012. ALTERME HOME
A story of pivoting and finding true direction.
Sisters and co-founders Jodie & Paris and Herbalist Sara are the alchemists/three wise women behind the Adaptogenic Apothecary.
From the south coast of England they blend powerful powders using medicinal mushrooms and adaptogens, crafted to support optimum health.
Their creation was a originally a response to their own perimenopause symptoms and now supports male & female wellbeing for customers worldwide. Here’s their story.
We discovered adaptogenic herbs when our bodies and rhythms started to change post 40. Perimenopause arrived with insomnia, brain fog and intermittent achy joints for Paris, that prompted her to go down an online rabbit hole of googling arthritis at 3am.
Meanwhile, Jodie started experiencing an irrational annoyance of everyone and everything during the days leading up to her period, never afflicted by PMS before, the strength and voracity came as an unwelcome surprise.
After shying away from modern pharmaceutical options, we began researching traditional plant-based medicine and stumbled across Ashwagandha, a powerful adaptogenic herb.
After using this successfully, we soon discovered that we didn’t need it every day but did recognise a pattern connected to our menstrual cycle; by listening to the body, it became obvious that we needed something else to support the different phases of the monthly cycle and embarked upon a journey to learn which plant-based food supplements could help us with the ebbs and flows of each phase.
What followed was a lot of herb and supplement buying, experimentation and frustration as our daily supplement routine became so intense, it needed its own job title! Surely there was an easier way than this?
We found Sara Rooney BSc (Hons), Ba (Hons) NIMH, Medical Herbalist and suggested that women might need supporting in accordance to their menstrual cycle. Sara was on board immediately and as a female hormone health specialist was able to add the science to our idea.
And so, the idea for ‘Harmony’ was born; the world’s first menstrual cycle and perimenopause support to target each of the four phases.
The carefully crafted, potent adaptogenic blends, include Affron® and medicinal mushrooms to support the body at just the right time. We began cycle synching and taking the right blends at the right time of the month and the results were outstanding.
Jodie’s irritability and dark moods turned into love and light, elevated by the daily Affron® dose and hormonally supported by the adaptogenic herbs and mushrooms, her dreaded PMT became PML.
Paris no longer felt exhausted, sleeping all night and energised in the day, she took up her life-long love of horse riding again and that dodgy joint pain is nowhere to be seen.
Fast forward a few months and we developed ‘Freedom’ our multiple award winning menopause powder, ‘Power’ a health and vitality powder for men, ‘Focus’ a potent Lion’s Mane powder with dual extract and ‘Calm’ a pure, organic ashwagandha powder.
The company remains small enough to give individual care and attention to each customer. Each powder is hand blended with love, backed by science and now helping people worldwide.
The idea of Harmony, the world’s only female well-being supplement to support the 4 phases of the menstrual cycle, showed up during meditation.
It really appeared like a ‘download’ and felt like our natural calling had arrived.
18 months later we find ourselves with 5 award winning wellbeing solutions and thank the universe daily for the information that continues to flow to us through meditation, yoga and our daily wellbeing practices that help us to connect to source energy.
Our Product
Our designs were inspired by nature. The whole premise of what we do is underpinned by our profound connection to Mother Earth.
Taking adaptogens and medicinal mushrooms fosters a deep appreciation and awareness of our connection to the natural world and when we say we talk to the tress we are not joking!
Forest walks, sea dips, time cloud gazing and silence in nature is time well spent and actively encouraged here.
We find inspiration and clear direction from the Universe and strive for alignment in all we do.
The packaging designs were hand drawn by the very talented Claire Hartley (graphic designer) and show all of the ingredients included in the powder.
Our Team
Our team is currently an all female line up; Jodie, Paris and Sara create the powders from idea to conception.
Sara is chief formulator and carefully creates powders with her decades of expertise. Jodie and Paris work on communication the brand values and introducing new customers to the solutions.
We also work with Joelle, who helps with packing, Amanda who is a logistics wizard and Claire our designer, who hand drew all of our beautiful packaging!
We all live by the sea, so enjoy adaptogens and sea dips to start the day. All of us practice yoga and /or meditation regularly and we all work according to our menstrual cycle.
Creativity and highly productive phases always happen around follicular and ovulation and we give each other space to be quiet when needed during luteal and menstruation.
It’s a real privilege and joy to work with a group of women who are all connected to their own cycles and respect each others internal ebbs and flows.
Women are different to men; we work in a different way and we hope to create a thriving business that respects these differences.
Working in harmony with our cycle and life phases is the non negotiable for us, this means allowing rest when it calls, encouraging creative space when it feels right and respecting where each other is in terms of monthly and life phases.
Women working together in this way creates a powerful force and above all, time to connect to source, whether that is through meditation, yoga or simple walks in nature is always encouraged.
We hope to be able to scale our business up to reach more women (and men) and introduce them to the magical power held in adaptogens and medicinal mushrooms.
I love reading stories of products crafted as a solution and found this a fascinating read with so much heart & soul behind the product.
Thank you Jodie, Paris & Sara for sharing your story with us. I’m totally sold by your concept and as a woman in my mid 40s I’m of course intrigued to try them! -LJ
A story of pivoting and finding true direction.
The joys of growing slowly and enjoying the view.
and then