Mesha and Karla are the mother-daughter duo behind Love Lurra. The pair creates handcrafted natural bath and body products focusing on clean ingredients. Their journey began in 2008 when they became more mindful about the beauty products they were using.
After failing to find products that were truly natural, they began making their own. One recipe led to another, and soon extended family members and friends began encouraging the duo to sell their homemade body butters and soap.
From clearing up acne to helping them with their rosacea or eczema, Love Lurra’s natural recipes make a real difference in people’s lives.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Tell us a little about Love Lurra and the products you make.
We focus primarily on natural and clean ingredients. Some of the most popular items that we sell are our coconut wax candles. They burn over a hundred hours and they are made with wood wicks. We’ve been making and selling those for about eight years with great success.
What is the candle-making process like?
We manufacture out of a warehouse in Puyallup, Washington. We get up in the mornings, head to our warehouse, and begin our end-to-end process of formulating, pouring, and smelling all things good.
How long has Love Lurra been in existence and how did you come up with the idea to team up and work together?
We’ve been around for almost nine years. Mesha, quite some time ago, wanted to go natural with her hair, and at that time they weren’t making off-the-shelf products. We started creating, formulating, and researching and found that Earth provides so much for us to be able to use. Then we started working with others and trying to address their concerns and skincare issues.
We both suffer from eczema and we started crafting our eczema product line. We have eczema-friendly products like bathwash and scalp ease.
Mesha took off to college and once she finished her program, we decided to do this full-time and that was just as the pandemic hit and we were like, “oh my gosh, what have we done?” But I will say because we were doing farmers’ markets and night markets, we had a lot of support. Our community really did come out and show up for us.
Tell us about your storefront space in Fremont.
Our store is located here in Fremont, right next to the Center of the Universe sign.
We’ve been here about eight months and I like to say it reminds me of Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood. When I walk through here I feel like I want to sing and skip and say hello to everyone because they have really made us feel at home. We love it here. The people are super warm and friendly, kind of a hippie vibe still.
Other entrepreneurs have been very welcoming. They have shared the do’s and don’ts. So we really appreciate that. The local Chamber of Commerce has been good to us as well.
If I’m a first-time customer walking into the store, what are some of the products that you might direct me to? What are some greatest hits?
I really love our Rainier candle. It’s made with a wooden wick that crackles like a soothing fireplace when you light it. It smells amazing, it’s super fresh, and it’s great at the end of a cleaning routine or even a bath routine to just lift you up.
I also love our perfumes. One of my favorites is Redwood. It’s just really sultry, it’s warm, it’s got vanilla and amber undertones. It’s just luxury in a bottle.
How are you drawing inspiration for the scents that you are creating?
It’s a lot of trial and error. We like to learn about blending. And with that, it truly inspires us.
You know, there are some days that we’ll go, I wonder if I add, you know, a middle note or a high note here, maybe add a little bit of citrus here. And it really is just about diving in and finding things that really work well together.
And this is something that you joined in on after you finished college. What was your degree in and what inspired you to pursue the path of entrepreneurship?
Yeah, so I was actually studying user experience design at the time and we were talking back and forth on the phone about like, what should we do? You know, I know she kind of wanted to do something different with her work and find something that we were both passionate about. And skincare and hair care just kind of came up because as she mentioned, I had decided to stop chemically straightening my hair a few years prior.
And we were always going to the health food store and grabbing different ingredients and figuring out solutions for various problems, like her eczema as well. My dad had some issues with the scalp that we built and formulated something for.
Put simply, we were formulating with intention, trying to solve problems.
What are the best sellers in the shop?
Our candles are amazing. We are known for our candles. We’ve been formulating them and making them for about nine years or so. They burn for over 100 hours. People usually are like, “What? 100 hours?” And then they come back by and say, “Oh, I’m still burning that candle.”
Our perfumes are also doing well. They’re non-toxic. We use organic sugarcane alcohol, some essential oils, a little bit of clean fragrance to help bind them to the skin so they last quite some time and they just smell wonderful.
Intentionalist’s motto is: “Spend like it matters.” How does this resonate with you?
Spending money within our community keeps the dollar here. It helps support entrepreneurs such as ourselves. We are very big on doing that because we’re just like your mother or your daughter or your friends or your neighbors who are very passionate about what they’re doing, who believe strongly in what they do. They’re artisans, they’re makers, and sweat and tears go into everything that they do. So why wouldn’t you want to support that?
Working as a mother-daughter duo, what are the highs and what are the challenges?
I really just love being creative with my mom. You know, I feel like in general you either build or you destroy and just having family and being able to work together and find solutions to different problems that we each have had, whether it was with my hair or with someone in the family having eczema or dry skin and being able to provide a solution to that has been really amazing.
There is nothing like working with family, especially with your daughter. I mean, you know, you, you grow up raising your kids, hoping for the best, right? And you want them to succeed in life. And if you can be a part of that growth and that journey, it’s just, it’s something that’s amazing to me.
What are some of the small businesses that you like to support, either here in the neighborhood or in the Greater Seattle Area?
- Marcus Harper Glassworks down in the North Tacoma area in Proctor. He opened up a shop maybe a year or so ago. Amazing work. He has really fun bowls and garden artwork.
- Simply Desserts is right next door to us; her cakes are amazing.
What is some advice that you might give to somebody who wants to become an entrepreneur in the skincare space?
Karla: Start off small. Test, test, and then test some more.
You really want to find out what works well for your customer base and then just build that foundation. And once you’ve built that foundation, then start expanding. Look at a specific product first and really develop that and then branch out.
I would say make sure it’s something that you love to do, something that you’re passionate about doing because if it’s something that you’re passionate about, it’s not going to feel like work. You’re going to get up every day, you’re going to be looking forward to your day, so really make sure that it’s something you enjoy doing.
We both have backgrounds and professions that allowed us to make pretty good money, right? So, there comes a point in life when it’s not really about the money. I mean, the money helps, but it’s really not about the money. And I think for us, you know, one thing that I found very empowering was being able to help others, right?
As an example, we had a young lady who was suffering really badly from eczema. She couldn’t even open and close her hands. She would run them through the water in the middle of the night to try to calm them down. She started using our products, and about a month later she came back to show us that she could open her hands again.
And she just hugged us and said, you just have made so much difference in my life, you know? So, when you have these types of stories, it really speaks to the “why” you’re doing what you’re doing. It really isn’t about the money. It’s about advocating, you know, using natural products and making a change, and just connecting with the community.
Mesha: I feel like small businesses tend to attract really cool people, whether it’s the customers or other business owners. And that’s been the best part, really.
What do you enjoy about being entrepreneurs?
Karla: Just the freedom to be creative, right? You can wake up and kind of decide what your day is going to look like. You can make new packaging that day, you know, make a new formula. The creativity is the best part for me personally.
Mesha: You know, I agree with that. I feel like having the freedom to choose is key for me. You know, when you grow up and work in a professional realm, there’s a lot of structure and it’s day-to-day. When you work for yourself, you know, you’re empowering yourself. The sky is the limit, right? It’s just really about what it is that you put into your business. I mean, you’re in control over your destiny.
Are there certain things that one of you likes to do that the other doesn’t like to do?
Karla: One of us likes talking to people more than the other, and one of us has an eye for design work. One of us has a lot of structure, which is great, you know, keeps me in check because a lot of times when you’re creative, you just go, go, go. And she’s like, wait a minute, let me reel you back in.
What would you say to someone who has never visited your store before?
Come on in! So if you haven’t been to our shop already, please come on in and take a look at all our offerings. We focus on natural and clean ingredients. It’s accessible luxury is what it really is. We have a full range.
We sell products as well like cozy bathrobes, journals, and sound bowls. We really want to be a full service around self-care. So if you haven’t had the opportunity to come and visit us, please, please pay a visit.
Where does the name “Love Lurra” come from?
So when my daughter was studying abroad, we were trying to brainstorm some names and she came up with Lurra. It’s Basque and it means Earth or goddess of Earth. And so we thought it was pretty fitting for what it is that we do.
What do you want people to feel when they visit Love Lurra?
When people walk into our store, they really feel at ease. It’s so calming, feels amazing, and smells wonderful and non-toxic. We really love to hear the feedback that we get from our customers. It keeps us going, right? Because we’re doing it for them, not really just for ourselves, but really for them, making things that they enjoy, making things that they want to just slather on. So we love what we do. We’re passionate about it.
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