Hello and Welcome!
My name is Dr. Aba Mortley and I have been fortunate enough to be a part of the Cher-Mère family all my life. Cher-Mère has been in business for over 30years and was founded by my mother, Cheryl Bowles, biochemist. In those years, we have grown from being a predominantly herb shop with a Cher-Mère hairfood product to a cosmetic company with over 50 products and accompanying day spas. All my life, I have been around all aspects of the company, as a young girl I would accompany my mother to expositions and travel around the country to perform demonstrations and talk to groups about the Cher-Mère products and the herbs that we offered. I remember being the quiz master, as we used to have a picture board filed with the herbs that we sold and I would ask people to guess the names of all the herbs on the board. As I grew older, I would help weigh the herbs and cap and label the products. I took much pride in getting the exact or very close to the exact weight on the first try. I then moved on to working in the spas, even doing treatments, I was so excited when I got my first tip for a pedicure! While in university in Canada, I ran a kiosk in the Bramlea City Centre selling the Cher-Mère products. Now, I am working on the social and international development of the company as we look towards making Cher-Mère day spas and products a worldwide name.
I love what I do not because I have to but because I want to. I was never pressured to take over the business but to me this was never a question. I believe in the Cher-Mère brand for many reasons some of which are: I believe in the quality of the products that we make, they are sourced from natural and organic ingredients and I am living proof that they work; I believe in the staff of Cher-Mère who to me feel like an extension of my family; and I believe that as a team we all are working together for the greater good by providing services and making products that work in a real and genuine manner.
The philosophy of Cher-Mère is one of love: love of self, love of others, and love of the planet. I feel that we should all be mindful of our actions, of what we do and why we do what we do. Just as we may exercise and eat well to take care of our bodies so to I think it is important to nurture our external appearance to complete the package. I think we should be responsible, look for products that are friendly to our bodies and to the world. After all our skin is the largest organ that we have so we should ensure that what we put on it does not affect our body negatively by using products that are as natural as possible, made with ingredients free from pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. From the beginning we have tried to use the best ingredients, by growing many of the materials, such as the rachette (cactus) and aloe on site and ordering high quality essential oils, purifying our water using reverse osmosis techniques and now adding to these certified organic ingredients. Our products are clinically tested in the US to be non-allergenic and irritant free and are sulphate and paraben free.
We do not use Sodium Lauryl in our products and while we do use some preservatives, they are use minimally (<1%) and are done to ensure that you can enjoy the product and allow it to keep well for the duration of its life. We also use natural preservatives such as honey, lemon, and rosemary to slow down the oxidization process. The shelf life of the average Cher-Mère product is two years.
At Cher-Mère, we also strive to reduce our environmental impact and carbon footprint even before those terms were popular. We use minimal packaging, 50% post-consumer recyclable bottles, and we utilize solar panels in our plant. We have established a certified a quality and environmental assessment system of our production plant to ensure that all standards are upheld and consistent and are in the process of becoming certified as a green spa.
Our Cher-Mère family feels very fortunate and in our mission to help others we reach out to our community. We have a give back project in which our Cher-Mère family each put in monthly donations into a fund which is matched dollar for dollar by the company and donated to various non-profit charities in our community.
I cannot imagine doing anything else in the world and I am full of gratitude and love to be able to be in such a position. It is now my mission to continue Cher-Mère ’s legacy of love and take this to the world.
All for now,
Dr. Aba