Inspiring Conversations with Jessie Samedi and Melinda Dean of RESERVOIR

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessie Samedi and Melinda Dean.

Hi Jessie and Melinda, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Reservoir began with a very personal question: What if the things we bring into our homes could
care for us, rather than simply serve us?

For both of us, that question became louder through motherhood and our own journeys with
autoimmune illness. When your body asks you to pay closer attention to what you eat, breathe,
and put on your skin, you start looking at your home differently, too. Reading labels become second nature and ingredients lists get shorter. We both began looking to the Earth for answers, and that curiosity slowly became a way of living.

Melinda began an apprenticeship with The Gaia School of Healing + Earth Education,
deepening her understanding of living in reciprocity with the natural world. She began
gardening, keeping bees, and replacing the products in her home with cleaner alternatives.

Jessie spent ten years in event production, witnessing firsthand the enormous scale of waste
and disposability we have normalized. She had always been a “green witch,” the
friend carrying tinctures and seeking out more natural ways of healing and living. Her own health and
homemaking journey eventually led her to question why safer alternatives were so often difficult
to find and inaccessible.

Somewhere along the way, our friendship became something deeper. We became best friends,
soul family, and partners in life, raising our big blended families side by side (10 children
cumulatively!), navigating motherhood, and constantly dreaming, questioning, laughing and learning
together.

For years, we have gathered women around us. Conversations about alternative healing, our bodies, our
homes, and the systems surrounding us, always seem to lead. Melinda kept talking about a refill store. But the more
we talked, the more we realized we weren’t simply interested in changing how people shop. Not
only was that a big ask, it wasn’t creating the shift we knew needed to happen. We wanted to
change what was actually inside the products themselves.

That idea sent us down a five+ year rabbit hole of formulators, minimum orders, dead ends, and
eventually a realization: the ingredient system we were looking for simply didn’t exist. It is a
largely monopolized industry built around a small group of ingredients that barely get the job
done. We couldn’t find what we were looking for, so of course, we decided to create it.
Reservoir was born at the intersection of nature, science, health, motherhood, and the everyday
rituals we once considered mundane.

We began with laundry because it is humble and universal, and because, as mothers of ten
children between us, we do a LOT of it. It is where skin, textiles, water, and home meet, and
where a small daily choice can have an enormous cumulative impact.

Together with a Swiss bioscience engineering team in Basel, we developed a truly bio based
laundry soap that brings together centuries old French soap making with modern bioscience.
And at the heart of that formula is one of nature’s tiniest powerhouses: microalgae.
Small enough to be almost invisible, microalgae is remarkably mighty. We use
micro algae derived oil alongside plant derived emulsifiers to help create a formula that cleans
and softens while remaining rooted in renewable, bio based ingredients. In many ways, it
became the answer to what we had been searching for all along: something born from nature
and capable of doing so much.

There is something about that idea that feels very Reservoir to us. We live in a world that often
tells us impact has to be big to matter, but nature reminds us otherwise. Some of its smallest
organisms are doing extraordinary work all around us.

But bio based was never enough. It had to work! We needed it to remove the dirt from the day, keep our babies’ skin safe, and be something we felt comfortable allowing to run from the laundry room into our fruit trees. We wanted Reservoir
to stand shoulder to shoulder with the big box brands people have relied on for generations,
while bridging a gap we kept encountering ourselves: products that felt better for our bodies and
our homes, but too often lacked the cleaning power we needed from them. We didn’t want
people to have to choose between performance and care. We wanted both.

Reservoir is fragrance free, biodegradable, greywater safe, and made without dyes, synthetic
perfumes, or petrochemical ingredients. Designed to cleanse and soften, it is made to help
preserve the softness, breathability, and longevity of the things we already own.

At the heart of Reservoir is a belief that sustainability shouldn’t require us to give up beauty,
performance, or pleasure. And we don’t have to wait for massive systemic change to begin. The
smallest rituals, repeated every day, can become powerful.

As mothers, we’ve learned to tend, caretake, heal, welcome, steward, seek, and innovate.
Those instincts are embedded in Reservoir. Motherhood has taught us perhaps better than
anything that the smallest acts of care, repeated day after day, are often the ones that shape a
life.

We feel incredibly lucky to get to do this together, to be best friends and family while taking
on the many missions of our lives: raising our families, caring for one another, and now building
something we believe can help care for the world around us.

Reservoir is our invitation to start small, at home, with something as ordinary as laundry. Like
the microalgae at the heart of our formula, we believe small things can be mighty. The rituals we
repeat every day are opportunities to care for what we have, consider what we leave behind,
and quietly shape the world we want to live in.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
While it hasn’t been the smoothest road, in every way, the obstacles have shaped Reservoir into what
it is. One of the things we’ve learned is that creating what feels like the simplest, most natural
solution can be incredibly complicated. The systems around us weren’t necessarily built to make
the better choice, the easier one to obtain.

We came to this as mothers, not chemists. So much of the journey has been learning: learning
the language of chemistry, learning how ingredients move through a supply chain, learning how
to ask better questions in an industry where the answers aren’t always easy to find. We’ve
searched across oceans and time zones for partners who share our values, and we’ve had to
hold our ground when the cleaner, more thoughtful choice was also the more expensive or
difficult one. If we were going to create something different, we knew we had to make it
differently, too.

Self funding Reservoir has asked for patience. It has meant growing slowly, making
sacrifices and being thoughtful about where every dollar goes. There have been easier roads
available to us, but we’ve never wanted to build something that was simply easier to sell. We
want to build something we believe belongs in our own homes, and something that can grow
without losing the care it began with. And part of that care is accessibility. Better ingredients are
expensive. Thoughtful sourcing is expensive. But we don’t believe choosing better should be
reserved for the people who can afford to make every ideal choice. We have both been single
mothers at different points in our journeys, and we know what it means to weigh one need
against another. We never want to ask another mother to sacrifice somewhere else in her life
simply to make a better choice for her home. Keeping Reservoir within reach as we grow is part
of the challenge, but it is also part of the responsibility we feel in building it.

And all of this has unfolded in the middle of life. Pregnancy and postpartum. Babies, toddlers,
preteens, teenagers and children becoming adults. Covid. Loss. Husbands traveling and
working long hours. Calls across time zones, language barriers, MOQs, supply chains, and yes,
learning chemistry with perimenopausal brains. The traditional idea of being an executive was
not designed to exist in harmony with family life, and quite frankly, especially not with
motherhood. There is still an expectation that one part of you should become quieter for the
other to succeed. We’ve had to find another way. Reservoir has grown alongside our families,
not apart from them.

Being present in motherhood can make building a company more complicated, but it is also one of our greatest
superpowers. Mothers are asked to hold a million things at once, to adapt constantly, to make
something work when there is no obvious way forward, and to keep sight of what matters
through all of it. We draw from that every day. It has taught us to notice what others might
overlook, to be resourceful, to think about the long term and to care deeply about what we bring
into our homes. The same questions we ask as mothers are the questions that continue to
guide Reservoir: Can this be better? Can it be gentler? Can it be within reach? Can we care for
our homes without asking our families, or the planet, to carry the cost?

As you know, we’re big fans of RESERVOIR. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Reservoir is a woman-founded, mother-led Public Benefit Corporation creating bio-based
homecare for the way we actually live. Becoming a PBC wasn’t the easiest path (there were
plenty of hoops), but it was one we were determined to take. It means the values Reservoir was
born from are protected as we grow. They aren’t simply promises we make today; they are part
of the foundation we are building tomorrow. We are incredibly proud of that.

We chose to begin close to home. Reservoir first launched within the refill community here in
Topanga, because before we asked the world to welcome us into their homes, we wanted to
offer it to the people who had already welcomed, encouraged, and carried us through this
journey. Our neighbors, our friends, the people we raise our families with and share our time
with. There was something beautifully full-circle about watching all of that support trickle back
into their homes, one bottle at a time. It also gave us something invaluable: the opportunity to
enter the market with real-world R&D, listening closely to how Reservoir lived and worked in the
homes around us and using that feedback to continue perfecting the formula before bringing it
to even more homes.

Laundry is our beginning, not our boundary. We have seven SKUs preparing to come to market,
alongside others still in development, each an opportunity to rethink another ordinary corner of
the home. And as Reservoir grows, we want the community around it to continue to grow with
us through the workshops, gatherings, activations, conversations, and shared learning that are
already such an important part of what we do.

Perhaps what matters most to us about scale is what it can make possible: access. Better
should not belong only to people already looking for it. We want Reservoir on shelves in places
that haven’t traditionally nurtured the sustainable space, reaching homes where someone may
never have searched for a bio-based alternative or even known one was available. There is
something we love about the idea of quietly serving those homes, too. No lecture. No lifestyle
prerequisite. Just a better choice sitting within reach.

If we can grow while protecting our values, keeping our products within reach, and continuing to
gather people around what we are learning, that is the kind of scale we are interested in. We
want Reservoir to move beyond the sustainable aisle and simply become part of the home.

Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
(Melinda)

One of my favorite childhood memories is the summers I spent traveling from Oklahoma to California to see my dad. My mom was a single mother and we didn’t have much, but every summer my Nana and Papa made sure my brother and I got to make that trip. My Papa was a pilot for small private planes, so sometimes he would fly in to pick us up, which felt incredibly exciting and glamorous to me as a kid.

Other summers, he and my Nana would come in their motorhome, and we’d turn the drive into an adventure, stopping at national parks and sightseeing along the way.  My Nana would have us create worlds out of construction paper and tape them to the windows of the RV so people driving past would see safaris or aquariums or whatever worlds we decided to create that day. I looked forward to those trips all year.

Looking back, I realize how much love was behind those trips. My grandparents went out of their way to make sure I had a relationship with my dad, while also giving me some of the most magical memories of my childhood. My family didn’t necessarily look like the traditional family structure, but I never felt that there was anything missing from the love or care surrounding me.

I think that shaped the way I eventually approached my own motherhood, and it’s something that has found its way into Reservoir too. We know firsthand that families and homes take so many different forms. We’ve been single mothers, we’ve raised children through different seasons of life, and we know that “home” isn’t one picture or one kind of family. Reservoir is being created with all of those homes in mind.

I believe its some of what my Nana and Papa were teaching me without ever saying it: you create something meaningful with what you have, you care for the people in front of you, and you find ways to make the everyday feel a little more magical. Those values have followed me through motherhood and into the foundation of what we’re building with Reservoir.

(Jessie) When I think about my childhood, I just think of home and what it felt like. There was always music
playing, something homemade on the stove, fresh flowers, candles and candles lit. People gathered
around our table for a meal overnight was the glue that held any semblance of family together.

My mom immigrated from Peru and my dad was from Iran, both leaving big
families behind, and I think it was important to my mom to find ways to emulate that feeling of family and celebration
around us.

During the holidays, our house became the place everyone came, including the “orphans” who didn’t
have somewhere to be. Thanksgiving could be 100 people, some I didn’t even
know, but for that day we would all break bread, dance, talk, and belong to one another. Holidays felt loud, magical, warm and inviting.

Some of my earliest happiest memories were much quieter. Until I was five, we lived in California
in the foothills of Sequoia National Park, where there was almost no light pollution. At night, my dad would
carry me around our long circular driveway under the stars. He would hum, sing and tell me stories until I fell asleep in
his arms gazing up at the big star filled skies.

I think both memories live together for me: the beautiful chaos of a full table and the
quiet intimacy of being cared for. They taught me that home is really a feeling we create for one
another.

Even the smallest details stayed with me. Our bathrooms always smelled like Dr. Bronner’s peppermint castile soap. When I
when I was learning to read I would sit in the bath scanning the bottles for familiar words and sounding out new ones. My mom never bought the conventional laundry detergent everyone else used and shopped organic before that was a popular idea. She always had something that smelled of lavender in our laundry room, and as a kid I remember wishing my clothes could just smell like Gain!

Now, of course, I can see the throughline. The way I mother, my love of cooking for others and gathering around a table in conversation, the attention I give to what comes into our home, and eventually Reservoir, all grew from those
early ideas of care. I think my childhood taught me that homemaking isn’t about perfection. It’s
about tending to people, creating beauty in ordinary moments, and making home a place where
people feel cared for

Pricing:

• $25 64oz Line Dried Linen Scent
• $25 64oz Freshly Picked Scent
• $25 64oz Nature Walk Scent
• $.40 cents per oz in refill model

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.shopreservoir.com
• Instagram: @__reservoir__