Healing is in Ramone Reid’s bloodline.
Her grandmother served 40 years as a nurse and a community curing woman known for using “bush medicine” to remedy her neighbors’ ailments, as islanders refer to holistic ingredients. Growing up in Jamaica, Reid was exposed to the power of merging naturopathic and scientific approaches to care for the body.
As an adult, Reid followed in her matriarch’s footsteps and pursued an advanced nursing career, spending nearly 11 years as an RN. She had the fortune of spending some of her career working alongside her grandmother in Jamaica until tragically, she passed from ovarian cancer. Less than a decade later, Reid was given a similar prognosis.
“The circle of life is so ironic, right?” Reid said. “When I received my own diagnosis I fell into a bit of a depression as you can imagine because I’ve always been the one doing the healing. Now, I was in a position where I had no idea how to save myself.”
After being advised to step away from the rigors of work, Reid said she started taking steps to implement self-care into her daily following her taxing cancer treatments. It was then she knew she was shifting into a different phase of life: self-preservation.
“I became really passionate about caring for myself in ways I hadn’t had the time to, so it started with finding ingredients to make skin softer or my hair healthier. I realized there wasn’t much on the market that gave me what I wanted, so I started making it myself.”
Gathering natural ingredients like fresh lemongrass and ylang-ylang from her own backyard, she began producing creams and butters that soon gained the attention of friends. Shortly after, an idea for a business was born. That was nine years ago.
“I started Cultured Naturals back then and honest to God it saved my life,” she told me, also sharing she’s been cancer free for years now. As she describes the early days of building her brand, which has since grown into a brick and mortar space in the Christiansted neighborhood of St. Croix, her eyes fill with child-like excitement.
I’d had the fortune of seeing the store in-person on the island, and was greeted by Reid’s calming aura long before she even greeted me. The storefront is painted a vibrant shade of yellow and smelled of lavender, combination that overwhelmed the senses in the best way.
Products line nearly every inch of the store’s walls, all promising to nourish almost every part of the body from hair to foot.
Cultured Naturals’ body, face and haircare products are all made with locally-sourced ingredients and is 95% vegan with the exception of a honey face mask.
“People pay an arm and leg for things like moringa powder or ylang-ylang when it grows on the trees here,” she said. Her range extends from facials mists to co-wash conditioners made with natural oils to replenish the hair while cleansing. Although the products feel luxurious to users, it comes second nature for Reid.
“I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world with the lushest offering of ingredients ever—I’m so blessed and I want them to feel the same every time they use my products.”