Brooklyn Herborium Mompreneurs, Molly and Emma

Author: Shannon Miller Lifestyle

Meet Molly Watman and Emma Graves:

Founders of Brooklyn Herborium, makers of Between You & The Moon skin care products. Their mission is to  “make the world a better place for our children, a cleaner safer place, one where we don’t have to constantly stress about products and chemicals that we expose them to.” Their holistic line of skincare products boasts No GMOs, petro-chemicals, parabens, sulfates, gluten, perfumes, or colorants. They never test on animals and they are as organic and fair-trade as possible.

Shannon Miller Lifestyle: How and when did you form your company?

Emma: The original skin care line, Between You & The Moon was launched in May of 2008.  I was making the products out of my home in Brooklyn for my private skin care clients in SoHo.

Molly: Emma and I joined forces to form Brooklyn Herborium in 2012 after we met at yoga. We found that we complemented each other quite well. She’s an accomplished skincare specialist and herbalist, and I was a professional designer with lots of business experience. We saw a potential to grow her current home business into a more widespread endeavor. In addition, we both have young children, which was a bonus!

SML: What’s the first thing you did when you realized you were serious about starting your own company?

Emma: I quit my job and called my mother.  When I asked her advice, she suggested that I go out and buy the biggest purse I could find.  And so I did–it came in handy later as a beautiful diaper bag.

Molly: After having my daughter, I realized that working on someone else’s schedule made it impossible for me to spend time with her. She’s my number one priority, so starting my own business was really my best option

SML: What makes your company different from anyone else’s?

Emma & Molly: The knowledge behind what we are creating is extraordinarily unique. There are not a lot of skin care companies that were developed by an esthetician herbalist and there are few herbalists who truly understand the skin.  We have both the knowledge of what we are doing and the love and desire to do it well!

SML: What was the biggest challenge or setback you had when forming your company(could be time-wise, financially, emotionally, etc)?

Emma & Molly: Looking back, it’s hard to say what went “wrong”.  Every challenge led to a learning opportunity.  We started slowly and were very careful not to take on more than we could handle at the time. We followed our intuition and made choices in order to feel happy with our daily lives. Most importantly, we realize that if we are not happy as people, we will not be capable of helping others through skincare. What and who we are comes out in our products and communication.

SML: What is one piece of advice you wish you had been given when you got the idea to start your company?

Emma: Don’t listen to all the advice people try to give you when you get an idea to start a company.  Follow your heart and take it slow…and the way will unfold in front of you.

Molly: It takes a year to really get things right. Having the expectation that things will be where you want them to be before that can result in impatience.

SML: What has been your best moment or happiest memory since starting your business venture?

Emma: A major gratifying moment that I can take myself back to (and do when I need to…) is when I first looked at the wall with the full product line in our new workshop/showroom and realized that Molly and I had created a complete and comprehensive holistic skin care line.  It was an idea that started in my head and is now fully tangible.

Molly: My best moment to date, and I’m sure there are many more to come, was walking into the shop after we first opened and realizing that everything we had been dreaming of for so long had finally been realized. I feel quite happy with our efforts.

SML: Silly question: If you could go back and meet any famous mom who would it be and why?

Emma:  Juliette de Bairacli Levy (Look her up!)

Molly: Mary Wollstonecraft, even though she died in childbirth, wrote highly influential feminist essays on gender equality in a time of sexism as the norm. What a great mom!

SML: Anything else you’d like to share?

Emma:  Every single day I find myself taking a moment to give thanks for INCREDIBLE life that I get to enjoy with my family and the people I love.  We keep things simple and it keeps us happy.  If we ever feel overwhelmed, Molly and I put our heads together and figure out what we need to let go of.  When you own a business and are balancing a family life, “simplify” can be the only solution you need for nearly every challenge.  That, and ENJOY IT ALL.

Molly: Emma covered that one!

About:bh-mollyandemma

The Brooklyn Herborium is a collaborative effort of two Brooklyn Mamas, Molly and Emma, who feel passionate about herbs and skincare. We want to make the world a better place for our children, a cleaner safer place, one where we don’t have to constantly stress about products and chemicals that we expose them (and ourselves) to.

It all started when Molly was pregnant with her daughter, Vivi, and began to be concerned with the skincare and home cleansing products she was using. Maybe it was hormone-induced paranoia, but she began to research all of those unpronounceable ingredients and discovered that even so called “green” labels came up short. The only solution was to go back to basics and make her own cleansers the way that our great-grandmothers did 100 years ago. When she met Emma and her son Orion, she found they shared the same passion for healthy living. Emma also happened to be an amazing herbalist already making beautiful skincare products. The two of them teamed up to bring these handmade goods to mothers and babies (and everyone else!) within and beyond our little world in Brooklyn, NY.

Between You & The Moon and Brooklyn Herborium Goods give you a complete line of healthy skin care and home care products while keeping your routine simple. We developed these products to work together synergistically and compliment the natural balance of your skin and your environmental peace. You don’t need too much, just a few good ones that do the job.

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