I started Strabella in 2023 because I was tired of ordering kitchen things online that never matched the photos. I began ordering samples myself, testing them at home for weeks before any of them ended up on a product page.

Today I run the small Strabella studio here in Newport Beach. I answer customer email myself, from lisa@strabella.org — every "the brush smells like glue" complaint, every "lamp arrived broken" message, every "thank you for the matcha set, my mom cried" note. That's not a marketing line. There is no separate CX team.

What I know about

• Matcha preparation and equipment. Bowls, whisks, sieves, the difference between ceremonial and culinary grade, why a regular kitchen whisk doesn't work, and why most starter kits skip the one tool you actually need.
• Sustainable kitchen materials. Bamboo, beechwood, sisal, tampico, diatomaceous earth — and where each one quietly fails. Bamboo molds. Diatomite cracks if you drop it on tile. Beechwood splits if you put it in the dishwasher. I've broken every one of these in my own kitchen first.
• Small-batch candle warmer manufacturing. Our mosaic lamps are hand-soldered. I've watched the assembly process for a hundred hours and I can tell you why a $19 Amazon lamp and a $99 lamp look identical online but break differently in month four.
• Running a small DTC brand without VC money. No agency, no investors, no "growth team." Just shipping, customer email, and the next product test.

What I don't claim to be

I'm not a tea master. I'm not a sustainability scientist. I'm not an interior designer. I'm a founder who did the homework before each product launch and is showing the work on this site. If a piece I write here gets a fact wrong, email me and I'll fix it the same day — that's the kind of editing budget a small studio has.

Where to find my writing on this site

• The Strabella Matcha Guide — equipment, preparation, storage, what actually matters
• The Candle Warmer Guide — how mosaic lamps are made and why some break in month four
• The Bamboo Kitchen Guide
• Diatomaceous Earth Guide — what it is, whether it's safe in kitchens, how to keep yours from cracking
• Kitchen Scrub Brush Guide — the 12-week trash test I ran in my own kitchen
• About Strabella — what this brand is built around

Talk to me

Direct email: lisa@strabella.org
Studio: Newport Beach, California
Reply time: usually within one business day.