Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsay Lund.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
As young as I can remember, I was passionate about plants! I always knew I wanted to work with them, and I wanted to help people. During college, while acquiring prerequisites for acupuncture school, I found out about an amazing school in Boulder for Western Herbalism called Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies. This really spoke to me as a way to truly immerse myself in plant medicine. So, I quit College and I headed out there with my boyfriend Mac (later husband & co owner) to learn all I could about local plants and the art of Herbalism.
I studied there for 3 years, the curriculum dove deeply into the science of the human body (anatomy, physiology, pathology etc) as well as hands on with harvesting and making medicine from the herbs. We even had a few classes on making face and body care products, which I also found a huge passion for.
While in school, I realized that just being a Certified Clinical Herbalist after graduation wouldn’t reach as many people as a store front could. Most people at that time didn’t know what a Certified Clinical Herbalist was, or what we could offer, but most people can easily walk into an herb store and ask questions. Mac has an immense knowledge about herbs and healing as well through self-study and wanted to help me with my new venture. I couldn’t have asked for a better partner!
So right after graduating in 2003, Mac and I moved back to my hometown in Salida to open Vital Living and my private practice.
We started out as an herb store with a Tea Bar, where we formulated healing and delicious teas you could buy in bulk or have a cup or pot at the bar.
I was busy formulating a line of face and body care products called elemente’ during those first 2 years as well, which we launched at our second location.
After 5 years in business, we finally moved to F Street (the main shopping district) which helped us immensely! The face and body care line elemente’ had started to take off as well as all the other products we made in house, such as teas and supplements.
We felt incredibly passionate about making as many products as possible ourselves. It was my dream to have everything from internal herbal medicine, teas, bulk herbs, to every home staple such as face care, cleaning products, bath products, body care products, muscle care, first aid, etc all made in house. I love the science behind formulating. Being able to make something with the plants that I extract with love and care as the basis for many of the products, is so satisfying and rewarding! We consciously harvest many of the herbs from our local mountains and our amazing local farms provide organic herbs for us as well.
After 14 years, one of my closest friends Caryn, started to help us with production, and re designed the elemente’ logo for us. Realizing what a relief it was to not have to do everything by ourselves, we made it a goal to start hiring help as soon as we could afford to!
Now at almost 23 years in business, we have the most incredible staff of 6 amazing women!! They are all so creative, hardworking, kind and helpful to everyone! We could not even imagine doing all this without them. Everyone is involved in the front and the back of house, helping to make products, helping customers, running the shop, labeling, and online sales.
We are a family, and we all care very much about our customers and what Vital Living is all about!
We now make over 450 different products in our lab, and I am always formulating and coming out with something new, so I don’t foresee us slowing down anytime soon!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I would definitely not categorize the road as smooth! However, it is the journey and not the destination that I think teaches us the most about ourselves and about life, so I don’t fault the bumps!
In the beginning, we started out in a pretty bad location. It was off the beaten path, but the landlord was opening a healing center in the adjoining building so we thought it would be a good fit. Unfortunately, the healing center never opened, and we were stuck in a 2-year lease. That was tough, being so excited to start our journey, but being stuck in a less-than-ideal spot.
Mac and I had to work other jobs on the side to stay open and pay our business loan, while still being open 8-6 Monday through Saturday, so the amount of work with no down time was challenging.
Making all of our products from scratch and taking the time and energy needed to treat each product and ingredient with the respect they deserve, takes a lot of time and focus. It was difficult trying to run a store, a Clinical Herbalism Practice, and produce all the products at the same time without any help those first 14 years. We did it thankfully!
I think if we didn’t have the love and passion for what we were doing, it would have been fairly impossible. But luckily, we knew this was our purpose, and were happy to make those sacrifices we needed to make it successful.
We’ve been impressed with Vital Living, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We specialize in so many things, but I would say we are most known for a place where you can come to get help and information on both internal and external ailments. We investigate as to why do you have these symptoms, not just throw an herbal band aid on them. In our opinion, true healing comes from knowing why, not just how to temporarily fix it.
We are deeply passionate about what we do, about what goes into our products we make, and the other products we sell. We care about every customers health and wellbeing that comes in the door, and it is our goal to make sure they leave with only what they need to feel better. Sometimes they leave without any products at all, just some nutritional advice, and that’s how it should be.
It might even be as simple as someone coming in for a face cream or serum to help with the signs of aging. We are going to ask more questions about your skin health and goals and explain how our products and ingredients will work for you particular skin, not just sell you a product.
Innovation is something we are proud to always offer. I’m always excited to start a new formulation! We are about to launch a truly natural fragrance line. Using the same rare and high-end plant derived fragrances European perfumers use, but with no chemicals used during extraction or in the final product. Unfortunately, the perfume industry is very toxic. Even more natural perfumes still use chemically extracted absolutes, which contain residual chemicals. This is just one example of how we constantly innovate and expand to offer more natural choices for our customers.
Our prices are and will always be very affordable. It is extremely important to us that high-quality natural skincare, herbs, and supplements are accessible to all people. If someone comes in that has extremely low means, we will educate them on how to make their own products or medicines with the raw ingredients we carry. We never want someone to leave without getting the help they need. We don’t advertise and prefer to rely on word of mouth, and that helps us to keep our prices low as well.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West by Moore
Edible Native Plants of the Rocky Mountains by Harrington
Tree Wisdom by Jaqueline Memory Paterson
Culpepers Complete Herbal by Culpeper
Herbal Medicine From the Heart of the Earth by Sharol Tilgner
Pricing:
- face care from $4 to $35 average is $20
- body care from $4 to $30
Contact Info:
- Website: https://vitallivingherbs.com
- Instagram: vitallivingherbs
