Most children probably grew up with the smell of food in the kitchen and a father that came home from a hard day’s of work on the farm, but I grew up with an extraordinary, eccentric, single, independent and loving mother that left an odor of all kinds of herbs and plants imaginable in our country home kitchen. Her love for herbs, botanical plants and magical potions did not find its roots in her kitchen but were planted in her heart through memory lane.

My great-grandmother, Leutjé Nigrini Stols, was also a strong, single and independent woman, famous and nationally known for her remedies and mixed herb potions that could cure almost anything. Her crowned jewel was her powerful herb garden and she followed her passion and dream of mixing freshly produced herbs and plants together in order to create the perfect curable remedies. Not only was her potions for the sick but also for skin ailments and to enhance the natural beauty of each and every person she could lay her eyes upon. Through her life loved and lived dream, botanicals became part of our family’s everyday existence and spared my great grandmother a full 92 years.

Her tried and tested magical recipes and potions were handed down from generation to generation and eventually became part of my mother’s kitchen, Maria Stols, who is now the proud CEO of Sudbury.

I have always wondered how the impossible was possible in the appearance and aging process of the radiant, ravishing and gorgeous women in my family. They all had a certain glow about them that revealed explainable natural beauty in its purest. I realized that it couldn’t just be genes, fate or by change and then the big question arose within me: Where is it all coming from?

On the young age of thirteen years I got lost in one of my magical fantasies and started experimenting with all herbs and plants under the sun. I studied my great grandmothers’ recipe book, observed my mother’s every move and mixed all sorts of combinations together to capture the essence of these botanicals and to create that special potion that could enhance natural beauty.

As time passed I one day finally saw everything in a new light and concluded that being lost in fantasy was the motivation to reach reality and in 2005 my big question was answered and the family secret was revealed in one bottle of unique ingredients and infused plants. I was gallivanted to share this reality of natural botanical beauty with the rest of the world. I then sent my proudly developed product to the laboratories where they were clinically tested and approved. The results of the unique infused process that happened in the products left everyone in total awe and I started to eat, sleep and breath my childhood dream.