Harnessing the healing power of hemp oil is the basis for this 100 percent organic skincare startup.
The Healing Rose Company, based in Andover, features a botanical, topical brand of lip balms, salves and massage oils that use the non-psychoactive elements of hemp oil to provide soothing pain relief without the “high.”
Founder Laura Beohner was introduced to these medicinal marvels after a friend suggested she tried a topical salve on her 4th-time dislocated kneecap.
“It was kind of a game changer,” Beohner said. “It really opened my eyes to the possibility of topically applied cannabinoid topicals, and it just kind of set us off in our direction”
She and her co-founder, vice president and life partner Zach McInnis, quickly got to work to develop their own.
The pair found Formula Botanica, an accredited online learning service about organic skincare. They signed up for classes and are working toward a diploma for organic skincare formulation, and have been using the website’s community for guidance the whole way. They started developing small batches and giving them for free to friends and family for feedback on things such as texture, consistency and how it felt on the skin.
The company was mainly self-funded with a small amount of seed money invested by a friend. They tinkered with their nearly 400 batches for about five months before they sent it to market.
The products contain CBD oil from hemp plants, which are not different from marijuana plants technically. What's unique about the oil is that it contains less than .03 percent THC. As a result, it provides joint and pain relief, as well as anti-inflammatory relief, without any of the side effects commonly associated with marijuana consumption.
Beohner and McInnis started selling to their first retailer, Wicked Chronic, located in Natick, Massachusetts, in July of 2017. Since then, they have expanded to 20 different locations all over New England, except Connecticut, and are in talks with expanding the company out west to states like Oregon and Washington.
“Its happening quickly,” Boehner said. “The expansion is really starting to take off. It’s very exciting.”
Despite the rapid increase in business, McInnis said that the two-person company still handles every aspect of the business in house. They frequently work seven days a week and close to 18 hours a day, he said. Boehner added that to save on costs, they do their own design work and website as well.
“We wear so many different hats right now,” McInnis said.
Boehner said that they recently bought semi-automatic equipment to help with production time and they hope to bring on at least one if not two new people to staff by the end of the month.
“It’s every single day I wake up I get to work for myself and work toward helping people,” Boehner said. “It’s the absolute most rewarding thing that I’ve been able to do in my life. I feel so grateful that everyday I get to wake up and do this.”
