Prosper Spotlight: Geologix

Mt. Clemens used to be the bath capital of the world. People from all over the country would come here by railroad for days and days of natural healing, skin treatments and rejuvenation, and, just plain ol' relaxing.

The city boomed. There were 75 hotels and rooming houses. People who could afford it would take part in 21-day bath treatments. Private railroads brought the likes of William Randolph Hearst and Mae West into town – all for a dip in the tub.

But it wasn't your every day, run of the mill bathwater in these tubs. It came from deep under Mt. Clemens. It was found that the water that pulsed over a thousand feet under the city was packed with more minerals than anywhere else in the world.
    
And the townspeople had found a use for it: natural rejuvenation.

And so Susan Gans, president of the Birmingham-based Geologix, is picking up where Mt. Clemens left of back in the 1940s when the bathhouses closed.

"The mineral water helped with arthritis, psoriasis, polio, aches and pains, skin disease. And it was natural," she says. "But after World War II baths were dead. People were popping pills, doctored medication increased."

There are 34 natural minerals in the water, as well as two pounds of minerals per five-gallon bucket. "The most in the world," Gans says.

And lucky for her, she operates the last running well in Mt. Clemens, which she uses in all her healthcare and beauty products. She doesn't offer these as an alternative to medicine, but a natural way toward healing and rejuvenation of the body. The water itself is 1,400 feet below Mt. Clemens and 600 million years old, she says.

"You can't drink this water," she says. "It's so heavy in minerals. You use it for bathing and we use it in all of our products."

Gans dived into the well, so to speak, began 12 years ago. She was a real estate broker who wanted a change in career. She looked into the spa industry and eventually found herself being introduced to an elderly man living in Oak Park who owned a well out in Mt. Clemens. A well that had "healing properties."

The story goes, Gans says, that the man had a shoulder injury that was healed by taking baths with the water from the well. The man, knowing the natural healing properties of heavy loaded mineral water, started an AcheAway product that soothed minor aches and pains. Gans, after meeting the gentleman, eventually bought the well and the product from the aging man.

Since then she has grown the company and the product line, offering mineral rich skin and bathing products called Mineral Essentials and a new product called Vitl Waters, which allows you to incorporate water right from the well into your tub, as well as having a day/night cream for the skin and an mineral packed eye cream.

"We like to say the water is 600 million years young," she says of Vitl Waters.

Gans says she has just signed on for an infomercial with a Florida-based company to promote the new product Vitl Waters. And you can find Gans' spa products at Henry Ford Hospitals and St. Joseph Mercy Hospitals. "They use our body treatment products," she says. Irene Spanos, Senior Business Development Representative for Oakland County has also helped her promote her product, as well as assist her in finding vendors in Metro Detroit and to identify new financing sources for the growing business.

"Mineral products have blown up in the past several years. This is a real and wonderful thing," she says. "Plus we're totally natural and totally green, which is the future."

Order Mineral Essentials online here. Vitl Waters will be availabe May 1st.

For more information on Vitl Waters and Geologix:
Telephone: (800) 820-0220 or (248) 932-7528
eMail: sgacheaway@aol.com
Mailing address: P.O. Box 1334 Birmingham, MI 48012