Celebrating International Women's Day

As we celebrate International Women's Day we reflect on who we are buying our products from and why. Our ethos is strongly aligned with empowering women. We not only look for the best quality products, but we care how they are made, the ethics behind the company along with who they are as a brand. In fact, some of our favorite companies are women owned. 

Supporting women owned businesses is important to us specifically because the founder/owner of ekuBOX, Paula, was born into a women owned business. Her mother Mary, started a restaurant when it was rare for a woman to be in business, especially a twenty something single women born to non-english speaking Italian immigrants. Against all odds she built a successful 250 seat restaurant that lasted 48 years and it was known far and wide. The above photo is Mary, pictured at her restaurant Peppina's (named after her mother) grand opening on May 12th 1953.

Mary inspires us and do many of the women we work with. As a women run company, we take this day to celebrate International Women's Day and we are proud to share some of our favorite women owned businesses and their products used in our gift boxes. Here are a few of our favorites:

Potager Soap Company: This woman-owned family run multi generational business produces one of our favorite products.  One look at their beautiful soaps and you can see the time and care that is put into their presentation, from the roping gently placed around the bar to the handmade wax seal. We appreciate all the work put into their beautiful products because that's how we roll too. We hand-make all our wax seals used to seal our gift messages. 

One more reason why we love this soap - Our skin is our largest organ, if you think of it that way, you just might rethink what you are putting on it. We believe going all natural and organic whenever possible is the way to go. We feature Potager whenever we can in our gift boxes for the obvious reasons. A particular favorite is the Secret Garden bar, seen here featured in our small Relax and Unwind gift box.  

Another one of our women owned companies featured in our gift boxes is Wildwood Chocolate: What drew us to this company is their product's presentation. Not only is the chocolate super delicious, they are also the most beautiful bars of chocolate we have ever seen. The Berry Berry Chocolate is encrusted with freeze dried strawberries and raspberries. Unlike some competitors, their bars are filled with luscious berries from top to bottom. We were also very intrigued with their unique and unusual flavors such as their Fennel Pollen Caramel bar. To our surprise with those interesting flavors, it became our new favorite chocolate bar of all time. 

Molly and Me Pecans: Molly and Me Pecans are another one of our favorites for so many reasons. The fact that she named her business after her dog caught our attention, in case you don't know, we're dog lovers, so she had us at hello. Most importantly, we love her products. Fresh crunchy pecans coated with her delicious mixtures, like bourbon, apple pie and of course the classic southern favorite praline. Her concoctions are all-natural, made with simple ingredients, and are made in small batches by hand. We feature them in many of our boxes, like our men's Well Groomed Man's mini spa box.

Pursoma: This company makes products that are additive-free, chemical-free and the main ingredient is hand-harvested from the sea. We LOVE that! We also embrace their philosophy that “modern-day wellness is dependent on digital detox, separating ourselves from draining technology, especially in the sanctuary spaces of our bathrooms and bedrooms.” Their products are made with clean and sustainable ingredients all of which help to ease the body and stress. Pursoma is female-founded, female-invested and a female-run business with top-tier ingredients and products. We feature a variety of their products in our gift boxes. One of our favorites is the Moonlit Ritual featured in our Sweet Dream Ritual gift box. Just what we need to help de-stress us before going to sleep.

Among the flowers: The owner of this company started making soap in her kitchen as a hobby. It has  grown to a group of 15 women nestled in the foothills of sierra nevada producing products that are both beautiful and naturally healing.  We've been working with this company for years and we strongly appreciate that all of their products are handmade with care, natural and pure. Many of the flowers used in their products are grown and harvested on their property. We love their bath bombs encrusted with flower petals and use them in many of our curated gift boxes. 

 Nopalera: We recently found this brand and we were intrigued by the founder's (Sandra Jefa featured below) story and use of cactus as the base of her products. She writes that “The nopal cactus is an ancient symbol of Mexican culture. It’s also one of the most sustainable, nourishing and resilient crops in the world.” We not only love their products, but we also appreciate how the cactus is used to create her wonderful soaps and scrub.