Wander through Courthouse’s Urban Village Market on a Saturday morning and you may find Khadeejah Honesty and her young daughter behind a table spread with handmade, on-trend statement jewelry. “My jewelry is one-of-a-kind,” says the artist, who crafts her geometric pieces from clay to give them an earthy, artsy vibe. She sells her wares under the name Soultry.
Her line also includes small-batch bath and body products for men and women of all skin types, which she creates from scratch with ingredients like cocoa butter, coconut oil, turmeric and Indian clay. The shea butter moisturizer is a customer favorite, she says, because its whipped texture penetrates into skin and doesn’t leave an oily residue.
Honesty (yep, that’s her real name) spent her early career in advertising and retail—you may have seen her managing South Moon Under in Clarendon. After spending time learning how to blend essential oils, she coupled that skill with her hobby of making clay jewelry for friends and decided to make the leap to full-time entrepreneurship in April.
That move is all the more meaningful considering that in 2015, shortly after her daughter was born prematurely, Honesty was homeless. “When my daughter was born at 23 weeks, she weighed barely more than a pound,” explains the Arlington resident. “She spent six months in the hospital, had heart surgery and actually died for 13 minutes. In the process of advocating for her, I had to walk away from my job in order to be there with her every day. I lost my house and my car.”
Honesty was introduced to Doorways for Women and Families, which helped her bridge the gap out of homelessness in only one month. She now lives in Colonial Village, just steps away from the market where she sells her goods. “It’s the kind of thing that could happen to anyone,” she says. “Thank goodness Doorways was there.” All of which makes you feel doubly good about a purchase from Soultry.