We've changed our name!

Greetings friends!

I announced this in an email last year, but I wanted to delve into this decision a little more. The name of my business is now Mama Apothecary. It was Mama Bath + Body for 20 years but you may have thought it was Love Your Mama because of our website. Most people just called us Mama. Or “Mamas”, which always makes me giggle. That’s very Southern, kind of like “Krogers."

So why the change?

Mama Bath + Body was a brand. It was a collective of retail stores and physical spaces with a staff of women who participated in running the business. It had a beating heart and was a force of its own. Now, there are no stores and no staff. Just me and a much smaller line of products. It felt like the time to truly close that door and move on.

Mama Apothecary represents coming back to my roots, but now it includes all that I’ve learned on this journey. The products are more focused around plants and the garden and more working with respect to the seasons, both in nature and in life. It encompasses my long and deeply held relationship with plants and medicinal herbs and a singular desire to close the gap in the association between the natural world and good health. (After all, a traditional apothecary encompassed the Materia Medica, which originally consisted of plant medicine). This desire grew alongside the business, but it was much harder to accomplish on the larger scale of Mama Bath + Body. That said, I had already started to introduce some Mama Apothecary products (mainly hydrosols) as a branch of Mama.

Doing a set amount of online product drops in a year (2 for now) gives me time to flesh out what living a more creative life looks like as well as more time spent tending to my gardens and to my health (I've been dealing with chronic lyme disease since 2021 and I'm feeling a lot better now! But it's an ongoing commitment.) I’ve now had 2 attempts at a creative career: I spent 14 years in the film industry working my way up to Executive Producer, when what I really wanted to do was write and direct. Then I spent 20 years running a business (there was an overlap; I’m not that old haha) when I really just wanted to make products and grow plants. Working with my hands and my heart is essential to my being, so we’ll see what my third act brings. I feel grateful to have the time to explore this and to also still be making some of these products to share with you! 

With love and gratitude,

emilie