Alkemy is a local all natural essential oil company that specializes in making essential oils, perfumes, and tinctures of the highest quality. All Lavender is gathered from Sequim farms and distilled with the greatest care to make fine essential oils. From distilling to mixing essential oil blends Alkemy is a small business of two partners dedicated to serving community and the light within each individual.
Alkemy started with the greatest bond of all, love. This love for humanity led two partners desiring to give the world the gift of beautiful fragrance and organic and locally foraged tinctures, to start their own essential oil business with little start-up money. Alkemy started with making essential oils by distillation and maceration as well as buying high quality oils to create superb unique blends. The business quickly grew and developed into making high quality pure parfum with the essential oils and now they are always bringing new creations to the table. Leya and Ari offer Reiki and Tarot for open donation so that all can afford these divine gifts in their lives.
If you have been following my blogue, you know that La Petite Maison Blanche came about as an extension of our Bed & Breakfast, Sea Cliff Gardens B&B. I want to share a story with you about private labeling, the importance of working with an ethical company to help facilitate a vision and a company calledRainshdow Labs.
I wanted to find a company that exhibited good manufacturing practices, was sustainable and environment conscious and did not use animals in the testing of their products. The last, animal testing, being the most important component. This turned out to be a difficult task in that most large skin care companies that offer private labelling services don’t check all of these boxes, and many do test on animals. After much research, I found a company close to home, in Saint Helens, Oregon calledRainshadow Labs. Not only did they meet all of my requirements for the quality products that I wanted to offer our guests, but they are also Organically Certified.
Working with a company to produce a private label product can be a very daunting process, especially if you are with a large corporate skin care conglomerate. I was extremely fortunate to find this fantastic small company, right in our own back-yard. Rainshadow Labs truly practices what they preach and stand behind your products as fiercely as their own. Among their many stellar qualifications, Rainshadow Labs does not test on animals, offers vegan formulas, uses sustainable raw materials and sustainable practices, uses recycled packaging, shipping and marketing products as well as biodegradable products. It is powered with 100% renewable wind energy, and best of all, is Women Owned and Operated!
Not only was the quality of my product something I was beyond proud to offer our guests, but I have also enthusiastically recommended this company to other early skin entrepreneurs and other B&B’s looking to offer something special to their guest. I am proud to be an advocate for a company such as Rainshadow Labsand my products embody their purity and their ethos.
Port Angeles author-illustrator Mary B. Truly, has a background as colorful as her art. Born and raised in the rolling hills of northern Maryland, she traveled across the US, taking in the country’s wonders to add to her art and storybooks.
Mary brings spirited energy into her acrylic work as she loves to paint in front of an audience of shoppers at local farmers’ markets and events. While this lively energy fills her canvases with life, her true passion is found in quiet moments with her watercolors. This is where the magic of her heart’s expressions arises.
Saving the Bees with Lip Balm? Bee Bella was founded on a passion to protect the honeybee. This is accomplished by beekeeping, donating to honeybee research, and educating others on the plight of the honeybee. With every purchase made from Bee Bella, part of the profits go toward honey bee research at the University of Minnesota’s Bee Lab.
The tubes are made from sustainable bamboo, the inside plastic liner is made from ocean-recycled plastic. Bee Bella’s ingredients are Fair Trade Certified and the company is certified cruelty free. While the Bee Bella team is making great strides, they want everyone to know that when it comes to the bee crisis, there’s still more work to be done. And through our collective efforts, we can all do some good.
Brand Values
Eco-friendly
Handmade
Organic
Gives back
Watch their info video for more of their values and a peek behind the scenes at Bee Bella!
For most, if not all the world, 2020 was the year of Before and After. Before the world shut down due to a global pandemic and after. How we went about our daily lives, did business, and communicated with each other all took on new definitions and meanings. For me, my Before and After year was 2014. That was the year I sold my business, a Segil Fine Art Gallery, my husband left his corporate job, we sold our home, packed up our kitty cat and moved from Los Angeles to Port Angeles to pursue another life. We had had enough of city living, wanted to focus more on the moment, rather than the outcome, but weren’t ready to retire.
Our solution was to buy Sea Cliff Gardens Bed & Breakfast, a Victorian B&B with a 20-year history on the Olympic Peninsula, and it was the best decision of our lives. We went from a “we” focused life to a “they” focused life revolving around hospitality and the desire to make people happy & share our home and gardens. Bill and I quickly found our individual strengths in the business and how we best related to guests. Mine happened to be the desire to pamper our guests and offer them special products in their rooms to do just that. From simple bath salts and lotions, guests began to request more specialized items such as oils, scrubs and cleansers.
Through feedback from guests and a lot of trial & error, I developed our own line of skin care and spa products which we private labeled, called Sea Cliff Gardens Botanical Skin Care. (Sea Cliff Gardens being the name of our B&B). When one problem is solved, another inevitably arises! However, new problems are only challenges waiting to be conquered and the new problem was what to do with the massive amount of skin care we now had on hand for only 5 rooms at a time. A gift shop was born in an unused office.
Of course, a successful gift shop requires more than just one type of merchandise, so it was time to shop! Also, one of my strengths! Quickly the gift shop overran that little office space, spilling out into the lobby area, the living room and finally the dining room with specialty teas.
It was time to think bigger and outside of the box. I began to see the concept of sharing beautiful products with guests to sharing more beautiful products with customers and La Petite Maison Blanche was born in 2022. We are a specialty gifts retail shop carrying a wide variety of carefully curated merchandise with a bent towards French feminine. Our mission here at La Petite Maison Blanche is to Cultivate Beauty, Foster Creativity and Promote Passion.
Our selection includes Babies & Kids, Boudoir, Spa & Wellness, Fine Art, Garden & Outdoors, Home Décor, Kitchen & Table the Pantry and many more uniquely curated gifts. We believe in the art of gift giving and that gifts reflect the uniqueness of the giver.
Visit us in person in beautiful downtown Sequim, Washington on the picturesque Olympic Peninsula.
W. Jason Situ was born in 1949 in Guang Dong, China. He began painting in high school during China’s “Cultural Revolution” and completed his art education at the Guangzhou Fine Arts Institute, one of China’s most prestigious and competitive art academies. In 1989 Mr. Situ immigrated to the United States with his family. He was fascinated by the beautiful California landscape and soon decided to become a plein air painter. He has been a full-time artist since 1997 and has shown his work across the United States. Read more here.
