An area resident for over 22 years, Detroit native Flones was one of the founders of the Woodstock Drum Circle. Flones estimates that she spends about $300 a year on Mountain Spirit products. She particularly recommends the Lemon Twist Scrub, made with organic sugar, $34 for 10 ounces.
“It’s not that much money” considering the quality of the ingredients and the care with which Elise makes the products, said Flones.
“I don’t know any other company that compares” to Muller’s, the alternative healer said.
To get started with a full Mountain Spirit regimen for women, it costs less than $100, but supplies should last for several months. Each customer Elise meets at the Farmers Market receives a personal assessment. She usually recommends most customers start out with the lemon scrub, perhaps a facial oil, and maybe a body moisturizer.
“I don’t really have a marketing budget,” said Elise. “I’m struggling. I have these really, really loyal customers, but I need more of them,” she said.
She might be honest to a fault. She doesn’t try to sell customers a huge array of specialty products, but instead encourages them to simplify their skin and haircare regimes.
She rails against big-name skincare products and their airbrushed ads.
“You know how the large cosmetic companies are now pushing this stuff they call ‘serums,’” asks Elise. “That’s a lot of hooey. Same thing with eye creams.”
Muller said the skin around the eyes is thinner but no different from any other skin on your body. If you find an organic plant-based product which agrees with your skin type, experiment with it anywhere.
“I’m a gardener, I respect the wisdom of nature,” Muller explained. “My niece had pretty bad acne and when she started using my products, she experienced a profound improvement in 48 hours. Natural skincare allows the skin to breathe, and excessively oily skin is just over-reacting” to whatever the person is putting on it, said Elise.
One ingredient Muller particularly abhors: mineral oil. “It’s a petroleum by-product. It just doesn’t belong on your skin. It makes everything worse,” she said.
“This creek has really shaped me,” said Elise, looking out on the Lucas Kill stream, an A-rated trout habitat she can hear from her bed on the sleeping porch. “Since moving here, I’ve spent a lot of time alone here.”
Muller’s put her property on the market, and unless she can find an investor who can help her expand her business, she’s not sure for how much longer she’ll be able to continue its operation.
Muller made her first products when her daughter, now 28, was a toddler. At the time, Elise was just getting started as a massage therapist, and she became interested in poultices and aromatherapy and other natural-healing practices to augment her professional work. But as a lifelong gardener who also preserves her own food, one day she decided to make something for Lily which simply wasn’t for sale anywhere. It quickly became a favorite mother-daughter game.
“I made up this alter ego, Lucille, who made beauty products, and Lily was her favorite customer,” recalls Elise. From that playful beginning, the product recipes began to reveal themselves to Muller, in a form she calls “plant spirit medicine,” and which she also began to study in earnest.
Over the years, Muller’s experimented with all sorts of healing modalities, spiritual practices and physical disciplines, but she’s let all that formality mellow into the natural and simple way she lives today. But she’s ready for a change. She misses the year-round warm weather of Florida, although when she does find a buyer for her place, she’s not sure that’s where she’ll move.
“I volunteered in New Orleans with Habitat [for Humanity],” said Elise. “It remains to be seen, but I’d like to move into humanitarian work,” said Muller. Elise hopes that one day soon, perhaps someone will bump into her table at the Farmers Market, or find their way to her web site, and help her figure out a way to expand Mountain Spirit Botanicals into a company with annual sales which could support that work.
“I’m here now, but as for the future, I really can’t say,” Muller said. “I can’t do this forever if it continues to be a financial struggle.”
Good ideas. Totally agree about mineral oil.