Organic skin-care firm, founder to move to area

What do you get when you mix apricot kernel oil, beeswax, brewed black tea, clove, grapefruit seed extract and a few other ingredients from Mother Earth?

If you're me, you get a big, goopy mess.

But if you're Sara Damelio, you get a healing skin-care concoction fit for battle.

After researching skin-care products for National Geographic, the now organic beauty specialist and licensed esthetician decided to create her own line using all-natural ingredients. While she was working at a salon in Washington, D.C., Damelio sold her handmade and hand-packaged products to private clients before eventually starting her own company, Skincando Inc.

Her Combat-Ready line, which includes balm, lip balm and bar soap, is gaining ground along the East Coast. But it's the balm that's making waves overseas, crossing the pond to bring relief to U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Damelio pulled the trigger about 1,000 times over the course of two years before finally hitting her target, creating the perfect mixture for the balm, a concentrated skin salve that heals and relieves everything from severe dryness and sunburn to scars and sand flea bites.

Marc Popchak, of the Army's 876th Engineering Battalion stationed in Iraq, received a jar of the whipped miracle cream from his wife, an employee at Gettysburg Hospital in Pennsylvania. "I passed it around to everyone in the unit," he told Damelio. "If you put that balm on overnight, the next day the sand flea bites were just gone."

It may be strong enough for a soldier, but Combat-Ready Balm is also soft enough for diaper rash and serious enough for the Charles Cole Memorial Hospital in Coudersport, Pa., which sells the balm in its pharmacy.

A 2-ounce jar of Combat-Ready Balm retails for $25.

Most of Damelio's sales come from her Web site, www.skincando.com, but the all-natural and organic skin-care line is in Charleston's crosshairs.

Damelio plans to relocate her business to the Holy City by the end of the year, where she'll continue to stir up the miracle mix in her home.

"I'm really excited to be coming to the Charleston area," Damelio said. "I think the products are perfect for people here because they're great for sunburn, bug bites and dry skin."

Give them your flaky, your sunburned, your huddled masses of mosquito-bitten hunters longing for itch-relief. MoM Spa at 920 Houston Northcutt Blvd. in Mount Pleasant and Low Country OB/GYN at 10 Farmfield Ave. in Charleston are braced to battle the enemies of healthy skin.

Reach Abi Nicholas at 937-5524 or anicholas@postandcourier.com.