That Little ® Means More Than You Think

The NurseCrafted® Journey — the wins, the mistakes, the lessons, and the people who helped me keep going

August 18, 2026

At 10:30 this morning, an email landed in my inbox from the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

“Your mark has registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.”

NurseCrafted® was officially registered.

I stared at that little ® beside the name and smiled.

For many people, a trademark probably doesn’t mean much. It’s a symbol. A registration. A piece of paperwork.

But to me, that little ® means everything — not because of the symbol itself, but because I know everything that happened before I earned the right to put it there.

And what an adventure this has been.

It started with a nurse who wanted something different

Before NurseCrafted® was a brand, I was simply a nurse who wanted better options for my own skin.

Years of nursing taught me what repeated handwashing, long shifts and demanding routines can do to skin. And like so many people, I found myself surrounded by products that seemed to do one thing at a time — one to cleanse, another to moisturize, another for this concern, another for that.

I kept thinking: why can’t one thoughtfully formulated product do more?

That question became one of the founding principles behind NurseCrafted®. I didn’t want to build a skincare line just to have a large catalog. I wanted to formulate intentionally — especially for people dealing with dry, sensitive, dull and uneven-looking skin.

A cleansing bar could cleanse while being thoughtfully formulated with ingredients chosen with the skin in mind. A moisturizer could do more than make skin feel moisturized for a few minutes. A balm could protect and nourish without feeling like a heavy layer of grease sitting on the skin.

A product should have a reason for existing. That philosophy still guides everything I formulate today.

But first… there was the “pudding cake” soap

I still laugh when I look back at some of my earliest creations. My first turmeric and kojic acid soap did not look like the polished NurseCrafted® bars I make today — it looked like a slice of pudding cake. Seriously.

And I was proud of that pudding cake. 😂 Because I had made it. I was learning. I was experimenting. I was beginning.

That funny-looking little bar represents something important to me now: you don’t have to begin perfectly to begin building something meaningful.

The formulas improved. The designs improved. My understanding of ingredients improved. My standards became higher. And I became much more intentional about *why* something went into a formulation, instead of simply asking whether it could. But getting from there to here involved a lot of mistakes.

Oh, the mistakes…

Social media usually shows you the finished bar. The beautiful jar. The organized vendor table. The nicely printed label. What it doesn’t show you is everything sitting in the trash can five minutes before that picture. 😂

I’ve botched entire soap batches. I’ve thrown away a full batch of body cream. I’ve ordered soap sleeves that turned out unusable. I’ve printed beautiful labels, admired them proudly… and then noticed one letter was wrong. Into the trash they went.

Labels. Ink. Packaging. Oils. Butters. Ingredients. Time. Money. Occasionally my patience. 😂

I’ve tested and reformulated, then tested again, then changed something, then tested again. There have been late nights, early mornings and missed meals. Days when I worked my nursing shift and still came home with ideas running through my head. Moments when the dining table became a workspace, packaging station, brainstorming table and mini formulation lab all at once.

Building NurseCrafted® didn’t happen because I suddenly had extra hours in my day. I simply kept finding little pieces of time and using them.

Then I learned that making a good product isn’t enough

One of my biggest lessons came from retail. I rented shelf space thinking, *this is it — people will see the products and they’ll sell.* Some didn’t. There were shelves where sales didn’t come close to what I paid to be there.

That hurt — not only financially, but emotionally. When you make something yourself, a slow-selling shelf doesn’t feel like a business statistic at first. You wonder: is something wrong with my product? Do people not understand it? Am I doing this wrong?

But those experiences taught me an important distinction: a good product and a good place to sell that product are not automatically the same thing. Sometimes the product isn’t the problem — sometimes it’s the location, the audience, the presentation. Sometimes people need to understand the story and purpose behind what you’ve created. And sometimes you simply have to recognize when something isn’t working, and have the courage to change direction.

That lesson has saved me from continuing to pour money and energy into places simply because I had already started.

The vendor events changed everything

If the quiet shelves humbled me, vendor events educated me. Some events were fantastic, some were slow. Some days the weather didn’t cooperate; some days people walked right past. Other days customers stopped, asked questions, tried testers, and stayed to talk.

Those conversations became some of the best education I could have received as a formulator and small-business owner. Suddenly I wasn’t formulating in a bubble — I was hearing directly from people about dry hands, sensitive skin, dull-looking skin, uneven-looking skin. What they’d bought before, what they loved, what they hated, what felt too greasy, what they wished existed.

Healthcare workers understood immediately why a nurse would care so much about skin stressed by constant washing. Other customers had completely different routines but surprisingly similar concerns.

I started paying even closer attention. What are people actually asking for? What problem am I really trying to solve? Can I make this product do more without making the formulation unnecessarily complicated?

Those conversations shaped me. Every event — even the ones that weren’t financially successful — gave me something: sales, confidence, feedback, or sometimes a very expensive lesson. 😂 But I learned.

NurseCrafted® became more intentional

As the business grew, my thinking changed. I stopped measuring success by how many products I had. I don’t want ten products doing ten tiny jobs if I can thoughtfully formulate fewer products that serve people better.

Before I create something new, I ask myself: why does this need to exist? Does something I already make accomplish the same thing? What can this formulation realistically offer? Who am I making it for? How can I make their routine simpler, rather than giving them another bottle to buy?

That’s why dry, sensitive, dull and uneven-looking skin became such an important focus for me. I want people to feel comfortable showing their skin. I want someone who has spent years trying to hide their skin to slowly feel confident enough not to. I want the person at my vendor table to understand why I chose the ingredients I chose.

I don’t want NurseCrafted® to be about selling the largest number of products possible. I want it to be about making products with intention.

And through all of this, I was still a nurse

This part matters to me. I didn’t stop being a nurse to become a formulator — I built this while being a nurse. There were still shifts to work, a family to take care of, a home, responsibilities, real life. Some days I had plenty of energy for HumbleGlow. Other days, absolutely not.

But nursing has influenced this business more than I realized when I began. It taught me to observe, to listen, to ask questions, to pay attention to details, to recognize that what works beautifully for one person may not be right for another. To keep learning. And most importantly, to remember that there is a real person on the other side of what I’m doing.

That’s why NurseCrafted® isn’t just a catchy name to me. It’s part of the identity of what I’m building.

I also didn’t build this alone

Behind all those late nights, vendor events, packages, experiments and crazy ideas is my rock — the person who has had my back so I could do all of this. Who has watched the wins and the messes. Who has seen the boxes arrive, the ingredients everywhere, the late nights, the excitement when something finally worked, the frustration when something didn’t, the endless “wait, I have an idea…” And still stood beside me.

There are dreams that may belong to one person, but there are often people quietly making room for that person to chase them. I know how fortunate I am to have that. This milestone belongs in our story too.

Then came the trademark journey

As NurseCrafted grew from an idea into an actual brand, protecting its identity became important to me. So I filed for the trademark.

Then came the paperwork. The waiting. More waiting. An Office Action. Research. A response. And then — more waiting.

When you’re a tiny business, things like this feel enormous. There isn’t a corporate legal department down the hall handling everything while you focus on your job. You’re the formulator, product development, purchasing, packaging, marketing, customer service, inventory — the person loading the car for events. And then suddenly you’re learning about trademarks too. 

But I kept going. And on August 18, 2026, the email finally arrived:

NurseCrafted®**
U.S. Registration No. 8,407,351**
Officially registered to HumbleGlow Collections LLC.**

I can’t adequately explain what seeing that meant to me.

It’s only a little ® — until you know what’s behind it

For many people, a trademark probably doesn’t mean anything. I understand that. But for me, it means everything — because I know the work behind the name.

I know the soap batches that failed. The body cream that went into the trash. The unusable packaging. The labels I’ve thrown away over tiny mistakes. The ink, the oils, the butters, the money spent learning. The shelves that didn’t sell, the events that surprised me, the events that humbled me. The customers who came back. The first person who trusted something I made enough to put it on their skin. The nurses who stopped at my table and immediately understood. The feedback that sent me back to reformulate something. The late nights, the early mornings, the missed meals. The doubts, the excitement, the mistakes, the growth.

So when I look at NurseCrafted®, I don’t see a symbol. I see the story behind it — something that once existed only as an idea in my head, becoming an identity with its own purpose.

That’s why this milestone matters so much to me.

 I’m proud — but I’m nowhere near finished

Registration doesn’t mean I’ve suddenly figured everything out. Far from it. I’ll probably make another batch that teaches me something. I’ll probably print another label and discover one ridiculous typo after it’s finished. I’ll try ideas that work, and ideas that don’t. I’ll keep listening to customers, learning about ingredients, improving formulations, becoming a better business owner. And I’ll keep being a nurse.

Because NurseCrafted® was never supposed to represent perfection. It represents intention. Learning. Curiosity. Resilience. Care. And the belief that skincare can be thoughtfully created to do more for the person using it.

To every person who stopped at my table…

Every person who smelled a soap, tried a tester, purchased something I formulated. Every returning customer. Every person who shared a post, recommended HumbleGlow Collections to someone else, or gave me honest feedback. Every person who encouraged me when this little business was still finding its way…

Thank you. You didn’t just buy something — you became part of the story I am building.

And to my rock — thank you for giving me the space, support and strength to chase another crazy idea and somehow turn it into something real.

From that first turmeric and kojic acid “pudding cake” soap… to botched batches… to vendor tables… to shelves that didn’t sell… to customers who came back… to countless reformulations… to an Office Action… to this:

NurseCrafted®
Officially registered.

And perhaps my favorite part of this entire story? We’re still at the beginning.

— Verly
Nurse. Formulator. Founder.
NurseCrafted® by HumbleGlow Collections