County native adds a bit of Bremen to skincare routine

Mandy Lile is a former Greenville resident now living in Los Angeles, working in the booming cannabis industry there. She is a licensed esthetician who has developed a line of beauty products featuring plant-based ingredients, including CBD. Even though she lives in L.A., she was here in Muhlenberg County when the Dec. 10 tornado hit.

Lile’s mother, Pam Walley, lives on Kentucky Route 70, west of Central City near a backroad to Millport. She was visiting because her father had passed away in November and she was home to take care of his affairs. The tornado came within a few miles of the home.

Lile said she and her mother took shelter in her basement, and waiting for the storm to pass. “The TV had went out, so we had no idea at that point what was going on. We had no electricity, all we could do is pray.”

Lile had to get to the airport in Louisville the next morning, and was heartbroken to leave her family and hometown behind after such a horrific night. She hadn’t yet seen the worst of it, and it wasn’t until she was seeing posts from friends and family on social media that she got the full picture of what had taken place.

Looking for a way to connect with her loyal local customer base and honor her own belief in making beauty out of a bad situation, she struck on an idea. Her company, Potency No. 710, was about to launch a new skincare product and Lile had been looking for an applicator, trying different options when she though about including a simple wooden spoon.

Mandy Lile (Photo/submitted)

A few minutes into searching on the internet and Lile stumbled upon a company in Clarksdale, Mississippi called Sis and D’s Handmade Spoons. She called home and friend Chasity Gunn used the video call to help search her grandmother’s farm in Bremen for trees downed by the storm.

The Gunns live in Millport, close to the 45-acre farm Lile’s grandmother, Lillian Lile, had formerly owned. “I called Chasity and asked, ‘Can you walk your field with me, kind of in the back along the fence and if we see any wood, can you grab it and ship it to Mississippi?’ and so I’m walking in the field with her on FaceTime, and we found the wood and she shipped it the next day to Mississippi,” Lile said.

Once the wood reached Mississippi, Doug Lamb set about carving spoons. “I primarily work in hardwoods so she asked if I could make them from the storm-damaged wood,” he said. He doesn’t use a pattern and each spoon reveals itself to him as he works. Lile said there are 200 spoons from the wood she shipped to Sis and D’s.

“These spoons are like faces,” Lile said. “No one face is alike and each face has its own beauty. To me, there are no ugly faces, everyone has something beautiful about them that makes them unique. That’s how these spoons are, no spoon is the same. Each one of them is unique.”

The small wooden spoons will accompany Lile’s luxury Higher Good moisturizer while supplies last. The product will be available at the end of April, and people can use the code KY at checkout to receive a special spoon made from wood collected in Bremen after the tornado.

Lile said she will donate a portion of the pre-sale of this item to a particular family in need after the devastating tornado.

After becoming an esthetician, Lile opened Facial Rejuvenation Center in Greenville at age 20. She followed her dreams out to California, but home still means a lot to her. She built a base of loyal customers in Kentucky who still provide her with a strong foundation as she grows her business.

“I have never felt support from so many people in my entire life,” Lile said. “It’s like people back there are rooting for me to win. They don’t realize how much they are the reason I’m successful.”

Lile said the hardest part is being far away and seeing family and friends who have lost so much. She’s sent care packages to many, and she hopes to inspire others by making something like a lovely little spoon from the wreckage.