When Megan Bre Camp opened Summer Solace on Claremont Avenue in Rockridge, she brought more than a skincare line. She brought years of experience in traditional food preparation, regenerative agriculture, and artisan craftsmanship.
Summer Solace offers an array of hand-made skin products made from locally sourced ingredients. Photo: Anna L Marks
Camp’s path to skincare wasn't conventional. Before launching her skincare business, she developed a deep connection to food and traditional ways of living. She learned to cook from her mother, who is from the northern Philippines, and later studied culinary arts in Alaska, where she was raised by her father.
Her father, a member of Vietnam's indigenous Sedang community who served as a Green Beret translator during the Vietnam War, introduced her to foraging, fishing, hiking, and preserving food through fermentation—skills that continue to influence her work today.
Once in the Bay Area, Camp studied horticulture and urban farming at Merritt College, worked as a chocolatier in Berkeley, and later learned traditional food preparation as a sous chef at Berkeley’s Three Stone Hearth, where she sourced ingredients from local regenerative farms.
Megan has a booth at the Temescal Farmers Market every other Sunday. Video: Anna L Marks
All of these varied experiences opened her mind specifically to the importance of animal fats and their health benefits for the body, both internally and externally. When her friend’s child had a skin rash, she knew what she needed to do.
“I saw people putting steroids and petroleum products on their skin,” Camp says. “I wanted to use something more nourishing.”
She turned to pasture-raised beef suet from Stemple Creek Ranch in Tomales, rendering the fat into tallow using a slow “dry rendering” process she developed to preserve its natural properties—and Summer Solace was born.
“Pasture-raised beef suet tallow closely resembles the lipid structure of our skin,” she says. “It’s naturally rich in vitamins A, D, E and K.”
Typically from beef and sheep, suet is the fat found around the kidneys and loin, and is rich in saturated and monounsaturated fats.
Every Wednesday, Camp renders between 50 and 100 pounds of beef fat—low and slow— before turning it into balms, soaps, face and hair oils, scrubs, candles, and other skincare products for her wholesale and retail business.
Megan renders suet by using a process she developed for use in her skin care and cosmetics. Photos: Anna L Marks
Camp says supporting local producers is as important as making the products themselves. Nearly every ingredient is sourced from small regional producers. Beeswax comes from Bee Healthy Honey in Oakland (who also has a booth at the Temescal Farmers Market), calendula from Sonoma Herb Exchange, and hand-harvested bladderwrack seaweed from the Mendocino coast.
She remembers working at Market Hall in her twenties and loves being back in Rockridge. She invites everyone to stop by.
“I see Summer Solace as a space where community members can take a breather, experience our products, and enjoy a cup of tea while being nourished.”
Summer Solace is located at 5303 Claremont Avenue and is open Tuesday through Friday from 11am to 4pm. The company also sells online and at the Temescal Farmers Market on alternating Sundays.
