POWAY, Calif. – A San Diego entrepreneur has been invited to set up shop in the exclusive Academy Awards gift suite in Hollywood Saturday.
April Leffingwell has spent a long time perfecting the formula for her Shea Chic products.
“I’m so excited I’m going to the Oscar gifting lounge!” Leffingwell said while standing in front of the mixer she calls “Big Momma.”
Leffingwell has been to other award show gift suites, but she said nothing compares to the biggest night in Hollywood.
She will be handing out her products to hundreds of celebrities at a special event the day before the award show; she’s even created a special jasmine-musk mixture.
Leffingwell's road to the Oscars has been a movie itself. Two years ago, a debilitating spinal injury left her bed ridden for six months. She said she had given up hope until a little gift got her going again.
“My husband brought me some cream one night and it made me feel so good and so girly,” Leffingwell said. “I thought since I can’t go out and buy any more of [it], maybe I’ll to make my own.”
She set up shop in her garage and started mixing natural Shea butter with other high-end ingredients for creams, lotions, candles and bath products.
Leffingwell’s creams were so popular with her friends she started selling them.
“No matter what happens to you, you can give it a positive spin, it’s just how you look at it,” Leffingwell said. “The Oscars want my products and I make them in my garage! So if I can do this with my spinal injury you can do whatever you put your mind to.”
With names like: Sexy Cream, Bite Me, McLuvin', Naked and Sexy Momma, she’s ready to give Hollywood A-listers products as much personality as the woman who makes them.
