Megan Navarro
DRIPPING SPRINGS — What started out as Lani Derrick learning how to create her own vanilla extract to bring more intentional products into her home turned into a Dripping Springs-based handcrafted gift company, named Life Anchored Home.
“My daughter and I were making cookies and we had kind of gone down this path of trying to be more thoughtful with food dyes. We realized that our vanilla baking extract had food coloring in it and we were like, ‘Why?’ So, I was like, 'How do I make this myself? I am going to learn,’” Derrick recalled, after creating the business three years ago.
It became a “snowball effect” from there, said Derrick, where she and her family started looking at implementing other more conscious products in her home. After seeing what they have been doing, clients began asking for gift baskets under Life Anchored Home’s private label line of home goods.
Derrick said that they originally wanted to share their love for cleaner products and it’s turned into something that other people enjoy, as well, knowing that it’s “good for you [and] good for the environment around you.”
“We create in-house. We do cold-processed soaps, baking extracts, room and linen sprays. We pour our own candles and we create simmer pots, which are like a stovetop potpourri, as well as a drink infusion kit. Those products, especially the ones that include any kind of a dried good, we literally are sourcing the fruit fresh. We're slicing it; we're dehydrating it. There's no preservatives or dyes in any of those, since it's an all natural product completely across the board,” she explained. “Our soaps are made with a blend of oils that are great for your skin. They have a rich lather. We try to incorporate some fun colors into them [that] are all skin safe. We use the same fragrance line with our soaps as we do with our room and linen sprays and with our candles, so they're safe for you to breathe.”
Everything is also assembled locally with a focus on helping businesses build meaningful relationships through thoughtful gifting, Derrick said. Life Anchored Home is also fulfilling a need to allow businesses to represent their best self, take the burden off and give their clients an experience without having to do all the fine details themselves.
Derrick’s favorite part is the community aspect: “It makes me happy when I see it out in our community and I know that others are enjoying it as much as I do. It's also something that I'm getting to let my family see in our community. We employ someone within the community; we're in retail space within the community and then, we're supporting our local, other businesses by providing those systems. We're really trying to share within the economy of Dripping Springs itself in multiple ways.”
Currently, Life Anchored Home products can be found on the shelves at Home Grown, located at 2001 U.S. 290, Dripping Springs, while also partnering with other local businesses and realtors to provide gifts for their clients.
While the company also works in-house, Derrick shared that the immediate goal is continued growth and recognition within the community, but with the potential of moving into its own retail space in the future.
To learn more and browse Life Anchored Home’s products, visit www.lifeanchoredhome.com.
