How can we articulate our love for Sun Potion? This amazing team is dedicated to health, happiness, and well-being through the use of medicinal plants, superfoods, and tonic herbs. Their lineup is sourced from only the most potent, healing, organic or wildcrafted plants.
We had the utmost blessing of visiting their warehouse in Santa Barbara where Nitsa, Sun Potion's creative director, and Scott, owner and founder, made us the most outrageous pine pollen tonic while we indulged in Prash. These two radiate unconditional love. Being in their presence might just be the ultimate tonic they haven't figured out how to bottle.
What is your favorite herb?
Nitsa: It’s hard for me to pick a favorite…but I definitely have a current (favored) herb. That would be Pine Pollen. It’s amazing. It’s a complete food with full spectrum of essential fatty and amino acids. It has bio-available protein - it’s incredible for the brain. It balances testosterone levels in men and women.
I always feel really nourished when I have it. Since I don’t eat a lot of animal protein or even very many sprouted nuts anymore — the pine pollen supplies my body with protein that’s really easy to digest. I feel it in my brain. Most people notice the effects right away — you’ll feel kind of groovy.
Ashitaba is also one of my favorites. it contains essential B-vitamins, even more so than the pine pollen. It has a history of being a Japanese beauty food — and any food that’s related to beauty and/or JAPAN I tend to eat a lot of- ha! Ashitaba is called “Tomorrow’s Leaf” because the leaves of the ashitaba will replensih their growth by the next day! Very resilient plant….
My third favorite would have to be Reishi Mushroom. Especially since we’ve been traveling a lot — I feel like it really supports my immune system and stress-relief.
Scott: The combination of he shou wu and astragalus is mind-blowing.
Why consume herbs?
Scott: To create new circutry in your body so that you can hold more currency and energetic frequency — so that you can be an integrated embodiment of your soul. Tonic herbs are amazing. The results of eating these kinds of foods are more power and support in your body. People start feeling things that they’re not used too. Even feeling the breeze on the skin is a reality that people are not used to — because people are too busy turning mental waves. Mental body is super limited. Physical, spiritual, emotional body has a whole depth of experience available that’s not always appreciated or noticed…but if you eat plants that nourish those parts of your overall system — then it’s pretty likely you’ll start noticing those pieces.
How should people take these foods?
Scott: The best thing to remember with these foods is to have a small serving consistently over a long period of time….ideally a whole lifetime. These plants have a history of being consumed during one’s whole life. A 1/4tsp or 1/2tsp daily is a good place to start. You’ll get more benefit from the foods by having a small amount consistently than randomly taking large doses.
How did the look, name, and branding all come to be?
Scott: Just prior to when I moved to Santa Barbara…I lived in Ojai for about 4-5 years. I lived a super ambient life…barefoot hiking everyday, living outside, didn’t work at a J-O-B (journey of the broke) the entire time. By choice, I decided to have ultra minimum overhead and step outside of the commercial system and just be in nature. When I was spending money, it was to learn Daoist alchemy and energy cultivation practices and learning about essential oils. Woo-woo stuff. It’s been a linear journey. How did Sun Potion grow out of that? There was a crystallization of a lot of experiential pieces that came to be realized in one ultimate path. The herbs had been a part of my life for a long time. The symbology, the logo, even the name — is coding. The name is representing the shift to be embodied from consuming these foods; the winged sun disk symbol is representing the transmutation of the body into light — so that you are walking around on Earth embodying higher divinity.
The body has a relationship to the wing symbology that makes us gravitate towards Sun Potion products. It’s ancient coding that reminds us of our soul truth.
Did you guys think that you would be altering the entire course of people’s lives?
Scott: I don’t feel like we are personally doing that, but the plants certainly change people’s lives. I had my own experience of these plants having an enormous impact on my life. I used to be super ungrounded — so out of my body all the time and eating these herbs have totally shifted my energy. There is a real service component to what we are doing. Ultimately we are in service of people that are eating the herbs — but even more directly we are in service of the herbs themselves. They have a spirit. I have a relationship with the energetics behind these plants. They want to work with people and they need avenues to get to people.
I get to have the things I’m most in love with around me all the time now.
What are your favorite spots in Santa Barbara?
Scott: This warehouse. I love this place. Mesa Lane beach is an incredible place I love. It feels like a wild beach because of the huge bluff.
Nitsa: I like to hangout in my backyard. Mission Canyon. The botanical garden. My studio / office. The farmers markets here are just beautiful.
What makes you smile?
Nitsa: Herbs. Spending time with plants. I laugh a little when I say this because it’s really honest - being open with people makes me smile…. it feels good.
Scott: Optimism. Human experience. Being in love with Nitsa. Great food. Being outside in California — I love the sun. I think it’s part of my nature to be half smiling.
Can you expound on your collaboration with the Wildize Foundation?
Scott: They are a women’s collective in Ghana. They started off as a ecology preservation group. They were doing educational things to protect different species. After a couple of years, they started getting into humanitarian pieces….digging wells, creating economy for women, educating people…things like that. They are a really sweet group.
Basically, we teamed with them to source our shea butter and also provide an avenue for their foundation. I’ve been using shea butter on my body since I moved to California. It’s pretty much the only thing I use on my skin. Shea butter is an incredible skin food. It’s a dry oil — the skin totally sucks it in as if it was eating it.
Depending on quantities we receive — it sometimes come in a gourd. It’s really blood of mother of Africa. If you think about it — in a very seasonally limited rainfall with very dry climate and here is the shea nut tree that have to be like 50 years old or more to produce. They are really revered and treasured. The nuts are boiled, peeled out of their shell, and then mashed up. It’s all this fat that comes out of dry, hard soil. It’s crystallized sunlight.
