We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nadine Clements a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Nadine, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Almost every entrepreneur we know has considered donating a portion of their sales to an organization or cause – how did you make the decision of whether to donate? We’d love to hear the backstory if you’re open to sharing the details.

Nadina’s Cremes has always worked on the mission of giving back. I, Jill Nadine Clements, have always had a passion for our Forest, knowing they are the oxygen to our planets’ lungs. Through interaction with cultures around the world, I developed a commitment to preserving and protecting our planet. Not only did environmental concerns matter to me but social concerns also. Throughout my business, numerous ways to give back have just fallen in place, and here, I will highlight a few.

One of the first opportunities we had to make a social impact was through working with Saint Elizabeth’s School, which serves developmentally challenged students. We provided work skills training to several students, who were accompanied by a teacher. The students helped by tying hang tags on our jars as part of our production process. Also, some students did work for Nadina’s Cremes while at the school. The students put elastic bands through holes on our hand tags. We had a working relationship with St. Elizabeth’s School for several years until Nadina’s move away from the Baltimore area.
The very first employees I worked with were through a Develop Mentally Challenged workshop, called The Providence Center, that made pottery, then a second workshop that made displays. The display workshop made over five thousand displays for all the stores that carried our products in the 1990’s. The pottery workshop has created hundreds of thousands of pottery jars that hold our luscious, scented body cremes to this day.

Nadina’s Cremes has also given back to our Earth since day one. When I was in Lahaina, Maui in 1988, I went deep in my soul to write my philosophy for my brochures to share that taking care of our planet mattered to me.

Because I had a passion for the Rainforest, our first tags to be tied around the neck of the ceramic jars were created to raise awareness among customers that we are losing with the clear cutting of the Rainforest. It was a color-coded tag showing: the Canopy, Logging, Slash & Burn and Desertification… also gave RainForest Actions address in San Francisco. We received a wonderful letter that the tags worked; people were contacting them asking what they could do to help.

Then, I was in the Honolulu Museum when I learned the Sandalwood Forest was destroyed by the Chinese in the 1800’s. I said deep in my heart: “I will one day return to Hawaii to give back by Reforesting the Iliahi (Sandalwood Forest)!! During the past twelve years, I have been doing just that. On my own, I have planted over one thousand trees! I distributed hundreds of trees to the stores that carry Nadina’s and they are planting also.

Another mission we support is The Old-Growth Forest Network, founded by Dr. Joan Maloof, a Professor Emeritus at Salisbury University, to protect and promote the country’s few remaining stands of old-growth forest. Our goal is to locate and designate at least one protected forest in every county in the United States that can sustain a native forest. We are building not only a network of forests, but also an alliance of people who care about forests.

Nadina’s Cremes supports the mission on the inside as well. Our Cremes are consciously made with environmentally sound ingredients and production methods. Enjoy our fine cremes with peace of mind, knowing that you are supporting an environmentally and ethically conscious business. I give immense gratitude to the people who have enjoyed my products and shared my enthusiasm for the environmental and humanitarian causes I have supported for over 30 years.

Nadine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

In Hawaii, there is a term: “talking story”; it’s not lies, it’s your Life and the wonders that have happened. A trip to Africa and thousands of stores later, Nadina’s Cremes has been in business for 34 years now, with home bases on both the East Coast and Hawaii, where each product is made lovingly by hand.

Nadina’s Cremes was started while I was traveling with the Renaissance Faire as an apprentice potter. After three years of traveling with the Renaissance Faire, I had the pleasure and adventure of crossing Africa with a best friend from college, who was volunteering In The Peace Corp. We traveled all the way from West to East Africa! It was on the island of Lamu where lovely Muslim women took me into their homes to make cremes their way…

Our cremes are consciously created using only pure, natural and ethically-sourced ingredients. Our products are of the highest concentration, as they contain no water, and they have a pure, natural base of only four ingredients: coconut oil, almond oil, beeswax and aloe vera. Essential oils are then combined with the base for scent adding in the divine powers of aromatherapy. Aromatherapy is the holistic therapeutic application of genuine and authentic plant-derived essential oils for enhancing the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health of the individual. It is a practice that dates back thousands of years!

We use no artificial color, no animal testing, and no preservatives. We start with a very simple and pure base, which is important because your skin breathes just like your nose. Your skin is your largest organ which is why it is so important to nourish it with loving ingredients. Our cremes have endless uses; body cream, lip moisturizer, hair conditioner, after shave, after sun, tattoos and more.

Having traveled extensively throughout the world and encountered many different peoples and cultures, I have looked for what contribution I could make to you and the Earth through my products and my company. I developed a commitment to preserving and protecting our planet. Our cremes are consciously made with environmentally sound ingredients and production methods. I began a partnership with the Providence Center (who employ the Developmentally Challenged) to produce displays and jars for Nadina’s Cremes. Enjoy our fine cremes with peace of mind, knowing that you are supporting an environmentally and ethically conscious business. I give gratitude to the people who have enjoyed my products and shared my enthusiasm for the environmental and humanitarian causes I have supported for over 30 years including, but not limited to: Rainforest Action Network, Hawaii Reforestation Project. I believe that we can contribute to a better future by giving back to the community and Earth.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

Nadina’s Cremes manufactures all products in house, by hand, to personally ensure it meets the highest of standards – from sustainability to ethics.

Any advice for managing a team?

Attitude is EVERYTHING. Creating a positive work environment will only yield positive results.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nadinascremes.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Nadinas.cremes/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NadinasCremes
• Other: https://www.jouneyofanaesthetepodcast.com/podcast/episode/34d1a692/season-5-jill-nadine-of-nadinas-cremes