Local shop owner provides her own natural body care products among other unique items

Lexington Howe

Staff Writer

Fallbrook resident Tuula Hukkanen at first had not thought of running her own clothing store - now she owns 100 Main, a local shop in Fallbrook that sells designer clothes and other unique items.

The shop has a variety of items, from home accessories to natural body care products.

"We have mostly women designer clothing, all kinds of nice stuff that it's kind of hard to find anywhere else," Hukkanen said. "There's other products you need to order months beforehand, before they even make them."

Before COVID-19, Hukkanen went to trunk shows to meet the designers and make these purchases, but now she is purchasing mostly online.

"We're also doing our own 100 Main clothing line," Hukkanen said.

Hukkanen has owned the shop for a few months now.

"We had to close (due to COVID) but we've been open off and on, but now we're open from 11-5 p.m. from Monday to Friday and from 11-3 p.m. Saturday."

Hukkanen has lived in Fallbrook for seven years.

"I love it here, it's such a gem. I mean, what a precious place to live, I'm so happy about it," she said. "No traffic lights barely, nice and quiet, it's beautiful here."

When Hukkanen had found out the store's previous owner was retiring, she had wondered where she'd be able to buy from. Buying the shop herself solved that problem.

"I'm having fun with the shop and met a lot of nice people," Hukkanen said. She also helped establish Destiny Boutique, a company that makes natural body care products.

Starting when Hukkanen was 5 years old, she struggled with dry skin and eczema.

In 2007, Hukkanen's husband, a Ph.D. chemist, came up with the idea to make cold processed handmade lavender soap. Since then, she has found it to be the solution for her skin, and Destiny Boutique's beauty product line was born.

At 100 Main she offers these products, like their activated charcoal detox soap and facial wash.

"One way to change the world is I can get our healthy products into more stores," she added.

COVID-19, however, has created some difficulty with business at 100 Main.

"It's been really slow and just a fraction of the sales that the previous owner had because people don't want to go out, but it's picking up slowly," Hukkanen said.

Hukkanen is currently working on having a coffee roaster in the shop.

"We are roasting our own coffee," Hukkanen said. "We have a backroom here at 100 Main that's not being used, so we're going to start roasting our own coffee and create a coffee subscription club so you can have it shipped to your house or home."

For more information on the shop or the items offered, visit https://100mainave.com/.

Lexington Howe can be reached by email at [email protected].