We recently connected with Crystal Davidson and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Crystal, thanks for joining us today. What’s something crazy on unexpected that’s happened to you or your business

There’s a few but the craziest thing that’s ever happened is probably from my first company and brand, Viriditas Botanicals, which has evolved into my focus company and brand, LIbertine although I still have a small line of products through Viriditas Botanicals. With zero marketing budget, my SOS Mosquito Repellant was featured in the Rachel Ray Every Day magazine. Rachel Ray was on a shoot at the height of spring here in Austin, and was being relentlessly attacked by mosquitos as she was trying to work, so she needed something good. Her assistant happened to find my SOS Mosquito Repellant right in the shop at the hotel where she was staying, Hotel San Jose. She was so impressed that not only was it non-toxic, but actually worked better than any other bug spray she’d used that she decided to feature it in her magazine as one of her Top 5 Favorites column.
Her team emailed to let me know the story, asked for professional pictures of the product, and shortly after it was featured in the July 2019 issue.
As a single mom, working in home healthcare to fund and slowly build my small company, to say I was in shock, elated, and in disbelief would be understatements.
I had so many orders I could hardly keep up with the demand once the issue came out, but I did! I was also in the middle of getting things together to rebrand, and start Libertine but all in all it was such a great experience. It accelerated the launch of Libertine, pushed me to revamp my website, and there was just so much validation in what I was doing from the whole experience. Sometimes going into business for yourself can be tough, especially bootstrapping it. This was the recognition and assurance that I needed from the universe that I was heading in the right direction. I streamlined my production methods and slowly recreated my workspace from that, to accommodate scaling up and discovered that I can make big things happen and handle business in whatever way it comes.

the back story is that being a small producer on a tight budget I can only purchase so many materials and physically do so much at a time. It would’ve been helpful to have been more prepared in terms of having enough ingredients and packaging in stock, because as it happened I had to continuously buy materials as orders and payments were coming in to be able to keep up with the demand. When you buy in smaller bulk you don’t get much discount on anything, so profit margins are smaller plus the wait time between ordering and delivery for certain materials can take a while, slowing down production. I also would’ve liked to have had my website more professionally done and a more cohesive brand established, especially while having so much traffic and exposure. I do everything myself for the most part so I can only get to so much at a time between parenting, and my other job.
That said, I was resourceful, determined, and flexible enough to make it work.

Crystal, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Originally I got into this field as a young inexperienced mom looking for ways to support my children’s health, and found herbalism. This journey started in the early 90’s with the birth of my daughter. I’d learn about different plant properties and how to use them, and I got the basics down but wanted to know more. By the time my son was born in 2004 I was going to school to become an herbalist. From there I got deeper into the science and art of holistic health, botany, environmental science.

I’ve always been pretty crafty and DIY so it was a natural progression for me to really get into basic botanical product making, like extracts, medicinal teas, syrups, salves. As I was becoming more experienced in practicing, and in formulation, I was also learning a lot of information about harmful exposure of commonly used ingredients and toxic packaging. The negative health effects to everyone, but especially children and the environment were alarming. This inspired me to create healthy alternatives to some of the most common home and body products that my household was using and eventually I began offering them to clients, friends, and family. I was somewhat astounded when I found that the fresher healthier products I was making were in fact of much higher quality than most of what was on the market. I got so many repeated requests from people for certain items that I just decided to make the leap into turning it into a business.
I officially started Viriditas Botanicals, in 2011. Over time I really refined my product making skills and am meticulous about ingredients of which I grow and process many of my own botanicals, always improving recipes, packaging, presentation, the whole experience.
I’ve refined my offerings to reflect my life as it’s grown from taking care of kids, working in home health care, establishing non profit community and school garden projects, to my kids growing up, leaving home, being more with myself and learning more about what inspires me most. I’ve started putting more focus on myself and my interests, expanding and elaborating on my previous experiences and being able to dedicate more of myself to being creative, and expressing who I am. As I did I began getting more into the art and science of olfaction and botanical perfumery. I eventually became obsessed with this subject and fell in love with it as an artistic medium, which has provided a much needed way for me to bring more creative and spiritual elements into my work. Enter Libertine, my second brand which is what I mostly focus on these days. Libertine’s emphasis is on liberation, freedom, and expression in being yourself. . Libertine’s product line emphasize adventure, queerness, magic, art, especially through botanical perfumery, and elevates my products and services to a whole new experience in connecting people to the magic and vitality of the natural world.
I’ve always been deeply connected to the natural world, plant medicine, and mysticism. A total plant nerd, I wholeheartedly believe in connecting people to the energy and magic of plants and the natural world together in as many ways as I can.
In this way, I get to fulfill my inherent creative impulse through the process of creating the products, services, and experiences I offer. In my process of formulating ritual aromatics, I factor in alchemical, astrological, energetic and physiological correspondents for each ingredient to create a desired energetic signature.

Services I offer are in the creation of bespoke fragrances and apothecary products for clients, private labels, and for special events such as weddings, openings, birthdays and other memorable moments. I’m also currently giving workshops around town, and am giving a series of botanical perfumery classes. I also offer tarot and astrological consults, and provide add on services of these with aromatic blends based on readings people receive.
I’m a part of a business group called SBBC which stands for Small Business, Big Change. It promotes a cohesive structure and collaboration among small businesses in reducing our ecological footprint in business, contributing to causes and campaigns which are important to us, and educates folks on how to be more conscious as a small business.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I’ve had to pivot quite a lot over the years, having gone through a divorce while raising kids, working, and building my business but I think that covid really changed things for me, and is continuously changing things for myself and others. I had just begun having a public studio space around the time lock downs were happening, and there were a lot of product supply shortages, and people weren’t going in public. I had to offer other ways for people to get products, emphasized ecommerce more, online consults, and be open to different packaging, making product that were more relevant and accessible for my community. For instance, when everyone was suddenly making hand sanitizer there was a shortage of spray bottle packaging, and numerous delays in any ingredients that I relied on to be shipped to me to be able to make. I adjusted packaging, recipes, and offerings.

This is on ongoing issue, and I just have to have multiple ways of fulfilling orders be it packaging, ingredients that I don’t have immediate access to or grow, and services. Pop ups markets and events became more in focus for me, as well as ecommerce. There’s so many things that have changed due to the ever fluctuating landscape of what I do and how I do it, how and where I provide it, it’s hard to sum up. I could really go on.
Throughout this event and time period, I’ve become more aware of what people need. Like really, really need and it’s not as much product or service as connection. Also people need hope, and inspiration, to be heard and have their own rituals in their own spaces if needed large and small. I’ve done my best to accommodate this in different ways. I’ve noticed people come together as community more, and people tend to want to support small businesses even more than before because it’s so important, and been hard for a lot of us. Giving people different ways to do that and to connect and personalize their experience is one way I tap into that.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn was that I can’t offer everything I can do. There’s a whole extensive multi-step process that goes into the concept of idea to market to sales. As a creator, I love making and coming up with new things and services all the time, it keeps me going. That said, I have to keep up with those products and services in so many different ways in order to be able to support myself and my family. I’ve learned to keep myself in check and focus on all of the products I already make instead of everything that I’m inspired by. Doing custom product blending helps me keep things in check, fresh, and creative impulses are fulfilled. Having too many products can get overwhelming as a small business owner growing my company organically. Ordering enough (and the right) packaging, ingredients, making labels, product copy, putting it online, social media posts, having the space to make and store stock all goes into each product and services as well in different ways. Not being able to purchase as large of quantities of materials I don’t get price breaks companies who make only one or a few products can get.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.libertineaustin.com
• Instagram: x.libertine.x
• Facebook: Libertine + VB

Image Credits
Kendra Bremmer took the photo of myself and my client from above, during her consult.