Mender: Keeping it Organic and Eco-Friendly

One of the most challenging aspects of running a business is developing an idea and making it stand out without having to compromise your game plan. For many companies, this could either make or break them.

For April Worley, the founder of Mender - a body care shop that makes use of Cannabidiol (CBD) as the main ingredient - starting their business wasn't completely a walk in the park, but being able to share with others what they love and believe in, is reason enough to keep them going:

"Mender is a women-owned all-natural CBD body care company located on the Central Coast of California. We started our company because we care deeply about the ingredients we put on our, and our family's, skin. We believe in the benefits of clean CBD and formulate beautiful trusted daily essentials for all humankind."

"There is a lot of stigma around hemp and cannabis in general—legally, socially, medically—so we have had our fair share of hurdles to launching and running a transparent and legal business entity. But we never gave up! And here we are just over a year later. On a meta-level—we keep our design clean and elegant to send signals to the world that hemp and cannabis are lovely plants with much to offer. We hope we change minds through our design."

On branding and custom packaging:

"On a brand level, we use very minimal packaging—small hang tags vs full boxes, recyclable glass and (plastic when necessary) containers. We use locally sourced ingredients whenever we can. We only buy ingredients through reputable vendors who can prove the integrity of their ingredients—including our CBD. We support small businesses by not requiring minimum opening orders to partner with us to support local economies. We put a handwritten note in every online order to help sustain the joy in every life we touch."

"We love what we call the 'Mender Sparkle Eye.' It says, 'elegance, magic, clear-vision, natural'...and that is what we are all about!"

There is a lot of stigma around hemp and cannabis in general—legally, socially, medically—so we have had our fair share of hurdles to launching and running a transparent and legal business entity. But we never gave up!

"We put a lot of love into everything we make, and we need to communicate that to our customers without using words."

"We never wanted to buy tissue—too wasteful! But then we saw noissue, and we knew it was a good fit because we share the same philosophy. With noissue, we have been able to add a level of unboxing pleasure for our customers while maintaining our commitment to minimal, as eco-friendly as possible, packaging. Of course, there is always more we can do—but we like that noissue is helping us get there."