2023: The Dauntless Year

This year we started off on a leap of faith that we could continue our growth and support our family 100% by working together on Silver Stone Apothecary and our brother brand, Wild for Oregon.

Exactly one year ago, my husband Chris worked his final day at his job outside the home. We were ready to unite our efforts to give the business the attention it needed to really reach its full potential. Both Chris and I are hard-working individuals who can accomplish a lot. But together, we are unstoppable.

We approached this year completely dauntless. There was no room for fear, only an optimistic embrace of each opportunity that aligned with our goals.

With this disposition and your support, we accomplished so much in 2023!

Let's take a look at everything we've brought to life this year!

New Products

Travel Size Hair Care

Our Aura Solid Shampoo and Conditionersare our most popular products. We know that so many people would like to try them out before they commit to a full-size bar to make sure they get the right ones for their hair. Previously, we had minibars, but they were a little too small to get the right feel for the product. We wanted to invest more energy into these sample bars, so we trialed many different shapes and sizes until we found the perfect balance. We launched the new Travel Size Solid Shampoo and Conditioners this summer, and they have been so well received! They each come in their little box, which makes them great for gifting, and you can use the box for travel!

New Skin Care

Our Solid Skin Careline has been around for a while but hasn't received quite as much attention from us as our other product lines, until now. We finally upgraded the packaging to the same type of boxes the solid hair care has, and added a few new products! We've had the Moonstone Solid Cleanser and Moisturizer for dry skin and the Obsidian Solid Cleanser and Moisturizer for oily skin, but we didn't have anything for those of us in between. So, I formulated the new Aventurine Solid Cleanserand Moisturizer that is all about balance! It features apple-derived cleansers that are great for balancing oil production along with kukui nut oil and blueberry seed oil to soften dryer parts. Blue tansy essential oil is amazing for clearing congested pores and calming skin irritation.

We also added our solid face exfoliator, Quartz, to the skincare line. I have made solid exfoliators as part of our monthly box in the past, and they were always so popular. Adding them to our regular product lineup made perfect sense!

New Soap Scents

This year, we decided to offer new soap scents and are transitioning to a seasonal rotation of some of our scents. We introduced

• Kambaba Jasper: Plants, amber, and wood
• Selenite: Eucalyptus and Cotton
• Watermelon Tourmaline: Sunshine and Watermelon
• Indigo Gabrro: Toasted Marshmallow and Campfire

We have some awesome scents planned for 2024 and a return of some favorites!

New In-Person Shows

When Chris worked outside the family business, it was hard to travel very far for in-person shows and events. This year, though, many new opportunities presented themselves for us!

It's no secret that I LOVE vending at Renaissance Faires. We've done ones local to us in the past, but this year we added a few more. To start the season off in May, we traveled to Boise, Idaho for the Beltane Fantasy Faire. In June, we attended the Oregon Renaissance Faire in Canby, Oregon. Then, in August, we traveled weekly up to the Seattle area of Washington for the Washington Midsummer Renaissance Faire and met so many new people! Right after that, we dove into the Celtic Fantasy Faire in Hillsboro. At the end of September, we took the Wild for Oregon booth to Bend for the Fall Festival, and decided to do a hybrid booth for the first time and set up a Silver Stone Apothecary portion as well!

During all this travel, we were still able to maintain our presence at the Salem Saturday Market with Chris and our friend, Laylah, running the booths there.

Now In Stores!

We've had salons and retail stores reach out in the past interested in carrying our products. For many reasons, we weren't quite ready. This year, though, everything was in place to launch our wholesale program! We added 10 new locations that carry our products throughout the country. Early next year, I will be adding a map to the website so you can find a location near you ;)

Magic Monthly Subscription: A beginning and an end

Our Create Magic Monthly subscription box has been around since early 2021. I really enjoyed putting together the monthly themes and formulating new products to help our subscribers incorporate the theme into their daily lives. In the summer, we decided to expand this offering to include the Soap Magic Monthly subscription. We dove all in and had a tiered subscription offering where you could choose between just the soap, just the box, or both the soap and the box. I was so excited!

I had a nagging voice in the back of my head for a while telling me that I was overextending myself to bring this box to life every month. As the demand for solid hair care grew, this voice got louder. I kept it to myself, though, and just kept going. One day, all of a sudden, I voiced this concern to Chris. He quickly agreed, and we decided to pivot.

Our last Create Magic Monthly Box and Soap Magic Monthly went out in November of this year. It was definitely bitter-sweet. I really did pour my heart into these monthly themes. But ultimately, I needed to listen to what you all wanted. What you all want from our brand is amazing solid hair, skin, and body care. And now, we are completely focused on that!

We have something in the works for the coming year that will help you get your essentials even more easily from us.

Insights from the Alchemist

Insights from the Alchemist

This year, I continued adding informative content to our blog, Insights from the Alchemist. This year, we looked at the importance of water in our hair and skin care products, the purpose of proteins, and how to work with the little pieces of solid bars. I also started a series called Embrace Your Curls. So far there are 3 parts:

• Stop Doing These Things
• Scalp Issues: A Common Problem
• Managing Frizz

This series has been very popular, but the number one read article is still Shampoo Vs. Soap: What's the Difference? With the rise in popularity of solid hair care, people are searching for information on how to tell what makes a good solid shampoo. This article ranks in the top 5 in search results asking the difference between shampoo and soap (a distinction a get fiery-passionate about).

Looking back on this year, I am so happy with how everything worked out. It has been an amazing year of growth, both professionally and personally. I am so happy to have met so many of you and look forward to the opportunity to continue serving you in 2024!

Cheers to a Happy New Year!

Angela Mayorga

Alchemist and Owner