Our Story
Tamed Wild was started by Shelby & Jason, a wife & husband team. Dreamt up in 2016, we began as a product line offering organic herbs, teas & other natural remedies. At the time, Shelby was 8 years into owning a salon and a small retail store. With a strong interest in botanicals and the “old ways,” a small product line felt like a natural fit and unique offering for the counter at the store. The products were crafted in the kitchen, and Tamed Wild was born. After a few months of selling locally, a website was launched, and we began selling on social media. Subscription boxes were becoming a popular thing & it seemed like an interesting way to reach more people. We could supply those who could not find these items locally for an affordable price. We would put 5-7 items in each box: Tamed Wild teas, herbal blends, crystals, and other tools for the earth-spirited. It was a new idea, and November 2016 was our first box. We got 11 subscribers. We opened the brick-and-mortar apothecary in the village of Arroyo Grande, CA, and packed our orders out of the small back room. We grew faster than we could keep up.
By May of 2017, we were in our first warehouse with 4 employees. Our days were spent packing orders, reading tarot, drinking tea & hand choosing crystals for the website. It was the best of times and the beginning of what would be our learning years. We learned how to manage inventory, how to work Adobe design programs, how to source reputable and ethical vendors, how not to pack glass in a box. We learned what our customers loved about us and what they didn’t. We learned that the internet is a vicious place at times, and one email or social media comment can keep you up at night or make you cry. We learned that we are only as good as the people we employ, and if we take care of them, they will take care of us. We learned our team is truly the best out there, and we learned that we are very lucky to have them.
Fast forward to 2024, and those lessons keep coming. We currently employ 4 full-time people and work with multiple independent makers & creatives that, together, are the Tamed Wild brand. We are bi-coastal, with a production warehouse in California and one opening soon in North Carolina. We are just as hands-on now as we were the day we started. Our teas are hand-blended, our crystals are hand-picked, and our subscription boxes are curated by Shelby and her right-hand girl, Danielle. We are women-owned and operated, earth-spirited to the core, and believers in all things magick.
We are extremely grateful for the support we have received these last 8 years and hope to continue earning your business in the future. xo