When Vancouver resident Marianne Wilson Stein first found out she was a finalist in the Vancouver’s Downtown Association’s Launchpad competition – a regional competition providing an incentive package worth up to $40,000 for one selected retail business that will open in Vancouver’s downtown in 2020 – she said she was excited to present her vision to the panel.
“I love talking about my dreams and visions for the future,” Wilson Stein said. “And then I won and am still amazed that this actually happened.”
On July 31, the Vancouver’s Downtown Association announced that Wilson Stein had been selected as the winner of the Launchpad competition, and she will be opening The Dandelion Teahouse Apothecary in downtown Vancouver, which will feature her teas and skin care products.
Wilson Stein said that she and a friend started making natural skin care products for friends and family for Christmas back in 1995. They enjoyed the process so much that they decided to make kits for people to make their own.
“Well, I can tell you that (we) did not sell any,” Wilson Stein said.
She then moved on to starting a skincare company, and Gifts From the Earth was born. Wilson Stein said she jumped right in and started making a line of products for her sister’s nail business, and a few years later, a friend needed natural products for her aesthetics business.
“The business just sort of grew organically,” she said. “In 2001, Natural Earth and Body, Inc. was officially born and started operating as Gifts From the Earth and in 2017 added a hemp CBD line called Imbibe Nature. This year The Dandelion Teahouse Apothecary is taking root.”
Natural Earth and Body, Inc. is currently manufacturing and selling all-natural skincare products online and at the Vancouver Farmers Market. Products include a full facial line for a wide range of different skin types, a full hand-and-foot care line, body scrubs, body lotions, skin salves and a CBD line of lotions and bath salts. The business also currently manufacturers and sells 10 herbal tea blends that tend toward more medicinal qualities such as Allergy Free, Get Well, Peaceful Period and Sweet Tummy.
“Since we manufacture everything ourselves, we have tight control on quality and production,” Wilson Stein said.
Wilson Stein said she first heard of the Vancouver’s Downtown Association Launchpad competition this past November at the Vancouver Farmers Market Holiday Market at the Hilton when one of her friends her if she had entered the competition.
“I had not heard of it, and thought, ‘wow, this is just what I’ve been looking for,’” she said. “I talked to my family about it and they encouraged me to enter. In February the VDA announced the semi-finalists and I missed the announcement and found out three weeks later that I won. When COVID-19 hit, the VDA extended the deadlines; for me this was a blessing as I needed more time to write my business plan. I thoroughly enjoyed this process of taking a deeper dive into my business of 20 years.”
Upon opening The Dandelion Teahouse Apothecary in downtown Vancouver, Wilson Stein said they plan on serving their herbal tea blends, have dried herbs for sale or create, with their customers, their own tea blends. The skincare lines will also play a prominent role in the space; she said there will be a manufacturing space upstairs with a closed-circuit monitor downstairs for customers to watch products being made.
“We plan to have at least one to two events per week during normal business hours and one to two events per week after hours,” Wilson Stein said. “Our plan is to offer more events with local artists, spa professionals and other artisans, and to become an inclusive and safe place for our customers to meet and enjoy life.”
Wilson Stein said they have a location selected on West Seventh Street in downtown and are currently in lease negotiations.
“We decided on downtown Vancouver as our shop location because it fills a need in the community and we love supporting our downtown,” she said. “The farmers market has given me a platform to incubate and grow my business, I love what is happening downtown and I think it is the right time and place for this to happen. I believe in community supporting community.”
“We are calling our shop The Dandelion Teahouse Apothecary as the dandelion represents surviving through life’s challenges and wishes coming true to life.”
