Cleban & Daughters
This article is written by founders of Cleban & Daughters, a powerful sister duo, Roxane and Liana Pekelharing
Picture provided by Roxane Pekelharing of Cleban & Daughters
This #wellnesswednesday on our blog we are honoured to have guests and friends of Yoga to Cope, two lovely sisters, Roxane and Liana Pekelharing. These two souls have crafted up a beautiful herbal medicine company called Cleban & Daughters. I am sure you have seen them on our social as of late as Yoga to Cope’s very own founder absolutely adores this company. I too can’t speak highly enough of this brand, these women, and their beautiful products. As a result Kala and I co-hosted the podcast episode that dropped on Monday.
In this podcast Roxane and Liana discuss their brand intentions, their creative process, what a tincture is, and they share how this pandemic has impacted them creatively. Some fun idea’s are brewing with these two! This Pandemic has also been a physical divide between these two as they are now in two different countries running their business!
Additionally, Cleban & Daughters is a part of our December giveaway! Have you checked it out yet? If not, don’t worry there is still time to enter!
The giveaway began on the 7th and will end on the 13th. You do not want to miss out. This giveaway includes includes: 1 indian rose garden tea (from Fire Pot Nomadic Teas), and 5 products from Cleban & Daughters. This includes their Nocturne Mist and Tincture, and Electra Mist and Tincture, and their Warrior Healing Salve.
This weeks blog is focused on a Q&A style so that you might get to learn a little more about these sisters and what Cleban & Daughters is all about.
YTC: “Please tell us about Cleban and how this brand was brought to life? What was your inspiration and what is your mission?”
Roxane: ‘Cleban & Daughters is one chapter in a history that dates back to 1850. In 1850 Michel Cleban established an apothecary in Amsterdam on “42 Heiligeweg.” We knew it as our Opa’s (grandfather’s) shop & spent our summers living in the residence above. It remained an apothecary at the same spot until 2008 when it sadly closed its doors.
Liana gravitated to all the concoctions in the store- what they all did, how they worked & why. I was drawn to the community of the space. It’s what drew me to pursue a career in retail. Together Liana and I vowed to one day honor Cleban but we weren’t really sure how that would unfold.
Liana got her Masters in Marketing and worked for an ad firm in Amsterdam. When our dad was diagnosed with skin cancer, Liana intuitively started making clean skincare under the Cleban name from the Lavender she grew in her garden. That was her first nudge & she then pursued a degree in Health Science. After a defiant battle with chronic illness Liana dove head & heart first into Herbalism and she’s never looked back.
Our remedies are conduits to wellbeing, specifically to the healing abundance of mother nature. It’s a call to return to wild, to trust in plant medicine even more than we’ve been trained to trust in commercial or more “conventional” medicine.. It’s also a family business through and through.
We create potent formulations that are going to make a difference in your day to day. Powered by plants that focus the mind, awaken the body, grant deep sleep & reassure weary hearts.”
YTC: “Kala, our founder of yoga to cope, absolutely loves the Nocturne and Electra sets - could you expand on what makes these two blends unique? How did you discover blending these unique ingredients? Plant medicine is quite powerful, how did you determine which herbs to use for which blends?”
Liana: “One of the most common complaints in today’s society is fatigue. Of course, there are many different causes behind fatigue that should be explored with your physician. But for the most part, we saw there were a lot of negative side effects to conventional offerings that only made people feel worse, or stuck in a cycle. So we wanted to offer an herbal alternative with nourishing benefits. The root of fatigue can be from either poor sleep or a stagnant vital force. So the first question you should ask yourself is- am I getting 8h of good quality sleep? If no, then Nocturne is your ally. If you answered yes, but still feel fatigued, Electra’s got your back.
Nocturne tincture is restorative sleep in a bottle. It’s power comes from a category of herbs that I feel are sometimes overlooked- nervines. Nervines are a group of herbs that have an affinity for the nervous system- they help replenish and restore it at multiple levels. When you ask someone what keeps them up at night you get a variety of responses and it's usually a combination of several things like- I can't quiet my mind, I'm sensitive to sounds or lights that I can't control, I feel stressed and anxious, I feel nerve or cramp pain, parts of my body tense up. After months of carefully grouping various nervines, I found a combination that addressed all of this. Nocturne tincture is a gathering of carefully selected nervines- where Passionflower quiets your mind, California Poppy eases your pain, Valerian warms away tension and Skullcap calms and restores your nerves. When you combine these herbs with intention and indicated percentages, you create a synergistic response resulting in a wide spectrum of sleep support.
Electra is the nemesis of Nocturne. While Nocturne sends you sleep, Electra gets you going with mental focus and physical energy. For this formula, because I wanted to wake up the vital force, it called for a unique blend of adaptogens like Cordyceps, stimulants like Eleuthero, and trophorestoratives like Lion’s Mane then rounded off with aromatic herbs that move energy up and out. It is a complex formula that works on a multitude of body systems to wake up not only at a cognitive level by supporting focus and concentration, but also on a physical one. It’s been proven that exercise can help with fatigue, but when you’re fatigued, the last thing you wanna do is work out. Electra is that nudge to your body and mind that says “you can do it”.”
YTC: “As someone in the holism realm, I am always curious about sourcing? Where are you getting your plant based materials?”
Roxane: “We source organic & wildcrafted whenever possible. We are passionate about working with small, family-run farms & always look to shop local first. Care & expertise in their crop is what drives our decision making. Sourcing small & seasonal is not without its challenges and it means our supply chain can be very vulnerable. For example Nocturne Tincture’s launch was delayed because the farmer of our Passionflower (trippiest looking flower ever btw) discovered goats had gotten into his field & eaten all the Passionflower. To this day I have this image of billie-goats daydreaming in a sunny field.”
YTC: “Do you use third-party lab testing?”
Roxane: “We do not use third-party lab testing. We comply with all QC requirements under the Current Good Manufacturing Practice as detailed by the FDA (section 21 of Dietary Supplements code.) Before we begin each supplier is required to supply a Certificate of Analysis detailing measures of yeast, mold, E. Coli, Salmonella and moisture. We then do our own Herb identification microscopic testing to ensure we’re receiving exactly what the vendor stipulates. If this passes we go into production.
When creating our Tinctures the herbs are steeped in alcohol not only because it’s the best medium to extract the particular constituents desired, but because it adds to the stability of the product. We maintain a strong plant to alcohol ratio resulting in a very potent mixture. We have the right machinery to ensure an adequate amount of pressure is applied to extract all that plant goodness. When we’re done we complete internal lab testing of the finished goods & check Microbial counts again, yeast, mould, E-coli & coliforms. When this passes we assign a LOT# to each batch & they’re stored in a temperature controlled facility until they’re ready to be shipped!”
YTC: “How do you create blends? I would love insight into your creative process.”
Liana: “With all my formulas, my goal is to create a complex whole greater than its individual parts.
My creative process comes in a few parts and it’s a mix of science and art, if you will. It starts with looking at the condition I'm trying to remedy from the perspective of the human body, as a whole. For example, with Nocturne, our tincture for sleep- from personal experience and by listening to others, I’m able to paint a picture of how someone may be experiencing sleeplessness. Things like hypersensitivity to sound/light, unable to shut down racing thoughts, tension in the body from stress and pain- like nerve, muscle or menstrual pain.
After meditating on this picture I create a list of herbs that call out to me to help support. Then comes strategic composition, I group the herbs on my list into various pairs or triplets. Each unique plant has a different net effect when combined with another vs. another. Just like the vibe you get when you hang out with one person is very different with another. So you need to find a grouping of herbs that play nice with each other, strengthen each other, and deliver an effect that would benefit the person. I come up with several formulas like this. Meditate on them, test them out, revisit and tweak- making sure there is perfect balance and harmony.
Every herb has a purpose. There is no herb that's thrown in there “just cause”. The time and energy to grow, harvest and tincture these herbs are precious. The quality that comes out of it is outstanding. Though herbs are designed to be taken over time, a lot of people feel the effects of my formulas right away- and that’s because of the potency, quality, and calculated combination.”
YTC: “How can people integrate these products into their daily lives?”
Roxane: “Our remedies are designed to compliment your day to day seamlessly- to be touch points with healing plants throughout the day. They will compliment your natural rhythm so that certain actions invite the use of a mist or a tincture or a salve. They’ll find a cozy spot within your habitat to call home- your medicine cabinet, your desk, your bedside table, your tea/coffee station, your car… they become little plant powered allies that keep you going strong & feeling your best.”
YTC: “You sell tinctures, mists, and moisturizers that range from sleep to energy, to skin, do you have one product that you recommend to help support those suffering from anxiety?”
Liana: “Anxiety is quite complex- there is a constellation of things that could contribute to anxiety like imbalances in the endocrine system and/or nervous system, PTSD, and even food intolerances and nutrient deficiency. But for the most part, we are looking at a depleted nervous system with a core emotional pattern of fear underneath it. We all know sleep can be so healing to the body and mind. Most people with anxiety have a hard time getting enough sleep, they wake up the next day and feel depleted, so they take stimulants like coffee to get them through, which only makes them feel wired but tired, which makes it even harder to fall asleep- and soon they find themselves stuck in a cycle. Herbs can help break this cycle. Our Nocturne sleep tincture is formulated to release and relax not only tension in your body, but tension in your mind too- putting you in a relaxed state that welcomes sleep. In a pharmacological perspective, constituents found in this formula work on GABA receptors to calm down the nervous system as well as restore and replenish it- like a tall drink of water for your nerves. To enhance these effects, I would recommend pairing this tincture with our Sleep mist. Scent has a profound way of shifting your psyche and in turn can result in a physiological response. The unique blend of essential oils in the mist has a way of telling your mind and body that ‘all is well’. It transports you to a place where you feel like you are being held so you can let go and fall into sleep. Some prefer the tincture over the mist while some are very sensitive to aromatherapy and find the mist more effective. We created them both so that you have not only a choice but an option to pair them so that your whole body can be enveloped at a multi systemic level with the same like minded intention- to receive restorative sleep.”
YTC: “Where can people find out more information about you and your products? (Online? In California?)”
Roxane: “We are primarily online at www.cleban.com though also in a handful of select retailers. In California you can find us at Shop Good!”
Stay tuned as I am sure we will be seeing and hearing more from these lovely ladies in the future!