Bodycare by Booda Organics

LOCAL VENDOR PROFILE Booda Organics BY LAURA STEIGER, OUTREACH TEAM

Valentine’s Day (or any day!) is the perfect time to “Spread the Love” with Booda Organics! As recently declared on the punderful Booda website: “Gifts for EveryBooda! Make someBooda smile with the gift of 100% pure body care!”

In 2010, founder Sheana Pickard, with help from family and friends, launched Booda Organics in Golden, Colorado. A few years later, she and her husband relocated to Bellingham after looking all over the Pacific Northwest for “the perfect place to plant the business and continue to grow it.” Like most small business, the growth of Booda Organics was a natural progression from satisfied friends and family who raved about their handmade moisturizers to the scores of satisfied Booda Organics customers today. Following the belief that what you put on your skin, and in your home, matters as much as what you put in your body, Sheana is proud that Booda has never wavered from its original commitment to “share pure products that enrich and simplify the lives of others. As we grow, we continue to stay committed to the quality of our product. We have incredible integrity and care in everything we do. People can feel the love in it and appreciate it.” Booda Organics make products the old-school way: one by one. Each made from scratch using raw ingredients then filled,

The love that is felt in Booda’s products emanates from a colorful and happy workplace with yellow walls, aqua floors, happy “Boodas,” and even a mischievous Willy Wonka cutout that makes random appearances around the facility. Co-creating this happy workplace is a small team of amazing individuals that Sheana Pickard, owner of Booda Organics (above), said she is fortunate to work with every day.

Booda products are Non-GMO Project Verified, suppliers are Certified Organic, and the ingredients are food grade. The business uses only Fair Trade-certified and Organic-certified shea butter and cocoa butter, along with organic and unrefined coconut, jojoba, and olive oils in its popular Booda Butters.

capped, and packaged by hand. Booda formulas have only five or fewer ingredients. Customer feedback exclaimed, “I can read everything on the label!” “ On Booda Butter manufacturing days, when the oils are gently melted at low temperatures to maintain the integrity of the raw ingredients, the room fills with a chocolaty and coconutty aroma that Sheana described as “nothing short of divine.” No wonder their workplace is happy!

The Booda Organics product line is 100% vegan and certified cruelty-free. Even the wax used in lip balms is 100% plant-based, rather than beeswax, which is an added benefit for people with sensitivity to bee products. Because everything is made locally in small batches, the Booda Butter on Co-op shelves today could have been made last week. Surprisingly, at least to me, soap making is the longest process, since each bar is hand cut and allowed to air dry for two months to allow water evaporation, which results in a super-rich moisturizing bar. In addition to Booda’s commitment to crafting luscious body care products, the business continues to innovate in other ways. EcoBalm, the newest addition to the product line, is described as a “blissful little bit of Booda Butter sustainably packaged in a 100% biodegradable paper push tube.” It was trickier than one might think to develop this clever plastic-free packaging, but with a little help, Booda nailed it. And what’s not to love about the happy motto printed on each eco-friendly tube: “Push for the Planet”! Sheana shares the heartbreak we all feel seeing plastic waste polluting our waterways and washing up on our shorelines. Therefore, the company offers a variety of cute and reusable or easily recyclable glass and metal packaging, including a plasticfree deodorant that is an anomaly among the usual bulky plastic deodorant dispensers. Booda Organic’s concern for the environment doesn’t end there. Like the Co-op, Booda Organics joined the Climate Collaborative—a network of concerned businesses from the natural products industry working to catalyze bold action, amplify the voice of business, and promote sound policy to reverse climate change. Sheana summed it up nicely when she said: “We really care about what we do and we put a lot of thought into our practice. I feel very lucky to have our products on store shelves while remaining true to our core values.” And, the Co-op feels very lucky to “Spread the Love” and work with local businesses like Booda Organics!