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photo by Alexandra Sobczak
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photo by Alexandra Sobczak
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photo by Alexandra Sobczak
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photos by Sharon Hughes Photography
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photos by Sharon Hughes Photography
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photos by Sharon Hughes Photography
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photos by Sharon Hughes Photography
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photos by Sharon Hughes Photography
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photos by Sharon Hughes Photography
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photos by Sharon Hughes Photography
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Kaitlin K Walsh
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Kaitlin K Walsh
A sleek lab adorned with a neon yellow sign reading “Made with love” is Andrea Pierce-Naymon’s home away from home. She can look out over Orange Rose Apothecary, her Hudson retail space, while handmaking the products in her OY-L skin care line, but her makerspace wasn’t always so chic.
“I set my kids’ old playroom into a lab,” says Pierce-Naymon, who started the line because she wanted clean products with healthy ingredients for her daughter who has postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. “I covered the air hockey table and put out all my essential oils. I got a mixer. I started whipping up things.”
She developed her OY-L brand of all-natural serums, face washes, lip balms, bath salts and more made with plant-based oils like avocado, hemp seed, rose hip and lavender, which are available through her website and Saks online. Then she opened her store in October 2021 to sell OY-L products as well as other local goods.
A popular OY-L choice is the face cream, a moisturizing cream that’s made by whipping 12 hydrating oils and was spotlighted in Allure, and another is the Vitamin C-packed facial cleansing powder. “The Vitamin C will help brighten your face,” Pierce-Naymon says.
The spot, which has faux branches, butterflies and orange slices hanging from the ceiling, was inspired by David Rose’s general store in the popular sitcom “Schitt’s Creek.” Customers can find quirky references to the show, such as crows and toilet plungers, as well as Rose family photos and other memorabilia, mixed into the local and sustainable items from businesses like Nosh Butters in Cuyahoga Falls and Eco Scentsations candle company in Hudson.
“I wanted a happy place for people to come and find something unusual,” she says.
The products Pierce-Naymon makes have had huge impacts. Her daughter has been doing better, and Pierce-Naymon donates 15 percent of all salt sales to Dysautonomia International and POTS research. She also gifted some lavender body butter to her sister-in-law, who has eczema.
“Lavender is more than a beautiful scent. It’s actually antibacterial, antiviral,” say Pierce-Naymon, adding that her sister-in-law reported a big change. “She goes, … I’ve been using this on my body, and it’s gone.”
