After seven solid years of building, in 2022 our business took its first real hit since inception in 2015, when our largest account filed bankruptcy and reclaimed funds we’d already counted on. We started to see cracks in our foundation and eventually came to the stark realization that our prices weren’t covering our costs.
Also in 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned, and women in this country lost our right to full autonomy over our bodies and choices. That’s not politics, it's not religion, it's not my opinion; it is a legal fact. And as a company that has always been fueled and backed by women, it hit us hard.
In 2023, my two original business partners - both men - left the company on short notice and I had the option to leave too. Without much time to prepare, I made the choice to stay. I bought them out with every last dollar I had and stood proudly with the women who’ve been in the trenches with me since our early days on South Broadway.
Our brand has always been built in real time; working with the plants, formulating in the lab, offering services from our treatment rooms, asking the questions, teaching the students, learning the systems, burning them down, creating our own, and sharing our resources.
Since day one we came here to make an impact and to create the change we want to see: by forming ecosystems that empower women, putting small businesses at the forefront of economic change, and rooting ethical wellness in community care, not competition.
These last two years tested every inch of that mission. We went head to head with every system that once supported us. We faced our own traumas, our own limits, and our own reckonings. In mid-2024, when we came face-to-face with the real possibility of shutting it all down before ever launching the non-CBD line our female formulator had worked years on - we paused to recalibrate instead of folding. During that time, the other women who had stayed the longest, had to leave - mostly due to the uncertainty of making payroll each month - and still we stayed.
We finally launched our non-CBD line on Amazon in late ‘24 in an effort to stabilize our business, while protecting the integrity of our cannabinoid infused line. It worked. We moved product. We reached new people. And we learned. We learned how much Amazon takes. We learned how invisible a brand becomes when it isn’t willing or able to play the algorithm game. We learned how much soul gets stripped when you don’t own your customer relationships.
We learned that our power is not in mass markets. It’s in you. In our relationships and our community connections.
Over the years, we built four wellness centers and production labs by hand - spaces that became more than just locations - they were a sanctuary, a classroom, a dance floor, a battlefield, a healing center, and a place where strangers became chosen family. They held the stories of thousands: women-led small businesses that took root and grew inside those walls, yoga teacher trainings that transformed lives, music showcases, mushroom growing workshops, cannabis ceremonies, magic rituals, sacred dance, and more laughter, more tears, more breakthrough moments than I could ever count.
At the end of 2025 we made the decision to close our doors and to relocate to Saltbox - a modern co-warehousing space built for small businesses like ours. This closure didn’t happen overnight. It came four years after COVID, after the world moved online and e-commerce began replacing in-person retail. We fought tooth and nail to keep our doors open, and we put every last bit of ourselves into it. But the social and economic landscape had shifted and we couldn’t fight it anymore. So when our landlords - who have become like family - offered us a hand and the wisdom to let go, we received it. We knew that if we wanted to continue making the products that are touching lives every day, we couldn’t keep holding up a structure the world was no longer walking into. Letting go wasn’t giving up - it was a strategic, heart-led choice to evolve instead of shut down completely.
And the truth is, we were never just a location - we have always been a movement. And movements don’t end. They evolve.
So far this year, none of us have taken paychecks. We put everything into our brand - our time, our labor, our hearts, and our resources. Amber and Marana officially became co-owners. And each of our mothers who backed us with their time, their belief, and lots of times their food and social security money, was given 3% royalty. Because that’s who we are and who we have always been:
A family. A living, breathing company with values, with backbones, with hearts, and with a whole lotta love and devotion.
This House took a village to build, and it’s the women here now - including you - who have kept us moving forward. We built this House as a platform for reform and truth; to ground down, rise up, and together, become the change we want to see in our homes, our communities, and our world.
Now today, ten years after opening our doors, and two years after making the decision to keep going when the world told us to stop, we sit at a crossroads.
We chose to pull our products from Amazon and partner with Faire - because it’s built for businesses like ours, and yours. Faire connects independent brands with retailers who care about how things are made, who makes them, and where their money goes. For our community of spa owners, solo estheticians, wellness boutiques, and women-led shops, Faire is more than a platform - it’s a partner in building a more intentional economy.
We’ve rebranded again because we all deserve better. The past two years hit hard, and our branding took the hit with it. But the products never stopped being something we believe in. So we stocked the lab, upgraded our packaging, invested in better labels and more sustainable supplies, and we are ready, now we need you.
We need your support now to push through this final stretch. We made it through the move. We packed up eight years of our lives and stored it in my house and garage. We are now rooted at Saltbox, working around the clock to get new inventory into your hands. But we can’t do this last part alone. So if you’ve ever loved what we’ve made, if you’ve ever used our products in your services, shared us with a friend, or kept a bottle on your shelf as a symbol of your own truth, now is the time.
We need you to order. We need you to restock. We need you to carry us through this moment so we can carry on with this mission and continue leading this movement alongside you.
To everyone who has ever stood with us - every practitioner, every educator, every student, every rebel, healer and believer who made this House real, we are calling you forward.
The time is now. The movement is here. And together, we are the change.
You can read more here about how to partner with us on Faire, where you’ll receive free shipping, NET 60 terms, and 50% off your first order, plus access to preorder our new rebranded collection before anyone else.
And because loyalty is royalty in this House, we’re offering a Founding Fox Fam Membership to anyone who’s been with us before today - gifting you 50% off our current stock, and additional wholesale discounts for the next year as our way of saying: we see you, we honor you, and we’re building this with you.
With love, trust, and an unwavering belief that our choices, voices, and actions matter,
XoXo
Shauna,
Co-Founder of Color Up and Co-Owner of House of VXN
