Hey there!

My name is Ayla and I am a wife and a mother of three crazy kiddos. I love to live naturally on our 36 acre homestead. We purchased our land in 2010 and called it Whitehead Farms. The farm allowed us to raise chickens, cattle, goats, and honestly the list of livestock just kept growing over the years as I learned how valuable to the homestead each one was. We began raising a beef for our family freezer every year, learned to process and incubate chickens, learned to garden, learned to preserve our own food, and began our journey to self sufficiency. I later began to learn how to use ingredients produced on the farm (lard, tallow, goats milk, herbs, honey, etc.) to make truly all-natural skin care products and in 2014 we launched Rustique Essentials, the clean skin care side of the business. In 2023 we saw an increase in customer demand for food options that were as “crunchy” as our skin care so we decided to get permitted to sell not only natural skin care but truly natural food as well. We opened the farm store in 2024 combining both businesses. Since we were raising our own meat and were not dependent on an outside source for our protein we had no idea how difficult it was to find meat that was raised on grass pasture 24/7, were not vaccinated, were offered non-GMO feed at their choosing but not dry lotted and force fed cheap bi-product grain, were heritage breeds instead of man-made hybrid breeds, and were fed hay that wasn’t soaked in pesticides. Traditional regenerative farming is all we have ever done so we thought all the above was common practice… we were very wrong. The outpouring of customers coming to us for non-tainted meat was mind blowing. After opening the store we expanded and took the farm meat options on the road to farmers markets, cutting the need for customers to make the long drive to the farm. It has been a beautiful journey and we can’t see what God has in store for us in the future.

The reason I began living naturally: I didn’t have a choice.

The thing that really opened my eyes to the fact that chemical tainted items used daily can hurt us, was when I had my twin boys a month and a half early. Everything broke them out- I mean everything. After seeing not one, not two, but FOUR pediatricians we were finally instructed to ditch all the rx creams and give them baths with no soap, switch to cloth diapers, wash their clothes with soap nuts instead of laundry detergent, and wasn’t able to use any lotion at all on those little guys. After a few days their skin cleared up. Turned out, three of the four pediatricians were throwing rx creams at us just guessing and only ONE doctor correctly diagnosed them with a fragrance/sulfate allergy. EVERYTHING including disposable diapers, baby wipes, and baby laundry detergent had fake fragrance and or sulfates in them. The free and clear laundry detergents were free of fragrance and dyes but not sodium lauryl sulfate. Did it say there was sulfates on the bottle? NOPE! It isn’t required to list ingredients of what goes in cleaners so they can use deceiving names such as “Free and clear” to trick you into thinking its safe. It was crazy how sensitive skin brings out the side effects of chemical exposure that people with non-sensitive skin don’t see… so they just don’t believe that store bought stuff is bad.

So we went a couple years being extra careful with fragrance and such in any baby care items and everything seemed to be going alright until the day that I poured the milk out of my son's sippy cup, rinsed it with water, and a giant mountain of bubbles formed! My son had been drinking out of a soap covered sippy cup. Our dishwasher must have stopped mid-cycle and I unknowingly unloaded the soap covered dishes. I thought, "was dish detergent harmful to a baby" and "what exactly is in the dishwashing detergent?" To my surprise, the ingredients were not listed on the box. Check under your sink and in your laundry room. Chances are you won't find an ingredients list on the bottles. Scary right?!

Later that week, I laid the twins down for their nap. When I checked on them, I found them out of their cribs and covered in a greasy paste. They had learned to climb out of their beds and got into my diaper supply basket on top of the changing table which contained baby essentials such as diaper rash cream, baby powder, lotion, baby vicks, etc. They had made a concoction and had it in their mouth, ears, eyes- everywhere! I found myself, again, going through the same questions I had before with the addition of, "exactly how many different chemicals did they ingest this time from the vicks and diaper rash medicine??".

That was the day my life changed. I felt helpless. How could I keep my children safe if I kept things in my home that had the ability to hurt them? How do I treat diaper rash with out the cream? How do I treat the skin scrapes with out ointment? If they accidentally ingest these things it can potentially hurt them.

This is the day I began my journey. I set out to find alternative products made with a mixture natural oils / butters and essential oils rather than chemicals so that if another one of these accidents happened I don't have to worry about my children's well being. Each day we got rid of a harmful product and replaced it with something safe. When my daughter was young we made a jar of sugar scrub and I turned around to find her licking the spoon. I asked her what she was doing and she replied that she forgot we were making "soap" and thought it was brownies. I just laughed when she said it didn't taste as good as it looked. There was nothing in the scrub that would hurt her. Nothing that she couldn't eat! Trust me, you can’t put a price on peace of mind. Even today, the kids are almost grown, I still make every product with that momma mentality I had all those years ago. Even the scented soaps we make are only made with paraben, phthalates, and sulfate free fragrance oils because I know how dangerous those can be when hidden in your skin care. Will the soaps be overly perfumy? No, they won’t, because truly natural fragrance and essential oils do not linger as well as fake fragrances do. We also carry a completely unscented line for the most sensitive of sensitive skin. Even some essential oils would break my boys out so unscented goats milk and water based soaps are available as well as unscented tallow moisturizers and even unscented goat’s milk bath bombs.