About Kyoto Botanicals: Our Story

Kyoto Botanicals is an independent botanical wellness company in Greenwood Village, Colorado, and I am Mark Gillilan, the founder. I started it in 2019 and we launched in February 2020 with THC-free broad spectrum CBD, and today we make CBD oils, gummies, softgels and a sports cream, plus a functional mushroom and cacao brew called (re)GROUND.

Kyoto Botanicals at a Glance

Why Kyoto Botanicals Exists

Wellness should feel calm and real, and for a lot of people it just does not anymore. Shopping for CBD especially can feel like a wall of noise, big claims, a new coupon every time you blink and a lot of pressure to buy before you even know what you are buying.

I started Kyoto Botanicals because I wanted botanical wellness to feel the way I think it should, grounded and human and honest. Whether you are here for our broad spectrum hemp or our functional mushroom brew, these are the products my own family uses, and that is the bar every product has to clear (I do not launch anything I have not used myself).

So in a lot of ways this brand started as a quiet answer to a noisy industry. Every formula, every lab report and every email I send is meant to make your wellness feel simpler, calmer and easier to trust.

How Kyoto Botanicals Began: From Wildlife Biologist to CBD

I have spent my whole career caring about living things. I started as a wildlife biologist with the USGS working on endangered species, then spent four years as an environmental consultant, and in that world precision and real data were non-negotiable. After that I went back for my MBA and spent years in brand management at Nestle and Atkins, which is where I learned how claims, labels and packaging are supposed to work (and how often they do not).

In 2017 I joined Charlotte's Web as Director of Marketing, my first job in CBD. I had never used CBD before, and THC has never been my thing since it just makes me anxious, so I started taking their original tincture to really know the product. I was in my 30s with family life and a mortgage on my mind and my sleep was all over the place, and a nightly tincture became part of my routine. I have taken one after dinner nearly every night since.

I fell in love with hemp. The mission, the possibility and the way it helped people.

But as the industry exploded I started to see it shift. Brands that started with purpose got louder and faster, and the calm that botanical wellness promised got replaced by noise. Wellness turned into claims, connection turned into coupons and presence turned into pressure, and somewhere in there the soul of the category got lost.

I felt that pretty deeply, and it is the reason Kyoto Botanicals exists.

Why I Built Kyoto Botanicals THC-Free

In 2019 I was building our first tincture formulas, testing carrier oils and flavors (mint, lemon ginger and cinnamon turmeric back then, just mint now) with full spectrum hemp extract from a farm in Wray, Colorado. Since I do not launch anything I have not tried, I tasted every batch myself that day. I felt fine while I was locked in on the work, and then after I cleaned up and finally sat down, it hit me. I was high.

I had already been in the industry a couple of years by then, and no brand ever talked about full spectrum CBD being able to do that. So I made the call right there that Kyoto Botanicals would be THC-free, and when we launched in February 2020 every product was broad spectrum with no detectable THC.

That has not changed. Every lot of our CBD still tests non-detect (ND) for THC at an independent lab, and since ND is not the same as zero, I also publish the worst case THC for every container on our lab results page. When the federal hemp rule caps THC at 0.4 mg per container on December 11, 2026, we will not have to change a thing.

Our Values

The values behind Kyoto Botanicals have been the same since day one:

• Simplicity over complexity
• Clarity over confusion
• Calm over chaos
• Presence over pressure
• Honesty over hype

We call it Botanical Integrity, which really just means keeping our products as close to the living plant as we can, from hemp to functional mushrooms. It goes right back to my roots as a scientist and a decision I made in 2019 to build a wellness brand that stays close to nature.

What the Kyoto Name and Bonsai Logo Mean

The name came from one of our early partners, who is from Kyoto, Japan, and it stuck with me right away. To me Kyoto stands for intention, craftsmanship and a real respect for nature. I also kept CBD and hemp out of the name on purpose, since I love nature and wanted room to grow beyond hemp someday (which is how our mushroom brew came about years later).

The bonsai in our logo is our philosophy in one picture: patient growth, quiet practice and steady care. No noise and no chaos, just wellness you can trust.

Kyoto Botanicals Timeline

What Makes Kyoto Botanicals Different

The full details live on Our Standards, but here is the short version.

Ingredients

• Broad spectrum CBD from US-grown hemp, with non-detect THC on every lot. We do not build our products on isolate, since I believe in keeping the rest of the plant (minus the THC) working together.
• Our Organic Mint CBD Oil is USDA certified organic, and both of our CBD oils are made with organic hemp extract.
• (re)GROUND uses fruiting bodies for lion's mane, reishi and cordyceps, plus chaga sclerotium (the part that grows on birch trees), double extracted with no mycelium on grain.

We keep our formulas clean so your wellness can stay clear.

Lab Testing

Every lot of our CBD is tested by SC Labs and ACS Laboratory, independent labs accredited to ISO/IEC 17025, and you can match the lot number on your package to its report on our lab results page. (re)GROUND has no CBD or THC, so it is covered by our supplier's ingredient reports instead. It is wellness with nothing to hide.

Made and Packed

In the early years I designed and ran our own FDA and Colorado registered production facility. Today our products are made for us in cGMP certified facilities, and every order is still packed by hand and shipped from our office in Greenwood Village, in a plain box with paper packing and no plastic, so it is all recyclable.

Meet the Founder, Mark Gillilan

Hi, I am Mark, the guy behind Kyoto Botanicals. My path into wellness was not a straight line (biologist, consultant, brand manager, then CBD), and that mix of science and knowing how brands really work shapes everything we do.

Kyoto Botanicals is personal. I take our Organic Mint CBD Oil right after dinner most nights, gummies as needed during the day, the (re)CHARGE Sports Cream after every run and (re)GROUND in my smoothie every day. I live in Colorado with my family and our dog, and everything we ship is something I would give to the people I love most.

For the first five years I ran Kyoto Botanicals as a faceless brand, and honestly that was a mistake. Trust is everything in this category, so now I show up myself, on YouTube, in my writing and in every customer email. I also wrote a short book, CBD For Sleep. You can read my personal story here, and my full background, press quotes and podcast interviews are on my founder page.

Mark is a peach! He quickly responded to my questions and shared the information that helped me understand why I was having such a bad reaction to the CBD brands that contain, even a tiny amount of THC. Each time I have a question, I get a quick response. The information he shared with me gave me confidence to try his Kyoto brand of THC free CBD Oil and Gummies and I am so glad I did.

For me this is not really an industry, it is a practice, a way of helping people feel a little more grounded in a world that seems to get louder every year.

Our Promise to You

When you choose Kyoto Botanicals, you get:

• Wellness that feels calm, not chaotic
• Products made with care, not shortcuts
• Transparency you never have to doubt
• A founder who shows up as a real human (and answers your emails)
• A brand that grows patiently, never at your expense

Kyoto Botanicals is a reminder to slow down, breathe and live your life with a little more presence.

Shop, Visit or Partner With Kyoto Botanicals

If you are looking for something honest, human and grounded, you are in the right place.

• Find your THC-free CBD
• Try our functional mushroom brew
• Read our guide to THC-free CBD
• Find Kyoto Botanicals in a shop or clinic near you
• Carry Kyoto Botanicals in your shop or clinic

Get My THC-Free CBD

Official Profiles

Official site: kyotobotanicals.com

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