As a young girl, Elia Singer, a native Californian, learned the lost art of handmade skincare products from her norwegian Mother and Grandmother.  Young enough to sit inside her mother's kitchen drawer, watching amber glass jars being filled with fragrant facial masks and tinctures, Elia was fascinated by all of the textures and scents and especially loved to take part in "beauty treatments" with these freshly blended delights.  Her fascination grew into a hobby through college, then at the age of 25, as a means of affording to put herself through college, she founded her first business, "Apothecary Fairy" in 1996. 

 Starting very small and by taking time to create her most special handmade soap recipe, she began selling fresh, handcut bars of olive oil soap at local street festivals and farmer's markets.  Gradually, her line of products expanded into handmade skin cremes, salt baths and lip treatments, building on the principles of making each product in small batches, using herbs and essential oils with no synthetic fragrances or preservatives.  As most mass-produced products are filled with additives to prolong shelf life, Elia maintained the belief that while we seek out natural foods, we should also treat our skin to wholesome products.

Gradually, and predominantly through word-of-mouth advertising, Apothecary Fairy was earning quite a reputation and clientele.  At her most lucrative venue, the Malibu Farmer's Market, she was approached by the Production Team of the series, "Ally McBeal" and was asked to bring her wares to the sound stage where they filmed.  Through such wonderful exposure, Elia earned such celebrity clients as Robert Downey Jr., Lucy Liu, Harry Connick Jr., Salma Hayek and a list of celebrity make-up artists who would use her products on the set.  The fact that Apothecary Fairy products were not on every spa boutique's shelves made the products even more desirable and elusive and again, the word got around.  Eventually Elia was called upon to make custom products for celebrities such as Stevie Wonder, and the cast and crews of television dramas "The Practice" and "Without A Trace."

With her business booming as it was, she chose to postpone her college career as she was thriving due to her entrepreneurial efforts.  She hired a small staff to stir, pour and wrap and eventually added a select group of Day Spas who private labeled her products to both use on their clients and sell in their boutiques.  These included the Sundance Resort and Breathe Day Spa in Utah and Kinara Day Spa in West Hollywood, CA. Though Elia was enjoying her entrepreneurial success, she had wishes of starting a family and that seemed to take precedence over her business at least for the time being. She knew that she would be able to reopen her business when the time was right and that, she certainly did.

In 2003, Elia relocated to Memphis, TN to take time off from her business and raise her family. Now with 2 beautiful boys, ages 1 and 4, Elia has rebirthed her business under the southern grassroots-inspired name of Ophelia Snodgrass Apothecary. Elia quickly acquired a loyal clientele here in Memphis with interest from local retail shops and her orders began to increase. As soon as she put up her website mentioning "Apothecary Fairy" as her original business name, Elia began receiving emails from her West Coast customers saying how much they've missed her products and that they were so happy to find their favorite products again. This was the beginning of her newfound success in Memphis.

Elia. and assistant Cori Kaplan maintain a booth at the downtown memphis farmer's market from April through October in addition to making her products for Whole Foods Market and preparing to open her own retail shop in Spring of 2009. She is very much enjoying her business here in midtown Memphis while being a stay-at-home single Mom to her boys. She is currently in the process of expanding her business and staff to accommodate her new accounts and to increase production yet preserving her high quality standards for handmade and fresh skincare products that she believes so much in maintaining.  Life is full of adventures, so who knows what the future holds for Miss Ophelia Snodgrass...

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