Oh, hi, it’s me, a sometimes-skeptic. If you’ve been reading this blog, you know that I love data. I love efficacy. I love when things work, when I can see the science behind them, and when there’s data and studies behind products. For example, I love SPF ratings because it’s a number that tells you exactly how well it works. It tells you what to expect, how long to use it for maximum effect, etc.

But many beauty and wellness products can’t give us exact numbers and percentages about how they work. Some things require us to take a leap and try it, to see for ourselves. Not that easy for skeptics like me, but if I’ve learned anything over the past 15+ years as a Clean Beauty expert/advocate/journalist, there is no substitute for experiencing something personally, and finding out how it works for you!

Lotus Wei is a brand I have loved and used for a long time, despite not understanding exactly how it works. I’ll admit – I just thought that the Infinite Love Balancing Serum smells really good, so I use it as a body oil after I shower and a few other times on my hands after washing throughout the day. And I really like to mist the Wild Abundance Mist around me and on my pillow before I go to bed! 

So when Integrity Botanicals owner, Terri, told me how she swears by her LW products, I got even more curious. “I LOVE and am a firm believer in their products,” Terri said to me in an email. “I use the elixirs since they are the easiest for me to take – I can’t live without True Strength and Joy Juice.  Inner Peace is also amazing and was with me at all times during the pandemic- mist and elixir.”

Terri asked if I wanted to dive deeper and get more information about how Lotus Wei works and how to use it, and I thought, Oh yeah, I really do want to know more!!!! I got the chance to interview Lisa Reinhardt of Lotus Wei (read on below to find out her role in the company and how she got involved!) and I decided to share as much of her word-for-word wisdom with you all as possible! So here is our entire conversation!

(And also: Read to the end because there is an exciting GIFT WITH PURCHASE going on now!!! You do not want to miss this!) 

Emily: Hi! Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us about Lotus Wei! Let’s start out with an introduction– tell us about you! What is your role within Lotus Wei, and how did you come to be involved with the brand?

Lisa: My name is Lisa Reinhardt, and I’m now Director of the Self-Arising Nature Center in Phoenix, Arizona where Lotus Wei has their headquarters. I’ve known Katie Hess for more than twenty years. We became instant best friends when we met years ago in the toothpaste aisle at a local health food store. We had both just returned from living out of the country, and bonded over our culture shock. She was just setting up her practice seeing flower essence clients, and some years later, when she couldn’t keep quiet anymore about how powerful the flower essences are, she founded Lotus Wei. At that time, I started Wei of Chocolate, which is an organic dark chocolate company that infuses Lotus Wei Flower Essences into the chocolate. After 17 years of growing our companies side by side, we finally merged them last year so that we can reach more people with both flower essences and chocolate.

Emily: Wonderful! That’s a really cool origin story! Can you tell us a little about Lotus Wei in general, for those who are new to the brand! 

Lisa: Lotus Wei specializes in flower essences that help people experience more happiness, clarity, peace & better sleep — as well as accelerated personal growth & transformation. Founder & Flower Alchemist Katie Hess goes out into the wild and hand-collects flower essences from all over the world and combines them with aromatherapy in a variety of lifestyle products: delicious elixirs, refreshing aura mists, luscious oils & more.

Emily: What is Flower Alchemy? A lot of people might look at Lotus Wei and assume it’s just aromatherapeutic, but it’s so much more than that! 

Lisa: Flower essences are different from aromatherapy, though we do use sumptuous essential oils in many of our products as well. What we call flower elixirs or flower essences are really the life force or chi of the flower – the vibrational essence — that has no smell or taste. When added to our energetic field, it kicks out the static and brings us back to our perfect resonance, which feels soooo good! It’s like the difference between hearing an orchestra tuning up before a performance, and listening to them perform a beautiful piece of music — the flower essences take out the discordant energies and return us to our perfect pitch.

The immediate effect of, say, misting yourself with Joy Juice or Infinite Love, for example, is a clear sense of “Ahhh …”. Instant relief, ease and it usually brings a smile to your face. Over time, flower essences help us dissolve unhelpful patterns so we can see them clearly, and perceive other ways of being in the world that are more joyful, loving and full of ease. 

They are the best and easiest way I’ve found to help us become our best selves.

Emily: Can you speak to the unique ways that the Lotus Wei products can help people? And how do you recommend we incorporate Lotus Wei products into our daily lives?

Lisa: What I love about what we do is that people feel the difference. It’s not like taking vitamins and hoping that they work! Typically within 3-5 days, you’ll start noticing a shift. If it’s your first time taking them, you’ll learn how to see it, because it’s a combination of both subtle and powerful. Flower essences don’t make you into someone you’re not — instead, they gently shift you to be the best version of yourself. Sometimes people say they don’t think they’re working, and then when you ask what they’ve done in the last 3 weeks, they have a long list of “Well, I finally did this .. and finished that … and stopped doing that … and met someone new … and …” by the end they are laughing!

The best thing is, anyone can bring flower essences into their life. It literally takes 3 seconds to mist yourself, or apply an anointing oil, or drop 5 drops into your drink. We suggest a minimum of 5x per day (or more!), so that’s 15 seconds a day to help you lead your best life! If THAT’S too much of a time commitment, then put a whole dropperful of the elixir into your water bottle, and you’ll get it all day long, every time you drink. 

You can’t overdo it with flower essences – you can take more than one and have joy and love and peace, all in the same day!

Emily: Let’s talk about LW’s Elixirs! A few other brands use the word “elixir,” to describe a face serum or treatment, but Lotus Wei’s Elixirs are a different kind of product– can you explain what your Elixirs are, and how they’re used? 

Lisa: We use the word ‘elixir’ in two ways: one is to describe the flower essences in general, as they are like an elixir of life from nature. The other is as one of the modalities that you can use to take them. Our flower elixir products are a honey alcohol nectar (with no essential oils) that are taken orally, either in water, tea, coffee or directly in the mouth. The other forms are the mist, mixed with luscious essential oils; the anointing oil, which is like a natural perfume with concentrated essential oils in a jojoba oil base; and the serum, which has more diluted essential oils in an organic safflower oil base, and is used over larger areas of skin as a massage oil or moisturizer. 

Emily: What is the best way for people to get started using Lotus Wei?

Lisa: What’s super fun is to take the Pick a Flower quiz. We’ve discovered over the last twenty years that people are always drawn to what they need. It works because of a principle of physics called sympathetic resonance — kind of like using flowers as tuning forks! We have a flower quiz HERE that leads you through a bunch of flower photos and you just keep clicking the ones you like — and it gives you a report at the end. Or just look at the flowers on the bottles and see which you are drawn to the most, and dive in! What have you got to lose? It’s the best natural stress relief and nature-in-a-bottle goodness you’ll ever encounter — and it could change your life!

I always say that the best part of my job is speaking directly to experts, and then sharing their words and ideas with readers. This is no exception! I hope that reading Lisa’s words helps you all see how special Lotus Wei is, and how the unique products might, well, as she said, change your life!! 

If you’re at all curious, you have to try for yourself, and that is easier than ever with this awesome Gift With Purchase offer!!!!! I am really excited that the GWP is for one of my personal favorite picks, the Wild Abundance Mist, ($40 value!) on a SITEWIDE purchase of $75+ – this means that you can buy anything on IntegrityBotanicals.com, like stock up on your must have summer travel items or go-to sunscreens, and get a Wild Abundance Mist for free!!! Or spend that $75 on other Lotus Wei items and try all the different ways you can incorporate Lotus Wei into your daily life! (I recommend Infinite Love, but also am drawn to/cannot resist Joy Juice (obviously we all need more JOY!), Fierce Compassion (LOVE the name, love the vibe), and Boundless Wisdom (no explanation necessary!). Basically, you cannot go wrong, so let the flowers guide you!