About Us

Hi friend! Thanks for stopping by The Blue Sparrow Apothecary website. Please allow me to introduce myself and my company. My name is Lorilee Colbert and coming along with me on this adventure of running a woman owned small business is my beautiful daughter-in-love, Kiley, and handsome and supportive husband, Scott. We are the proud parents of four boys (Nate, Joseph, Ayden, Jackson), and one year old granddaughter. We are a busy family always on the move and creating a life we love with the ones we love.

 

A little about my background-- I was born and raised in Norman, Oklahoma and come from a long line of small business owners. My late grandfather brought the first Dairy Queen to Oklahoma in 1947 and I remember vividly traveling around to inspect his restaurants with him as a child. My parents owned multiple laundromat and dry cleaning businesses around the Norman area as I grew up, which is where I learned to reconcile a cash drawer at the age of 10 years old. Watching my parents and grandparents work hard definitely helped form my work ethic and drive towards success in everything I do in life. Even in failures, there can be success if you learn something in the process.   

 

At the age of twenty-five I opened my first small business as a wedding and event planner and went on to operate a wedding chapel and photography business for over a decade before a spinal injury forced me to leave that line of work. After a few years of physical therapy and regaining my independence, I decided to pursue a career change and applied to the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center College of Allied Health. I was accepted into the sonography program and went to work. OUHSC is the #1 Sonography school in the country and it was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, but it led me to a very rewarding career in the medical field.  After graduating from the sonography program I went to work for an Oklahoma City area hospital and now specialize in cancers of the head and neck and work hand-in -hand with two of the top physicians in the area. In my role, I serve as the physician's eyes in performing biopsy procedures, surgical neck mappings, and post-operative surveillance of patients with a history of cancer. It is truly a rewarding career and I feel so honored to be able to make an impact in the lives of my patients.

 

As with all of us in the medical field, the past couple of years have been very stressful and emotionally draining time. Making soaps, candles, and other personal care products have provided a creative outlet to help balance out the challenges of my career in healthcare. I began making handcrafted soaps for family and friends and to help with my 14 year old's bad eczema. Things took off from there, expanding into other products until one day I was told that I should start selling my products. With a background in the sciences and business management, I realized that I had already taken lots of classes and learned so much that I could draw from in making my products including several chemistry classes: General Chemistry, Biochemistry, Organic chemistry, as well as Microbiology, Immunology, Pathology, and Human Anatomy. So here we are running a small business! :) 

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Kiley also grew up in Norman and is a graduate of Norman North High School. She is currently a full-time mother & college student, pursuing her degree in accounting. In addition to being a mother and student, she is our lead sales associate, runs our booth at Norman Farm Market, and often travels to assist with bigger events. She is great with people and is a huge asset to the business. Kiley makes all of our bath salts, milk baths, shower steamers, and bath bombs and is learning how to make soap and candles as well. She is a total Rockstar and it is such a blessing for us to work together and share this experience as a family. When she is not busy with work or school, she enjoys to cooking and baking, and she is phenomenal at that as well. 

 

My husband, Scott, has a degree in Management, has owned his own business for the past fourteen years. He has experience working in logistics and supply chain management which is a great asset to the Blue Sparrow helping behind the scenes with inventory management, shipping, and receiving. He also helps me get ready for farmers markets and craft shows, and is a good ambassador for the business with his outgoing personality. We enjoy working together and bouncing ideas off each other and have incorporated working date nights into our life to keep things fun along the way. 

 

We at The Blue Sparrow Apothecary strive to handcraft personal care products of the finest quality. Though we ship to customers far and wide, our family is right here in Oklahoma operating from our little soap studio. Each item that ends up in your home is crafted and packaged with dedication and care.

 

We hope our product offerings enhance your personal care routine and we encourage you to prioritize making time for yourself to relax, pray/meditate, breathe deep breaths, and seek inner peace and tranquility. Never forget that self-care is mandatory, not optional. <3

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Be well-

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The Blue Sparrow Team