Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jennifer Vatza. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Jennifer, thanks for joining us today. So, let’s start with trends – what are some of the largest or more impactful trends you are seeing in the industry?
When I started my business in 2018, then named Restorative Aromatics, as an aromatherapy and wellness side hustle, I found that my products were getting lost in the shuffle and there are numerous FDA regulations when it comes to selling natural therapeutic aromatherapy products – some for good reason, and others, so that big corporations can maintain their monopolies on the market. How can I compete with stores or brands like Lush, Sephora, and the likes? Nowadays, you can find wellness products everywhere from upscale boutiques to grocery stores to delivery services like GoPuff. In 2019, as I became more in touch with my spirituality, I started developing more and more metaphysical products and spiritual self care products and those soon became my best sellers. I began phasing out the therapeutic aromatherapy products and natural skincare items for ritual bath products and metaphysical tools. My business was slowly growing as a lucrative side hustle and then came 2020….
When Covid hit and we were in quarantines, lockdowns, and the whole world changed in the blink of an eye. I was certain that my business was going to fail because the majority of my sales were at in person events and from a few retail locations.
I could not have been more wrong.
Even though I was working from home for my day job, I noticed online sales continuing to spike month after month and I became associated with a number of authors and content creators in the Black Magick/Left Hand Path area of the occult neighborhood. I launched my YouTube channel and rebranded from Restorative Aromatics, which no longer fit the vision of my business, to Belladonna’s Botanicals.By the end of 2020, my sales increased six-fold from the previous year and then more than doubled again in 2021 to the point that when we were to return to work in fall 2021, I was able to leave my day job at an Ivy League university to continue to build my business. While 2022-23 faced continuing supply chain issues, inflation and rising costs across the board, my business has been maintaining the balance.
The biggest trend I see in the metaphysical and spiritual self care industry is that it is continuing to grow as more and more people are moving away from mainstream religions and seeking new modes of spirituality. Some days I feel like I am answering the same questions for the millionth time, but it’s just that there are so many new people exploring their spirituality for the first time and seeking answers, meaning, and reason in life.
Magical practices are always changing and incorporating new methodologies and even technology. There has been a considerable amount of work incorporating radionics, psionics, orgone generators, and other technologies into contemporary witchcraft rituals and practices. Many practitioners use different types of radionics boxes to tune and amplify the frequency of our magical work, rituals, spells, and intentions. Radionics boxes vary greatly and use combinations of crystals, orgone, copper plates, stick plates, and in some cases they can also use an electrical current. This combination of magic and technology allows the user to tune their thoughts and intentions to achieve changes in physical reality. These machines can run for days, weeks, or even months to keep the energy in motion in order to manifest the intention or desired results.It is certainly an accessible tool since most of us have very busy lives and cannot attend to performing week or month long rituals.
I am personally working on the trend of making magical practices, rituals, and spells more accessible to those of us, like myself, who are neurodivergent, have chronic pain, or other disabilities. Most books and grimoires have extensive rituals and spells laid out and we all watch our favorite YouTuber’s, some of which have Hollywood theatrics filmmaking and editing skills perform amazing rituals. It becomes daunting to those of us who can’t do those things. How do you meditate when you are ADHD and cannot quiet your mind, nor sit still? How do you perform rituals when you have chronic pain and mobility issues? These are things that I am looking to demystify and build practices around in my little corner of the occult world. I am excited to share how I have adapted my practice and how I continue to do so to help others who need guidance on how to set up what works best for them.
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Belladonna’s Botanicals is owned by Jennifer Vatza, a Left Hand Path / Poison Path Witch, Reiki Master, Crystal Healer, Certified Aromatherapist, herbalist, perfumer, and skincare formulator. Jennifer brings her unique background and studies in witchcraft, energy work, and plant medicine into her product creation.
Belladonna’s Botanicals provides high quality handcrafted metaphysical and self-care products including flying ointments and oils, herbal tinctures & elixirs, herbal smoke blends, ritual oils, powders, incense, crystal products, ritual bath products, fragrances, and bath and skin care products. We also offer select consultations, divination, spells, and energy work.
Jennifer, 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?
Belladonna’s Botanicals is owned by Jennifer Vatza, a Left Hand Path / Poison Path Witch, Reiki Master, Crystal Healer, Certified Aromatherapist, herbalist, perfumer, and skincare formulator. Jennifer brings her unique background and studies in witchcraft, energy work, and plant medicine into her product creation.
Belladonna’s Botanicals provides high quality handcrafted metaphysical and self-care products including flying ointments and oils, herbal tinctures & elixirs, herbal smoke blends, ritual oils, powders, incense, crystal products, ritual bath products, fragrances, and bath and skin care products. We also offer select consultations, divination, spells, and energy work.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Boundaries are important if not a critical necessity when you are a public figure in any community. I have had to really restrict personal access to my life. For instance, I do not accept Facebook friend requests unless I actually know the person on some level or they have been heavily vetted. I learned that lesson the hard way when just connecting with everyone from the community – some of which ended up being trolls or felt the need to foist their extreme political beliefs and conspiracry theories. My facebook account is and has always been personal and I has been since I started it in 2007. I had to safeguard my privacy and got tired of mediating comment fights between long-time friends and family members and some tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorists.
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
One of the perks of having neurodivergent superpowers and an obsessive love of education is that I manage almost every aspect of my business. I design all my products – that comes from having numerous certifications and course work in aromatherapy, herbalism, crystals, reiki, incense crafting, perfuming, skincare formulation and more.
I have a BFA in Art History and Studio Arts, so I design all of my product labels and some of the marketing materials. I do work with others sometimes when needs be, but with so many programs like Canva it is pretty easy to make a YouTube thumbnail or social media post with their templates. I also do all my own product photography.
I spent my office working carreer doing information management, social media marketing, and website content design and management, so I do all my own website work too.
I am one of those “Jill of all trades” types, unless it involves math, my accountats handle that stuff.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.belladonnasbotanicals.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/belladonnasbotanicals/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/belladonnasbotanicals/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bellabotanicPHL
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JenniferVatza
- Other: Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BelladonnasBotanical Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/belladonnasbotanicals TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@belladonnasbotani
Image Credits
Jennifer Vatza