Business partners Laura Eisman and Allison Krongard strive to give their customers the royal treatment through Her Highness, a luxury brand of cannabis products geared toward women who appreciate the finer things in life.
While waiting for cannabis to become legal in New York City, Eisman and Krongard started their line of cannabis couture with accessories like gold-plated grinders and lighters, lip-shaped ashtrays, witchy snake rings that double as joint holders, and luxe marble and brass rolling trays adorned with women’s thighs.
It wasn’t their first entrepreneurial venture, nor was it their first dive into women-oriented branding. In 1998, Laura Eisman founded Girlshop.com, a New York indie fashion e-commerce site that expanded to a physical store before selling to a competitor in 2007. Allison Krongard was the mastermind behind WallCandy Arts, a successful line of stylish removable wallpapers. After WallCandy Arts’ acquisition, Laura Eisman proposed a new joint venture for the two entrepreneurs..
“When I would search for accessories, it was still that Hello Kitty or psychedelic theme,” Eisman said. “They weren’t for stylish women living in New York.”
As they looked beyond accessories and into cannabis, Eisman and Krongard say they couldn’t find products that were formulated specifically to make women feel good and that none of the packaging lived up to their high standards of style. This product gap felt like an opportunity.
In 2019, Eisman and Krongard launched their THC brand in California, keeping their product line congruent with the foxy pop aesthetic of their accessories. Both ladies are long-time cannabis users and thus well aware of how cannabis enhances sex, so they geared their brand toward enhancing female pleasure. To that end, they worked with herbalist Arielle Hayat, who helped them formulate Her Highness’s Highly Orgasmic Pleasure Oil, which includes a South American plant known as the love flower that, like the compounds found in cannabis, produces the entourage effect.
“The Pleasure Oil gives you a longer, stronger more dispersive orgasm — very few women will say no to that,” Eisman said. “It’s a product that’s beneficial in so many ways.”
In addition to Pleasure Oil, Her Highness offers pre-rolls, vape pens and cartridges, and is about to start making cocktail-themed gummies that will be tailored to the state they’re sold in. Eisman and Krongard are thinking about a pink champagne flavor for Las Vegas.
Since their California debut, Her Highness has expanded to other states, including Massachusetts and Nevada. In June, the company is planning to launch its product in Cookies stores in Colorado before adding other retailers.
New York and New Jersey legalized adult-use cannabis last spring, so it’s just a matter of time before Her Highness THC products are available in Krongard and Eisman’s home state.
“We can’t wait to launch in New Jersey and New York,” said Krongard, who now lives in Connecticut. “We’re working on deals with partners that would open those doors.”
Eisman and Krongard would like to get a license so they can open their own retail store to serve as a boutique specifically for women.
In addition to their THC products, Her Highness produces a nationwide CBD line of beauty and relaxation aids for the lady on the go: CBD face oil, bath bombs, collagen masks, foot pads, hemp flower pre-rolls, and mini “cum on the go” packets of their CBD Pleasure Oil.
Packaging is key to their brand strategy —their products come in eye-catching boxes emblazoned with their trademark red lips or distinctive snake logo. They’ve obviously spared no expense.
“Luxury is baked into the whole experience of using that product,” Krongard said. “When you buy a $90 face cream, it comes in a beautiful box with a nice spoon. It’s classic CPG strategy of finding ways to delight your customers to generate loyalty.”
Her Highness products are designed to be given as gifts. There’s even a single pre-roll that’s packaged with a lighter and a space with “To: and From:” so the giver can address it to the recipient.
In Eisman’s words: “The main thing we’re trying to do with Her Highness is have women realize how cannabis fits into their lives.”
