Welcome to Lulu’s Thyme and Essentials. I am a mother, Chef, and Herbalist. My mission is to provide luxury herbal products to to everyone at a reasonable cost.
After a difficult period in my life, I was prescribed medications for anxiety. Not liking the feeling prescription medications gave me. I knew a little about herbs and with the help of my physician was able to come off the daily medications and manage my anxiety with herbal products. That was the beginning of my love for herbalism. I decided to try to make my life more natural and started the transition to herbalist by becoming an herbalist.
I have a son with autism who requires a lot of services. Anyone with a child with autism knows the difficulty in working and managing the intensive services your child needs. I was on a very tight budget and made luxury beauty and skin care products for myself using minimal ingredients. Being on a tight budget, birthdays and holidays were financially difficult for me. I started to give my products to friends and family. It was nice hearing other people loved my products. With encouragement from my friends and family, I started selling my products at farmer’s markets and found so many people wanted to use herbal products with minimal ingredients. I also learned many people are interested in herbalism but don’t know much about it. I view herbalism as a simpler way of life.
When I started researching what ingredients were in the high end products. I found artificial fillers, harsh chemicals, and “fragrances” in some of the ingredients. Under FDA U.S. regulations you don’t need to list what is in your fragrances or flavors. You only have to list them as “fragrance” or “flavor”. I guess anything could really be in there. Many commercial products have a very strong scent and don’t actually smell like the plant or flower. What you should notice is flower essential oils have a light scent and are not overpowering.
Having a child with autism makes it difficult for me to have a physical location. I reached out to may stores and found many stores charge a commission. Most charge anywhere from 30-50%. Meaning my products would cost a lot more. I don’t want the price of my products doubled. It goes against my mission. I will continue to look for other venues I can sell, but at a reasonable price. I was able to find Sturbridge Flea Market. They only charge me rent and I love the mix of used and new products. I also found My Community Made which is an online store. They charge a very reasonable rate to sell your products and have great small businesses.
I am grateful to all my customers. Lulu’s Thyme and Essentials has a mission to provide the highest quality products at a cost everyone can afford. I always smile when customers tell me I could charge a lot more for my products. I could, but I won’t.