Our Story
At essentially homemade, we care about living a healthy lifestyle.
Our Founder, Dzovig Kutumian
Owner, Manufacturer, Dzovig Kutumian was exposed to the benefits of organics back in 1980 when her father invented an all organic bird repellent called Sevana Company. He was a retired Armenian priest who needed to support his family of five children. In creating the repellant he used a secret recipe he had learned in “the old country”, his hometown Kessab, Syria. The product became popular in New Zealand and France. Tragically, in 1983, he was diagnosed with a severe case of Parkinson's disease called Parkinson's Plus. The disease rapidly took over and his fledgling business failed. He passed away one month before Dzovig’s first daughter was born in February 1999. Dzovig and her husband were blessed with a second daughter in 2002.
As Dzovig and her husband raised their two girls, she became more aware of just how many toxic chemicals were on the market. One day on a summer vacation in Mexico, she caught the “essential oil” bug. The resort’s spa was located such that every time you walked to the restaurants or to the beach, you had to pass it. Every time she passed the spa, Dzovig would stop and smell the aroma permeating into the open hallway. The scent was sweet and citrusy and for some reason it made her feel uplifted, cheerful and relaxed. Dzovig became obsessed with finding out how they did this. What was this smell and how could she bring it home to her family and friends?
Dzovig discovered essential oils. She became a fanatic about educating herself. She found a wealth of knowledge on the internet and began buying books on essential oils and their benefits. She made sure her kids bedtime was strictly at 8:00 p.m. so that she could do some research on the internet. This became a new passion.
As Dzovig learned about essential oils, she wondered why mainstream stores carried items with hazardous and toxic chemicals. Why was it that you could only purchase healthy stuff only through health food stores? Other countries, such as New Zealand and Australia, encourage a healthy lifestyle for their people. They also spend money on scientific studies in areas such as aromatherapy. Dzovig also wondered, why can’t we buy a product without alcohol in it? Was it to make it easier on the consumer? There are many people out there who have become sensitive to alcohol based products.
There should be products that are made without the use of added alcohols. Right now, however, the only means of accomplishing this is to make your own homemade products.
As Dzovig discovered the numerous therapeutic benefits essential oils had to offer, she began to make concoctions for her daughters’ ailments, bought candle diffusers to diffuse the aroma, both inside her home as well as outdoors, and began experimenting with mists. Those mist experiments are now known as “5 Citrus Blast” and “Lavender Me”. Dzovig also made her own cleaner. She felt the only way to guarantee a pesticide free product was to make it herself, without the use of added alcohols, chemical residue, pesticides, dyes, preservatives or synthetics.
Dzovig shared her homemade products with friends and relatives. They loved the products and constantly nagged her to sell them. She dismissed their suggestions until one day when she was at a family camp in the mountains with her children. The mountain camp had mosquitos. Lavender is a natural mosquito repellent. So Dzovig made a lavender spray to keep the mosquitos off of her family. As other campers forgot their mosquito repellents, Dzovig offered her lavender spray and told them they were welcome to use hers, but that it was “natural”. When they tried it their first reactions were, “Oh, this smells good. Are you sure this will work?” A couple hours later, they came back to her and said, “Hey, I don’t have any mosquito bites. I don’t know if it’s your stuff or if it’s coincidence.” At this same camp, one of the helpers badly burned the back of her shoulder on a hot door of a commercial oven. The camp nurse tried to aid her with what she had available, but the pain did not subside. Dzovig offered the helper the lavender spray because it is an antiseptic and aids in burn relief. Because of the severity of the burn, she applied a bit more than usual, but the burn pain began to subside. The woman asked Dzovig to constantly spray her with the lavender mist because of the relief she felt with it. Dzovig gave her the bottle before leaving camp and by the end of the week, the woman was swimming in the pool. After Dzovig left the camp, the camp director (her cousin Richard Taminsoian who eventually became her label designer) called and asked her where he could purchase the mosquito repellent because he wanted to use it on his own kids. Dzovig told him he could not buy it because she made it herself. That was when Dzovig decided she should market her products.
After receiving support and advice from many good friends, her company was established. She began selling at the local Vineyard Farmers Market. She has also exhibited and sold her products at The Fresno Wellness Fair and the Fresno Home and Garden Show. At the Fresno Home & Garden Show, Dzovig learned that the majority of people really do not appreciate the health effects of products they use everyday in their homes. It is Dzovig’s goal that people recognize ingredients in products and how those ingredients affect us. Do you really want a product that you use to clean your home to contain formaldehyde or any other toxic chemicals? The first step is to educate yourself and READ THE INGREDIENTS LIST ON THE LABELS! The next step is to use products that do NOT contain toxic chemicals.
If you personally don’t have time to make your own products at home, Dzovig has made these products, essentially for you.