Moon Wise Herbals' Philosophy + Purpose

I wanted to do a blog post about the Philosophy and Purpose of Moon Wise Herbals. A solid foundation is essential for building a thriving business in any community. A business’s philosophy and purpose say a lot about who they are and whom they connect with. I hope you learn a little (or a lot!) about Moon Wise Herbals.

It is important to me for my customers to feel good about their purchases and use of my products and to trust Moon Wise Herbals to provide effective, safe and magickal products for their health and wellness needs.

Giveaway

I’d love to hear your thoughts and/or comments so please leave any and all in the comment section below. As a thank you for letting me know what your thoughts are I am hosting a giveaway!

I will choose one person that leaves a comment to receive a special surprise gift for participating! One person will be chosen near the end of the month and announced via email and on Moon Wise Herbals’ Instagram page. In your comment tell me what you think of my business philosophy and how it affects you as a friend of Moon Wise Herbals.

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When I started my business in November of 2011, now 12 years ago, I set out to create products that would be effective and helpful for the everyday lives of my customers/community. I had been studying herbal medicine and aromatherapy since my son was born in June of 2005 and was finally feeling ready to set out on my career path officially.

But what was the fuel behind my drive to start a business?

My passion to help people be healthy through the power of Nature was and is my core purpose. Because I hold the conviction that when we are healthy we have the space and the freedom to live our lives to the fullest. From this core purpose my business philosophy unfurled.

In creating Moon Wise Herbals it has always been important to keep the products I make as natural as possible. With the word natural being over used and misused it has lost a lot of its true meaning. Many products that use the word natural use it for its marketing value with little substance to back it up. As a Virgo with a Capricorn Rising and a Pisces Moon, my stars made sure that I would have a deep connection to the Earth and her flowing waters. This I have felt since I was a very young girl. So, for me and everything I make, natural was and has been the only way.

At Moon Wise we have the substance.

All Moon Wise products are indeed made with 100% Nature made ingredients. Most of my raw ingredients are minimally processed or carefully processed helping to retain much of their medicinal and cosmetic functionality.

As a natural product formulator in an industry that caters to the public it is also very important to keep all my products safe. For you, for me, and everyone! Using Good Manufacturing Practices, cleanliness and sanitization, gentle preservatives and other ingredients that are slightly more processed a range of products can be created (with nourishing and healing qualities) and made safe to use for you and your family whereas otherwise I would be extremely limited in the kind of products I could make and sell to the public. Rest assured though that I choose only preservatives and other functional ingredients that are safe and derived from natural sources.

I wild-craft many of the plants I use in my product line.

We have come to think, through very good advertising, that the best products are made with exotic ingredients from all around the world. While I will be the first to admit that the world over has so many delicious ingredients that are beautiful and effective, I also hold the conviction that what we need the most grows in our very own ‘back yard’. I take much pride and joy in my wild harvesting forays. It is probably one the most favorite parts of my work. I feel good providing products made with the abundance of our local environs and keeping my carbon footprint down in this way.

With that said I must state that I do not subscribe to over harvesting nor the harvesting of endangered or at risk plants. I encourage everyone to grow as many native or naturalized plants as they are able. In this way we preserve plants that are at risk of becoming extinct from the wild.

I believe that Nature does it right. We simply need to tap into her abundance to reap the benefits of health, wellness and beauty that she provides through her flowers, roots, resins, leaves, and seeds.

Formulating is a craft of love.

Sustainability is a very important part of my business philosophy. From each of the ingredients in every product, to the packaging, to the behind the scenes business practices, I strive to keep Moon Wise Herbals operating in a way in which I am not creating unnecessary waste and with an awareness on my carbon footprint.

At this time I also choose to not offer my products internationally. It is important to me to keep my business available for my local community, which encompasses the continental United States. I truly believe that if we all focused on our local communities and local plants we would create a far more sustainable world of health and wellness. This doesn’t however apply to my consultation services.

This is an ongoing practice and I am continually learning new ways to be sustainable.

Sustainability in my Products

All of our natural ingredients are grown organically by our trusted suppliers or ethically wild-harvested by me. With the great strain human activity has on our planet it is of utmost importance to me that I operate my business in ways in which I am not perpetuating Earth’s destruction of wild places along with its plant and animal life. You can rest assured that I do not source any ingredients that causes harm to our wild beautiful earth.

Sustainability in my Packaging

I am retiring the use of plastic lip balm tubes and with this our plastic usage will decrease majorly. This is a very important step for me as a business owner because the amount of plastic that is used and discarded and still out in our environment somewhere is disheartening to say the least. Plastic takes thousands of years if not more to break down and as it breaks down it pollutes our water and our environment. I support the use of less plastic and more innovation using biodegradable and sustainable alternatives.

I use glass bottles and jars or metal tins that can be cleaned and reused for a myriad of purposes like saving seeds from your garden, refilling with your own creations, or recycled. Our bath teas and herbal teas come in paper craft bags and biodegradable tea bags.

Much of our mail order paper packaging materials are reused and I place large raw material orders keeping shipping down to a minimum.

Moon Wise is always open to suggestions from our customers so please don’t be shy about letting me know your thoughts and ideas.

The Evolution of Sustainability

I would love to see hemp ‘plastic’ that can biodegrade after use. I think hemp would make a great sustainable form of packaging not only for cosmetics and medicine products but also for many other niches of society’s business world. Like I already mentioned there is so much single use plastic in our world and the amount just keeps getting bigger. It is a huge problem that I think should be addressed with great passion by all of us. After all every single piece of plastic that we will use or have used is still lurking on this planet somewhere.

Harm None

Another aspect of my business philosophy and probably the most important one is doing no harm. While I have already outlined how I try to cause the least harm and have as minimal an impact on the environment as I can there is another aspect to causing no harm that is even more important to me. My purpose is to help heal, to promote wellness and health. As such in my communications with my community, in my product formulations and in my Herbal Consultations I strive to be a beacon of light and comfort and never one of harm or ill will. This shines through in all my business dealings and interactions with my customers and clients.

Live my Passion

Lastly I’d like to speak on how this work I do is my passion to my core. I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else in the world and I am so very grateful that I get to do this work. The plants teach me everyday, people teach me everyday and with that I can use my skills to help people, plants and planet connect in more intimate ways, through beauty, medicine and magick which is why I love Moon Wise’s slogan: Botanical goods for Beauty, Medicine & Magick.

It encompasses all that I love and work to give through my business, my consultations and my everyday workings with the plants themselves. My hope is that this passion shines through to all of you.