FAQ
Password help
How do I get the password to view some of the items that are password protected?
To receive a password you can send an email to info@stardust-apothecary.com with the name of the person that referred you or how you heard about us and someone will respond shortly.
Store
How come you are not on Shopify or have a regular shop?
I am not on Shopify because they will close me down in a second. I was on Etsy and they closed my shop down. Entheogens are in a grey area that is looked down upon and judged, misunderstood and highly regulated. By keeping this shop low key on my blog I am able to safely make my offerings to you.
Ingredients
Where are the ingredients sourced
As a person who only consumes organic and high quality ingredients I wanted to make the medicine I offered was the same.
Most of the herbs are wild foraged by my mom and I in the Maidu lands of Northern California. There is an abundant harvest every spring and we only take a small amount no more that 1/4 of the harvest. Anything else we don’t wild forage we are getting from herbalist in the area who offer organic and sustainable, we mostly use Mountain Rose herbs.
The entheogens come from a trusted source in Peru. Everything is fresh and sustainably sourced as well.
All the mushrooms I offer are grown in house by our in house mycologist. Everything is organic and we only harvest the fruiting bodies. Our Turkey tail is wild foraged from Chico California and Oahu Hawaii.
My Blue Lotus comes from Chiang Mai Thailand from a trusted source. Since living and traveling allover the world I was able to make great connections as I was planning and organizing this line of herbal medicine for almost ten years.
Alcohol
What kind of alcohol is in the extractions?
The alcohol used is a Gluten free 6x distilled vodka called Members mark. Please be aware however when extracting medicine with alcohol it really doesn’t matter what kind of Vodka you are using because its just used as the preservation. Once its extracted it completely changes its molecular structure and is not the same as drinking the straight vodka itself. The finished product is quite different and less harmful on the liver. It is recommended to mix the alcohol extractions (except the wine infusions) into a warm solvent like tea to dilute the alcohol. Rosemary Gladstar, the grandmother of herbal medicine uses vodka for her tinctures and extractions because its the cleanest alcohol and doesn’t have any flavor. Some herbalist chose to use Brandy or Glycerin. When you extract with Glycerin however you don’t get nearly as much of the medicinal benefits as you do with alcohol. Alcohol will pull 75-80% of the medicinal compounds whereas Glycerin only 10-15%.
Alcohol
Why alcohol?
When extracting the medicinal compounds from herbs and plant medicines its best to do it from the fresh harvest. This ensures the most potent medicine. Our ancestors would preserve the medicine they harvested in the summer months with alcohol to keep them lasting longer. Fresh dried herbs and plant medicine do have a shelf life and will lose potency pretty quick within 6 months to a year that is why I like to preserve in alcohol to make sure you are always getting the potent medicinal compounds. In addition to preservation a lot of these medicines need to be extracted in alcohol to get most of the benefits from them. When you extract herbs in Glycerin which is a popular method for the grocery stores you are only getting 10-15% of the medicinal compounds whereas with alcohol you are getting 75-80% so it necessary to use Alcohol for the fullest potency.
Extarcts vs Tinctures
What is the difference between an extract and a tincture
Extracts are full potency extractions of the medicine with alcohol and no water.
Tinctures can be lesser potent diluted with water and extracted with glycerin.
Payment system
Why don’t you accept regular credit cards and payments like PayPal? Your payment system is confusing
Due to the nature of my products the merchant accounts will not work with me, meaning I cannot accept credit cards. Also due to the nature of my products they shut my PayPal account down and my Venmo account so what I offer as payment methods is what I have left. Cash app, Zelle and apple pay. I can however accept payments with a credit card in my online terminal if you want to email or call info@stardust-apothecary.com 424-202-4678
Tracking
I haven’t received my tracking number how do I know if my order was received?
The tracking goes through the email and it usually ends up in spam. If you chose to track your package with ROUTE then make sure to download the ROUTE app and you can track it in real time. Please be aware that all orders have to be manually accepted since we are not able to accept credit cards there in no way of our system knowing that a payment was received until it is checked by a human and processed manually. Please be patient and check your spam email as well as route for updates.
Coupons
Do you offer any coupon codes?
We do offer a discount code when you leave a review on a product you purchased. Check spam for the email and you will receive your code.