Krystn Keller: Searching for hope and soap on YouTube
Aug 11, 2020 – minute read
This post is part of the United States of YouTube series. For more inspiring stories across all 50 states, check out our creator map.
So I started Googling how to make soap, and then it took me to YouTube, which is where I go to look up how to do anything.”
When Krystn’s son Elliott was born, she expected her life to change — but not like this. Baby Elliott had severe eczema and over 50 allergies, and all soaps that came recommended were too harsh for his fragile skin. Keller needed a gentler, more hypoallergenic soap that would work for her son, and decided that the only way to get her hands on one was to make it herself.
So Keller turned to YouTube.
“I knew nothing about how to make soap,” Keller admits. “So I started Googling how to make soap, and then it took me to YouTube, which is where I go to look up how to do anything.”
That’s where she found Anne-Marie, the Soap Queen, whose tutorials taught Keller the basics of saponification and convinced her she could do it herself. After a few months of trial and error, Keller found the perfect recipe for her son, then set to work perfecting it in her makeshift kitchen lab.
The soap was a success. Friends and relatives saw the change in Elliott and called it a miracle. And for Keller, that’s when the lightbulb went off.
“I realized that I wasn’t the only one,” Keller says.
She knew thousands of other people needed a natural, hypoallergenic soap like the one she was making, so Keller and her husband started Keller Works to meet the demand. Soon, orders were coming in from all over the country, and her little backyard “science lab” in Mobile, Alabama became a full-fledged skincare brand, that employs local residents in Mobile and has customers from across the county.
While this isn’t the path she expected her career to take, Keller says, she’s thrilled with the opportunity to not only run her own business but to help other families in need. Check out our interview with the Keller family above to learn more about their incredible story.
