From detergent to deodorant, it would seem that commercially produced chemicals have become permanently integrated into the fabric of everyday life.

Not so for local chiropractor-turned-entrepreneur Dr. Timothy Hudyncia, who has been producing his own homemade soaps since 2001.

He uses crock-pots and slow cookers to melt soap bases, and then he adds essential oils. He then uses a pastry bag to squirt his melted soaps into silicone molds.

Now his homemade products are available to the public at the recently opened Nature’s Lather at 3055 West Shore Road. It’s billed as a place “where goodness bubbles up.”

“Think of Nature’s Lather as a healthy, brilliant bath and body goods store,” Hudyncia said during a tour of the store with the Beacon.

Through Nature’s Lather, Hudyncia sells soaps, bubble baths, lotions, deodorants, fragrant body mists and scent rings. However, you won’t find a long list of chemical ingredients on the labels of his products.

Instead, customers will find more familiar sounding ingredients like goat’s milk and lavender, oatmeal and ginger, honey, spearmint and cocoa butter.

Hudyncia acknowledges the perception that natural and organic products are more expensive than their synthetic counterparts, but he says his products are both affordable and healthy. In fact, he claims they retail for less than products sold at stores like Whole Foods and Bath & Body Works.

“We produce everything that you see here,” Hudyncia said, gesturing toward displays of lotion bottles, soap bars and gift sets. “About 75 percent of everything in the store is natural.”

A company called SFIC produces the bases the soaps start with. Hudyncia says he found SFIC through extensive research.

“They pride themselves in a very simple formula, keeping as close to nature as possible,” he said.

Hudyncia, who was born in upstate New York, has been a chiropractor for the last 11 years. His journey toward opening an all-natural bath and body goods store began in 1993, when he was living in Burlington, Vt.

In June that year he noticed he consistently felt as though he was coming down with a cold.

“It came out of nowhere. I’ve been incredibly healthy my whole life,” said Hudyncia, who was a fitness instructor and endurance athlete at the time. “But then I became a very sick person. It was devastating. I began to think, have I seen the best of my life?”

It got so severe, Hudyncia says, that he lost his sense of smell. He sought medical care, which failed to diagnose a problem. Instead doctors gave him steroid inhalers.

Hudyncia noticed that he also became hypersensitive to perfumes. So he removed synthetic scented chemicals, and began using hypoallergenic shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, house cleaners and dish detergent.

“I got rid of everything,” Hudyncia said. “I got all of the fragrant chemical stuff out of my life.”

He says it took several years to heal his immune system, regain his sense of smell and feel healthy again. During his recovery, he found that many of the products he had to turn to were unpleasant. In 2000 though, he discovered homemade soaps.

By the following year, he had become the family soap maker. Hudyncia also discovered essential oils. For him, it was a wonderfully fragrant world, filled with lavender, spearmint, lemon and cedar.

The best part, Hudyncia says, was that these oils did not cause the nagging cold symptoms that had plagued him for so long.

“Every essential oil has quite a commendable set of healing properties. They’re very therapeutic,” he said. “They’ve been used for thousands of years, used in ways for any symptom you can think of. They’re actually healthy as opposed to chemically toxic.”

While explaining these healing properties, which include stress and anxiety relief, Hudyncia motioned toward his store’s Aroma Café, where customers can sniff the scents of 28 different oils, including frankincense and myrrh.

At the Aroma Café, customers have the opportunity to customize and blend the oils. These blends can then be added to any of the products in the store.

Hudyncia doesn’t believe a bad blend can be made, but noted, “Once we customize it, you own it.”

As a chiropractor, Hudyncia has adopted the mantra “move well, eat well, think well.” He says consumers should be aware of what’s in the body care products they use since they can find their way into the bloodstream.

“That’s why it’s so important to us. We want to promote a person’s health and not interfere with a person’s health,” he said, adding that just because it’s healthy, “it doesn’t have to be boring or not fun.”

For instance, his store sells gift sets, which feature bar soap that were melted and cut into unique shapes, like cars and hearts, as well as “soap pies.” The heart-shaped soaps are not red or pink, however. The soap found in those colors, Hudyncia notes, are made with artificial coloring.

“There’s quite a bit of research. Artificial colors have been linked to conditions like ADHD,” he explained. “All of our colors are purely natural.”

Hudyncia, who is also a member of the Warwick Rotary Club and an avid kayaker and unicyclist, says the opportunity to open Nature’s Lather came about 13 months ago, when a long-time tenant moved out of the space next to his chiropractic practice.

After failing to find another tenant, Hudyncia says he and his wife Shannon racked their brains to figure out how best to utilize the space. They contemplated opening an exercise studio and a food co-op.

Once they decided on a bath and body goods store, they spent six months researching how to get it up and running. Hudyncia did not want his store to be a specialty, high-end boutique.

His research extended as far as to which type of plastic he would use to bottle his lotions. He determined Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles to be the safest option.

Fellow Rotarian David Nash helped come up with the store’s name. But Nature’s Lather’s retail area, which was built 40 years ago, was outdated and needed some renovation. It received “a wonderful facelift,” Hudyncia says.

Another Rotarian, Jean Gavigan, helped design the logo. The store opened on Oct. 14. Its companion Web store, natureslather.com, launched on Nov. 9, and Hudyncia thinks his timing could not have been better with the holidays fast approaching.

Hudyncia feels his store’s specialty is in gifting. Nature’s Lather employee Mary Beth Beretta is “the gift basket guru.” Fellow soap maker David Schmal even created a blend just for the season, called “candy cane.”

Hudyncia touted the Web site as a point of sale. He also uses coupon codes for online purchases to designate a percentage of sales to be donated to local organizations, like the Kent Center.

“It’s something we’re looking forward to growing,” he said.