When I met this dynamic duo, Marilyn Hopkins and Grace Goodson-Witcher at a Caribbean conference a few years ago, it was one of the most empowering sisterhood retreats on cannabis therapies. As I flip the pages in my journal for that week, I am reminded of the quote I jotted down after meeting them. “The price we pay for being ourselves is worth it.” — Eartha Kitt. Let's meet the woman behind Pure Herbal Goodness!
1. What inspired you to join the California CBD-Hemp retail market?
As women of color we couldn’t find organic or holistic products that were being marketed to serve the African American community with nontoxic ingredients. Yes, we found a good amount of CBD and hemp-derived products that were “holistic adjacent,” but they were kind of ordinary, and not all organic. And when we put them on our body we smelled too "earthy” as though we just smoked a joint.
Most of our competitor’s products were not feminine enough, enticing, or luxurious smelling. When trying those hemp products, we didn’t have any transformative experience after putting it on our skin. They weren’t special and didn’t move us like some mood enhancing scents do. We paid a premium price point, but they were not luxurious feeling. We wanted to change that by creating products that are organic, nontoxic, luxurious and nourishing with skin moisturizing formulas.
Although hemp-derived and CBD products are now offered everywhere, no one knows whether they are safe to use and they often lack transparency. Not many premium brands are catering to the needs of African American consumers or teaching them the holistic health benefits of hemp which is commonly misunderstood. Many people of color don’t know about the benefits of CBD, CBG and other cannabinoids which positively interact with the human body’s endocannabinoid system to help regulate overall health and wellness. WE WANT TO REMEDY THAT.
Pure Herbal Goodness (PHG) premium product line includes our proprietary "CBD+" complex of Full Spectrum Spagyric Hemp + organic Jamaican-based botanical herbs that work together to specifically target and support the Endocannabinoid system (ECS).
Our target demographic (African-Americans) strives to do better, but do not always have access to premium yet affordable products or the best healthcare. Our brand helps to resolve, alleviate and remedy health and wellness issues in our community. How? By creating transformative wellness products to manage pain, stress, anxiety and overall wellness using plant-based nutritional formulas for everyday use. Our mission is to help people of color, and their loved ones live a happy and healthier lifestyle, pain free through CBD treatments along with awareness and education.
2. In the next 5 years, where do you see Pure Herbal Goodness making an impact? And why?
In the next 5 years we see Pure Herbal Goodness in cities throughout the United States, in the Caribbean Islands and globally. Currently we’re creating small batch products for niche wellness centers, multicultural groups, and boutique hotels. Plus, we have partnerships within our entertainment contacts and membership-based groups in California, Washington, Chicago, New York and Miami.
We are also creating our products in Jamaica where our master herbalist, Dr. Lakisha Jenkins lives. With unlimited access to native Jamaican flora we, it enables our products to align within the authentic herbalist tradition.
By creating products directly in Jamaica, it offers us the ability to scale up and export our products to serve the U.S.A., Caribbean and global markets.
According to Nielsen, with nearly 50 million Black people in the United States, black consumers spend more than $1 trillion a year. African Americans also love to spend their money on beauty and grooming products, shelling out about $573.6 million on an annual basis for “personal care and bath needs.” That was about 19 percent higher than any other demographic. One of our main objectives is to address some of the underlying health concerns in our community such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, joint pain, anxiety, stress and sleep issues. By utilizing the Spagyrics process of delivering CBD and CBG, coupled with mood enhancing terpenes to the Endocannabinoid System, this provides the relief our consumers seek, without the side effects associated with certain medicines.
Our wellness purpose-driven approach is very intentional using seasonal nutritional herbs to enhance one's diet and bring folks back to wholeness by restoring wellness within.
Pure Herbal Goodness is rooted in sacred practices originated by our spiritual ancestors that guide our efforts by wellness, faith, wisdom and love.
3. If you were able to tour a cannabis/hemp analytics lab, what are some of your interest and why?
We would love to tour a cannabis/hemp analytics lab and put all these so-called premium products and hemp competitors that have flooded the market to the test. We want to know where their hemp was grown? Sourced from? Was it grown organically? Does it contain harmful pesticides? Where did they source their essential oils from? We would be very interested to see the lab break down all those details.
We would also love to understand the lab’s process in determining the ingredients of the premium hemp brands. We believe through transparent analysis and scrutiny of a lab our Pure Herbal Goodness would show we have no water, petroleum, fillers, parabens, sulfates, phthalates, animal-derived ingredients or formaldehyde in our formulations. Plus, our analysis will show we have no refined sugars, no artificial or GMO ingredients, no artificial colors and no additives. The analysis would also show our products are safe for children, adults, boomers and seniors.
Our premium beauty and holistic wellness line can be used safely by the whole family in their daily personal care and beauty regimen.
