Our story began in dark despair, but now it's soaring into lots of marvelous light!

​​​​​​​​​​

What did I do in intense times of deep sorrow? Pray, keep the faith, and create! In just 15 months, devastating tragedies struck our family like a firestorm of horrific dominos. I cared for and lost both of my parents to two terrible diseases. Simultaneously, our eldest daughter's body was forever changed after being struck by a truck. Her long hard, but victorious journey to recovery left scars and hair and skin issues. I lost two beloved uncles. Then just a year later, my oldest sister beat cancer, but died of related complications. Our son was ill and our youngest daughter developed strange rashes and a mysterious fainting illness that sent us to neurologists and specialists. Stressful and tough are not deep enough words.

 

Meanwhile, my hair clumped and fell out, as it had done after each pregnancy. Menopause was menopausing. I developed raccoon eyes from the stress and lack of sleep and rashes of my own. But enough was enough. My name, Velma, means warrior and I had to fight and take back control. 

​​

​​

​​​​

​​

​​

​Birds & Butterflies

I would fight back using tools I knew best--research, invention and light. Through affliction, I had learned a lot about invention, reinvention, faith, living, and health, which moved me to start Crushed Herb Labs, LLC (read my lessons below). ​​​Our family needed victories and with God's guidance, I would deliver. After all, I commonly say, "My name begins with a V, for victory."

 

And our coming already named and claimed victories needed to soar above sorrow and circumstances like the bluebirds, cardinals, and butterflies that uncannily visited me to bring light on my darkest days. In fact, on the morning after my father passed, as my husband and I were backing out of our driveway headed to the hospital to bring our still bedridden daughter home, a large golden eagle appeared in the tree on our front lawn. What a sight! My father had just given me an eagle necklace in his last days. I exhaled. In the tension, I just needed to trust God and find gratitude and meaning in the simple and little things. I began to look at nature differently.

​

As our daughter learned how to walk again and the butterflies and birds continued to visit, I learned that one step at a time, one tragedy at a time, one day at a time, still meant forward progress. I'd sing songs to remind me--One Day at a Time, Bluebird, and Blackbird. And those bird and butterfly visits inspired me to study more about the Garden of Eden and explore the power of plants. Heaven and earth had already supplied everything needed for healing. We humans had just forgotten how to exercise our God-given power and the power of plants.

​​​​​

So, when nothing in stores or prescribed worked or seemed safe and natural enough, this researcher and mother went into action. After praying, I started working on solutions in every sense of the word. Circumstances and illnesses' effects on our skin, hair, and bodies would not win.

​​​​​​​​​​​​

Fierce Momma, Ancient Plants & Science in Action

As an eternal university marketing professor who taught innovation, I had a plan. I worked as a global marketing strategist who cultivated science-based inventions, conducted research for big brands, traveled to study targeted consumer innovations in the Global South, and I had been inspired and blessed to meet gracious people who welcomed me into their homes, tribes, kitchens and cupboards along the way. I had represented the U.S. as the sole American delegate at international innovation conventions and summits in Asia and Africa. My journey across years led me to ancient organic remedies used in different Global South cultures.

​​​​​

So, to heal my kiddos and myself, this native Chicagoan and former Grandma's knee-baby, whose Grandma mixed natural remedies by way of Texas and Louisiana, headed out to our family-built greenhouse, cut plants, and pulled homegrown veggies from the freezer. I grabbed dry goods from my pantry and ordered oils and dried ingredients like the ones I had purchased in neighborhood shops in Morrocco. I ordered jars of olive oil and honey like the ones I had picked up in small villages in the mountains of Greece. I ordered leaves, herbs, and powders from Africa, South America, the Middle East, India, and across other parts of Asia.

​

Then I took out my mortar, pestle, turkey baster, mixer, mason jars, grinder, dehydrator, and blender and got busy crushing, mixing, drying, simmering, extracting, and testing. I combined organic ingredients used as ancient remedies in several cultures into single-jar ultra-potent serums and I experimented with new plant-based technologies until I innovated new solutions.

​​​

My kitchen became a cluttered lab as I studied plants and their chemical compositions to create new ingredients to fortify my formulas into superpowered plant-based solutions. I tested serums on myself, my children, and my friends. They worked repetitively! So, I started sharing more after learning how so many other women and men suffered similar issues.

​​​​​

​​​​​​Plant-based Success & New Experiments

I was regrowing strong healthy hair, edges, eyebrows, and men's beards with 30+ plants and experimented with adding more for more power and consistency! I was evening facial blemishes; calming skin and scalp issues; lightening scars; creating complexions that glowed; brightening under eyes; and lessening muscle, joint, stomach and menstrual pains! I was on to something big and wonderful--and it was all plant-based and organic!

​​​​​​​

Then I started a new revolutionary project. I strengthened and straightened my own natural extra-curly and frizzy hair ONLY with over 25 fruits, vegetables, and herbs. After a blow dry and flat iron pass, my hair was bone straight like I had a silk press or hair relaxer, but my formula was safe and my curls came back with a wash. Plus, it contained no lye or harmful ingredients, and did not cause tumors, cancer, asthma, cysts, or disrupt women's DNA and endocrine systems, as so many other hair products targeted to black women did, according to studies and news reports. My healthy formula served as a natural hair food lotion, too, and it and my other hair products worked for all hair types. Progress was progressing--until I wasn't.

​​​​

Healthy Formulations & My Self-Care Conundrum

Working so tirelessly for everyone else and to solve their problems, I was exhausted. I was not dealing with the grief, the toxic close family relationships I divorced for peace, or the financial hits a caregiver takes personally with each sacrifice. I was just working non-stop through it all. Values on my own health assessments came back in all red. I learned the hard way about the need for self-care, boundaries, balance, and saving myself as a priority first. Plus, I needed to guard my energy while getting back to work, only selecting projects that focused on impacting lives, even at financial losses. I'd focus my future on building things that focused on people, wellness, and light.

​​​​​​

So, I opened Crushed Herb Labs, LLC to share my safe and healthy plant-based skin and hair solutions with the world and to help other women like me focus on their own 360-degree self-care issues and goals. Crushed Herb Labs is not just an ancient plant-based beauty and wellness manufacturer that blends hair, skin, and wellness formulas for health, radiance, and restoration. We are also a natural simple living wellness brand centered on empowering women with DIY books, including making natural remedies in readers' own kitchens, and supplying unique self-care goods that surround sisters with beauty daily. Our goal is to help women like me change their lives and to not just fly high, but gain altitude and then soar!