Studio Notes
Questions, process, and care
This space offers context.
About our materials.
About how we work.
About why we choose restraint over excess.
Atabey Obsidiana is built slowly and intentionally.
These notes exist to clarify our approach and share how we think about formulation, care, and responsibility to origin.
-
Atabey is the supreme Taíno goddess. Mother of fresh water, fertility, and the forces that move beneath the surface. She is the original keeper of what grows, and what returns.
Obsidiana for the volcanic stone. Dark, ancient, protective. A material that has always known how to hold and how to cut clean.
This studio carries both.
A materials-first botanical practice rooted in diasporic plant knowledge, small-batch work, and my role as a death doula in end-of-life care.
We work with what the earth offers. Botanicals, minerals, plant oils, clays.
Everything is composed slowly, by hand, and released only when it feels steady.
We are not in a hurry.
The work does not allow for it.
-
This studio is woman owned and shaped by Caribbean memory. Land. Water. Kitchen tables. And the quiet understanding of life, death, and what carries between them.
Remedies passed quietly between women who never needed a credential for what they knew.
We are guided by lineage, not trend.
We care where materials come from. We care how they behave on the body over time. We care what they build, and what remains.
Care here is not instant. It accumulates.
-
Restraint.
Fewer ingredients. More time. Materials chosen for how they live on and in the body over time, not just what they do in the first hour.
Everything is made for daily use. For balance. For staying power.
We’re not focused on quick results. We’re interested in what continues to support you, quietly, over time.
Work that stays with you tends to matter more.
-
It means the material leads.
Plant. Clay. Oil. Water. Resin. Mineral.
And the ways we return to them, in the body and at the end of life.
Chosen for structure. Chosen for function. Chosen because the body recognizes them as something familiar.
Nothing is added for aesthetic alone. Nothing is included to perform for the label.
You will notice the earth in this work. That is intentional.
-
Because every ingredient is a decision.
More is not more careful. More is often just more noise.
When a formula has fewer ingredients, each one has to earn its place completely. There is nowhere to hide.
We would rather have five materials that belong than fifteen that fill space.
-
We focus on foundational care over aggressive intervention.
When more concentrated ingredients are used, they are approached with restraint and in support of long-term balance, not quick results.
We are also intentional about preservation. If something contains water, it is properly preserved. Care should not come at the cost of safety.
This work is not about intensity. It is about what the body can live with, over time.
-
Consistency over time.
This is not shock and awe. It is steady, cumulative change. Comfort improves. Balance stabilizes. The body finds its footing.
Nothing extreme. Nothing that overwhelms the skin. Nothing that has to burn to prove it works.
If you use it regularly, it will do what it’s meant to do. That is the promise.
-
Yes.
Each batch is made in small quantities. It is tested. It rests. It is adjusted. Sometimes it is remade entirely.
Nothing leaves the studio until it feels stable, balanced, and ready to be on someone's skin.
-
Yes.
Nothing in this studio is built on harm. No animal derived materials. No animal testing. Ever.
Care does not require cruelty. That has always been clear to us.
-
We do not build around perfume.
When aroma is present, it comes from the natural character of the plants. Infused oils, CO₂ extracts, the earth note of a clay, the warmth of a pressed seed.
Many formulas are left unscented by design.
If it does not serve the material, it does not enter the blend.
-
For care inquiries and end-of-life support:
care@atabeyobsidiana.comFor studio collaborations and press:
partnerships@atabeyobsidiana.comWe respond with care and intention.
We ask for the same patience we bring to the work.