisfying your sweet tooth, mixtures of fresh, nice-smelling scents inundate you. The studio itself is just the right size with a small set of displays exhibiting Matteson’s products – ranging from the best-selling soaps to perfumes, air fresheners, lip balms, and more – at the entrance calling your attention. A couch rests on your right, with boxes and other supplies piled atop it, garnering no space to sit. A wooden table with four chairs rest beside the couch, creating a makeshift workspace for Matteson to sit and work on her laptop. Most of the studio contains large metal racks holding trays of cured and curing soap, finished and drying candles, and other supplies. Kitchen counters line the walls, where Matteson spends most of her time making her products. This haphazardly organized studio complex is where the magic happens – an extension of the actual headquarters for Urban Kitchen Handmade, which is Matteson’s own kitchen.

Dry skin and an itch for change led Helene Matteson to the founding of Urban Kitchen Handmade. After a Google search and a soap-making class, Matteson unknowingly held the ingredients to jumpstart her newest business endeavor in her very own kitchen! Now in her 50s, Matteson and her husband, James, have expanded the business in both size and types of products offered. Starting with soap, Urban Kitchen Handmade now sells candles, perfume, air fresheners, pillow sachets, spa salts, and a range of other personal care products. Customers can purchase the products both at local open markets or Matteson’s Etsy store online. She also welcomes customers to visit her studio in Allston and watch her work-process in action!

About 5’1 with light brown and white streaks running through her frizzy hair, Matteson clocks in early to work at her studio. A pair of brown floral-printed reading glasses, an inside-out-white-t-shirt over her own clothes, and a hair clip taming her locks seems to be the unofficial uniform of this soaper. With the occasional company of customers or friends, Matteson normally spends the mornings in her studio listening to National Public Radio (NPR) as she makes new batches of soaps, candles, and other products before filling out Etsy orders or ‘favors’ (customized orders submitted by customers via her website).

“I’m here at like seven in the morning and out by the afternoon because it gets so hot in here –plus there’s just always something else to do” says Matteson. She loves being her own boss, enjoying the flexibility of the schedule and the room for creative freedom.

Matteson founded Urban Kitchen Handmade in May of 2006 in the kitchen of her Boston home and expanded to a small studio in Allston about six years ago with the businesses success. Having gone from a part-time hobby to her brainchild, Urban Kitchen Handmade is now a locally well-known name among regulars at the New England Open Market (SOWA). Co-partnering with her husband James, Matteson says “I make the product and he makes it look good…the marketing, branding, he’s good at that – I just focus on what I do best.”

Barbara Curcio, a regular of Matteson’s, says, “My personal favorite is the Coconut Cream Handmade Soap. It not only smells lovely but is wrapped beautifully – I remember my first time meeting Helene at SOWA, she’d popped out behind one of the displays and told me to smell the different soaps, saying I’d definitely find one I’d like – and I did.”

Matteson had not always been in the soap and personal-care-product business. In fact, she’d job-hopped quite a bit in her early years. After graduating from college with a business degree in New York, Matteson was ready for a change.

“I really didn’t want to stay in New York. It was just too big, expensive, crowded, and had horrible traffic…you could be out for an hour and still be stuck in traffic and I just didn’t like that.” She says. Boston was the next best thing – cosmopolitan but also with nature’s comforts like the North and South Shores.

Having moved to Boston 30 years ago, Matteson dabbled in various jobs ranging from working in the food industry, banking field, to computer administration before settling down with Urban Kitchen Handmade. Regardless of her job-hopping, one thing was constant: Matteson pursued the things she enjoyed doing. She studied Business because it’s what “she likes to do,” says Matteson. Her degree then led to her working in a bank for a bit, before she took a second job at a restaurant because she “really likes food.” Her passion for the culinary arts took Matteson back to school. After studying culinary arts, Matteson returned to the workforce cooking and running a catering business with some friends. But running a catering business, according to Matteson, was very time- consuming and draining.

“It was just so many hours, so much of my life, and I wanted a change,” says Matteson, “So I sold it.” After selling her business, Matteson went back to school to learn about the computers.

Jokingly remarking, “Oh I’m dating myself – but this change came at the same time computers and email were just coming out. The early 90s, and if you were in your late 30s like me, you’d have never seen a computer and you had no idea how to use it. So you had to learn it.”

After getting a certified, Matteson took on an admin job; however, she wasn’t satisfied. She wanted to run a business again. At first Matteson contemplated going back into the food industry, but she realized the impracticality of the idea. A certified kitchen was required if she were to start her own restaurant and at the time Matteson just didn’t have the money needed for the start-up.

At around the same time, Matteson was frustrated with the dryness of her skin. Jumpstarted by a Google search she realized that people made home-made soap and so she took a class. It was then Matteson became a soaper. Making soap reminded Matteson of cooking – it was cooking for your skin.

“A lot of the ingredients and the way I look at it to simplify it is the same. instead of using the ingredients for your body, it’s using it for your skin,” says Matteson. At first, soap making was only something Matteson did on the side while she worked in the customer service division at a local bank. It wasn’t until a friend invited her to sell at a craft show that the business kicked-up.

“At first I said nah, I’m not ready. But she said, ‘yes you are,’ so I’m like ok. And I loved it. Made 50 bucks and I loved having 50 bucks in my wallet” says Matteson. From there, Matteson began to attend more craft shows and made soap to sell in her own kitchen; hence, the name: Urban Kitchen Handmade.

The process consisted of many trial-and-errors, online research, and commitment. Though Matteson was undeterred, as her husband James describes, “Helene really loves what she does…sometimes working together can be challenging, but she’s very driven to make the business a success. She’s headstrong and very determined.” Matteson tested many things out in order to find the best possible methods to create her products and strived to provide quality products at an affordable price. She wouldn’t sell anything she doesn’t use herself.

“You want good ingredients to be absorbed into your skin, so it’s healthy,” says Matteson. All of her products are made with natural ingredients such as olive oil, Shea butter, coconut oil, caster oil, cocoa butter, natural scents, and Micah for natural coloring. Now, Matteson usually attends the SOWA open market and other craft shows to sell her products while simultaneously managing her online Etsy store. There are, however, still some shows that disappoint.

Just last weekend Matteson attended a fundraising craft show in Rhode Island for Breast cancer. The hall was not only smelly and “disgusting,” Matteson describes, but also a “waste of her time” since the event planner hadn’t bothered to publicize the event. According to Matteson, there were maybe five people.

Instead, Matteson enjoys her attending SOWA much more. Not only does she get to catch up with her regulars, but also fellow vendors who are close-friends. Matteson describes that the business becomes your whole life, so a lot of your friends are people who’ve dedicated their lives to their businesses as well.

Matteson also has a good reputation on her online platform Etsy. With most of her customers satisfied and five-star-ratings donning her reviews. Matteson personally packages each order, providing a small gift sample and a hand-written thank-you note as well. For Matteson, she believes in connecting with her customers, that the only way to improve is to listen to them and get their feedback. Many of her new products, such as the popular lavender room-spray, came about from customer requests.

Lisa says, “The soaps have such a fresh, clean, and long-lasting – its addicting!” her personal favorite being the Boston by the Sea Soap bar.

When asked where Matteson sees her business in the future, Matteson says, “I’ve thought about expanding, but I like how personal it is now. Honestly if I was 20 years younger, I’d absolutely expand further, but at this age, I like the way it is now.” Instead of expanding the business, however, Matteson wants to start teaching. During off-seasons post-Christmas and on weekends, Matteson is working on providing a place where people can come and learn to make natural by-care products themselves.

Matteson is not just a soaper, but also a political enthusiast, you can often find her shaking her head or nodding along to NPR with occasional bursts of comments such as “I hate trump by the way –“ escaping. One of her downfalls, she jokes, is spending too much time following political news when she should instead be promoting her business on her social platforms.

“I like being independent, being my own boss with no one telling me what to do,’ says Matteson, “and yeah I was afraid at first taking the first step, but what’s your choice? You have no choice. I just do it and never second guess myself.”

Girls in fishnets getting hit is what may attract the common person to their first roller derby game but what they’ll witness is something they won’t soon forget.

“It’s an edge-of-your-seat sport. It’s exciting, it’s intense, it’s funny, silly, crazy – all of these things happen in one game,” said Sirius Trauma (real name, Francine) of the Albany All Stars Roller Derby Team. She and Ace Defective (real name, Erica) have been part of this all-women’s league for nearly four years.

“You’re never bored,” said Ace. If you’ve never seen a roller derby game or even heard of the sport before then you’re in for a new and exciting discovery.

You could safely assume that “What’s in it?” is the most repeated question that Tikko and her family have to answer. Their booth at LarkFEST attracts a steady flow of people who stop to look at the piles of bread spread on the tables. The breads sit atop colored clothes draped over round beige cheese boxes. Each handmade piece of bread is a different shape but they all are filled with the same amount of goodness. The bread stuffing ranges from sweet (apple and cinnamon) to savory (black olives and feta cheese).

“People will always ask us why we don’t have signs for each individual bread. It’s so we can talk to them. Otherwise they would just stand there,” says Tikko.

She is only 15 years old but Tikko has been in the family business since she was five.

“Her rapist untwined us,” Christa Parravani said last Thursday of the incident that stole her twin sister’s life. At the University at Albany, the first stop of her book tour promoting the memoir Her, Parravani engaged with the audience in a touching and enthralling Q & A led by Donald Faulkner, the Director of the New York State Writers Institute.

The project which took three years to complete is a labor of love, a living tangible memory of her sister’s life, joys and troubles alike. In the book, Parravani, a native of Albany, documents the unbearable grief, confusion and hurt that accompanies the death of a sibling, felt double fold when it is the death of an identical twin sister.

Suzanne is a senior practice nurse in her forties. At the age of eighteen, she left home in her native Seaford and moved to Brighton to do her General Nurse training. Having already been a volunteer auxiliary nurse from the age of fifteen “like my dad did before me. He inspired me”, Suzanne already had relevant experience before she started. After she finished that training, she went on to do Paediatrics and Sick Children training. She highlights the importance of working in a hospital on a ward as well as learning and doing work in a classroom as you train. “University courses today in Nursing don’t always have you doing both, so Student Nurses don’t want to get their hands dirty changing or bathing patients, which isn’t what nursing is about”, she says. She has worked at hospitals in Brighton, London and finally Eastbourne, East Sussex which is where she now resides. Having three children and working night shifts at a hospital proved difficult after awhile for Suzanne, which is when she made the move to a Nursing Home for a while and then to work in a doctor’s surgery.

A typical work day for her starts with her arriving at the surgery where she works about ten minutes before her first appointment. This gives her time to turn on her computer and to wash her hands in preparation for the day ahead. Booked appointments during the day can range from administering jabs and vaccinations against the flu, babies being vaccinated against Measles, Mumps and Rubella and for patients going on holiday out of the continent such as yellow fever and malaria, in which the patient takes tablets. Appointments can also include blood tests, blood pressure checks and Asthma checks too. When told that some nurses on wards today are not actually able to take blood, Suzanne is astounded. “How is that allowed to happen?” It is difficult to provide that question with an answer.

Suzanne has her breaks in between seeing patients, never working more than four consecutive hours. She has a cup of tea “never with sugar” and a snack, usually fruit and then her lunch on her longer break before getting back into the appointments. In the surgery she works at, there are three practice nurses who all specialise in different areas, Suzanne being well educated in the care of children. They split the working hours of five days a week between them as do the four doctors who work there, two male and two female, to provide alternative professionals for patients to see depending on their ailments. The Practice Manager oversees how everybody works and does all the necessary budgeting for the surgery, as well as ordering and receiving any medication and vaccinations. As Nurses do not actually diagnose patients, their job is seen with less difficulty as a doctor’s, but nevertheless it should be treated with any less respect. It is a well known fact that Nurses are paid nowhere near the same amount as doctors, for the very reason of not diagnosing but it seems that sometimes the work they do can be forgotten. The inclusion of nurses into the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony helped to highlight their firm place within our society, which made Suzanne “proud to be a nurse in that moment.”

On her work, Suzanne says “one day is never the same as another, there is always something going on.” When asked if she ever finds her job monotonous giving out the same injections and so on she answered “it isn’t boring but I can get a bit fed up from time to time”, usually when there are not many patients booked in during parts of the day or if a patients cancels or does not turn up to the appointment for whatever reason. As a patient, you may think that being a couple of minutes late makes no difference but when Nurses and Doctors are running on a tight schedule, it can put them behind on what they have to do. “It is annoying, but sometimes it happens,” Suzanne states. Nurses and Doctors also have to occasionally go on Study Days for extra training and refresher courses in areas that they are required to know as part of their jobs. These can include Sexual Health, Asthma and Diabetes, to name but a few of the areas which are important to know.

From acro to theatre and ballroom to ballet, little miss Dora Dolphin does it ALL. Her dance idol happens to be past featured dancer Alyssa Ness, so it was a no-brainer to ask this pint-sized powerhouse to be a part of our “Next Generation” group of featured dancers. With a heart almost as big as her talent, Dora is living proof that kindness and passion are keys to success: she's earned perfect scores on her solos, has been told she could be on Dancing With the Stars someday, and was offered the opportunity to train at the Kirov Ballet Academy until graduation. Everything Dances was lucky enough to chat with this pint-sized powerhouse not only once, but twice—before and after a performance-packed summer! Don’t forget to view her feature video on our YouTube channel, everythingdances!

    Part One (Spring 2013)

  Q: What is your favorite style of dance?

A: My favorite types are lyrical, ballet, and jazz. I like lyrical because it really gets to tell a story and I really like feeling the music. And jazz because you really get to be fun and it’s really jazzy…and ballet is because I love learning a lot of technique. And I love ballet because you really get to flow with your arms and it’s really fun.

  Q: What is your favorite part about doing dance competitions?

A: My favorite part about doing dance competitions is that you get to perform for other people and you’re nervous before you get on, but once you get out on that stage, it’s just really fun! And I also love my friend Sage, I love her, she’s awesome. I actually met her at a dance competition! I love meeting new people, that’s also what I love about dance competitions—meeting new people and performing for new people.

  Q: What is your favorite part about dance conventions and taking classes?

A: I get to experience new teachers!

  Q: Where do you dance?

A: I dance at Minnesota Dance Theater and Dance Attack when I’m in Miami, I love it so much! At Dance Attack, I love working with John Culbertson and Cookie Ramos.

    Q: What has been your favorite dance moment so far?

A: Well I really just in general love performing for everybody. I liked meeting my friend Sage, I loved that because there’s a thing at Masquerade competition that’s called Pre-Stars and I met her there, and we were next to each other for a lot of the dance, and then we started loving being with each other. I really love her a lot. She lives really far away from me, usually when we want to get together my mom or dad calls or texts her parents and we just get together. She lives a little far away from us, so it is hard to get together, but we try!

  Q: Who has helped you the most in your dance journey?

A: My dance coach Jennifer, and then my ballet teacher, and my mom and my dad, and all of my friends—they’ve really supported me—oh, and my grandmom who created all of my props. I have a lot of people who support me!

  Q: What is your favorite solo?

A: My favorite solos are my new solos, they are really interesting & fun. They are really different and creative.

  Q: What’s your secret to success?

A: Just practicing seven days a week, just making sure I do practice and not miss a day.

  Q: What is the hardest part about dance for you?

A: I’ve been taught to really encourage other people and to be happy for other people, and other people haven’t been like that to me. I’ve had people who haven’t really supported me. But I have a lot of people who do support me. I be myself and be nice and don’t really worry about it.

    Q: Who is your favorite dancer to watch and look up to?

A: On Dancing with the Stars Derek Huff, and Alyssa Ness. And I really like Sophia Lucia. Oh, and I love Maddie from Dance Moms!

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Part Two (Summer 2013)

  Q: This summer, you were the youngest dancer at the Kirov Ballet Academy intensive in Washington, DC—and yet you were also invited to attend Kirov as a year-round ballet student in their professional training division! What was that experience like?

A: It was fun, I like being the youngest. I got a chance to look up to people. The school program starts at 7th grade, but I'm in 5th grade so I could stay in the dorm there, but I would have to move there. I'm in 5th grade so I'm going to do online school so I would do that on the computer and then I could do ballet there because I'm not old enough for the education part.

    Q: Congratulations on being showcased as a special guest this summer in an Annual Ballroom Championship Show dance! What was it like competing in ballroom as one of the youngest contestants?

A: That competition was really fun. I like to collect rhinestones off of the floor! Ballroom is just really different from other kinds of dances. I like the way the other ballroom dancers move.

    Q: You also take rhythmic gymnastics as well, how has that helped your dancing?

A: I'm actually not competing in rhythmic, I'm just doing the moves. I’m doing ball and ribbon, and I’ve had the ball in some of my dances.

    Q: How was your experience performing in “This Side of Paradise” with the History Theatre?

A: It went really well, it was really fun. The cast was really nice. I got to act, which was different.

    Q: How are your performances with “The Belmont Hotel” going so far?

A: We just performed at the state fair! I was just on the news last night with some of the other cast members. I’m doing both, dancing and acting. You have to act through your dancing. This company is Collide Theatrical, it’s about dancing and acting together.

    Q: With all of this acting, could you see yourself on Disney Channel one day?

A: Yes! I would really like to do that. [Dora would love to be on Jessie!]

    Q: What’s new coming up for little miss Dora?

A: I tried out for The Christmas Carol at the Guthrie, and I got in! There’s going to be singing, and dancing, and acting. There are only like twelve or thirteen kids in the show. I’m an understudy for a Crachit kid, and I’m Belle’s daughter, Wimple’s daughter, and a Fezzwig guest! 

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Q: What advice do you have for other dancers your age on how to improve as a dancer and deal with others who are not supportive?

A: Don’t give up, and if you feel like you can’t do it, you can do it. Don’t say you can’t because you really can. Reach for the stars and just have fun! Always love each other and be nice, and believe in yourself and be yourself.

  Q: You said your dream dance role or career would be to be a movie or Broadway star, why those?

A: I think it would be really fun to be a different person. I love how the whole Broadway and movie stuff works, like how cool it is. I’m going to be in “This Side of Paradise,” the story of F. Scott Fitzerald and Zelda. I’m going to be Young Scottie, and I’m young Zelda as a ballerina. 

*At the time of her first interview, Dora had not yet performed in this production. Since then, she has completed 32 performances as Young Scottie in This Side of Paradise at the prestigious History Theatre!

  Q: Why do you like to dance?

A: I like to dance because I like performing for everybody and it’s really fun and I get to meet new people. Other people don’t know how hard dance is to do, and I love it so much. To express and perform—I really love that.

    Q: Why do you admire past featured dancer Alyssa Ness?