Homemade Oasis
Coffee shop manager winds down with her own bath salts, teas, and candles. And she wants you to do the same.
During the day, you’ll find Courtney Dech, 28, managing The Joint Coffee Co. in Bethlehem. She may even serve you a soda or latte with fresh sage from her garden. But after hours, in her grandmother’s second kitchen in Easton, Dech makes magic happen with candles, body oils, bath salts, herbal teas, and cleansing sprays.
Since 2014, Dech has been making holistic self-care products.
“I always made these things for myself, but I wanted to give them to the world,” she says. “We can’t care for anybody else if we can’t take care of ourselves.”
Dech’s company, Quartz in the Clouds, has found success in local craft fairs and on Etsy. The name is a play on Dech’s name, Court.
“I feel like I’m kind of airy and spacey. That’s where the clouds came from,” she says.
“I want to put good energy into people’s hands and let them use it.”
While baths are Dech’s favorite self-care ritual, candles are her main focus right now. Her soy candles come in a range of scents designed to calm and soothe, including rosewood and black currant, honeysuckle, nag champa—think: incense—and the holiday limited edition, spiced chai.
Dech experiments with adding crystals to her products, something she says can give energy to the salts, candles, sprays, and teas.
“Charged crystals are charged minerals from the Earth,” she says.
“If they’re passed around a lot, they’ll need to be cleansed and recharged.
You can charge them by moonlight or burying them underground, or running them underwater.”
Dech found power in these crystals long before she started creating her wellness products.
“I got into a spiritual way of living,” she says. “I’ve always been Earth-conscious.”
Dech grows her own vegetables, flowers, and herbs. She often uses her herbs in her products and hopes to do more of this in the future.
“I started making cleansing mist sprays, and my favorite right now is a sage cleansing spray,” she says. “You spray it on your body and around your room.”
Many of Dech’s products have a focus on dreams. She created a spray for pillows and a tea that she says helps with dream recall.
On the flip side, she has a tea that helps people sleep.
“If I dream too much I wake up exhausted,” she says. “This tea helps with sleep and there’s been a good response.”
As Dech looks ahead, the ultimate dream—if you will—is to have a small apothecary shop that also serves as a studio workspace.
“I want to share what I see as beauty in the world,” she says. “I want to put good energy into people’s hands and let them use it.”
Stress Relief
Try a warm bath with bath salts. Dech’s salts are made with Epsom salts, oils, crystals, and herbs. She recommends Mystic Moon Bath Magic. For added stress relief, sip a cup of herbal tea, like Dech’s Happiest Flower.
A Window into Your Dreams
Tap into your dreams with a stress relief bath while you sip Dech’s Dream Tea. Spritz your pillow with her dream spray, and keep a journal next to your bed so you can jot down notes when you wake up.
A Boost of Energy
A calming bath can also help you reenergize. Try a morning bath with Sea Flora bath salts with eucalyptus, paired with the Happiest Flower tea, which has lemon-scented herbs to help uplift you for the day.
Shop: etsy.com/shop/quartzintheclouds
Instagram: @quartzintheclouds
