Teen opens Mind Body Crystals in Farmingdale

Good vibrations are in the air at Mind Body Crystals in Farmingdale.

Anastasia Sofranin, 18, opened her store as a way to “share the healing and peaceful energy crystals can bring you,” she says. 

Alongside colorful crystals and minerals — amethyst, rose quartz, fluorite — handmade candles are featured in the pastel pink shop.

The new Merritts Road store is a physical expansion of the home-based online enterprise Sofranin began two years ago. Since graduating from Farmingdale High School in 2022, she’s channeled her energies into launching the brick-and-mortar business  that opened its doors in the spring.

Her parents, who are from Serbia, “encouraged me to go to college and have opportunities that they didn’t. But I didn’t want to slow down. I wanted to build my business and make something out of it,” she says. Her father, who heads a scaffolding company, helped her secure a lease. 

Sofranin’s crystals craze was sparked three years ago and has been growing ever since. “When I was 15, I started collecting crystals,” she says, adding that it was the start of a “spiritual awakening.”

“I just love the energy that they give off,” she says. “As I got deeper into the mineral world, I became more interested in the way they’re mined, carved and polished.” Customers credit their crystals, she says, for helping them with their love life and other daily obstacles.

Sofranin sources merchandise at large-scale gem and mineral shows held in Tucson, Arizona, and Denver. For her, being surrounded by the vast variety of crystals is like being a kid in a (rock) candy store.

The store features items for every budget and interest. There are tumbled crystals, which are small, rounded, and polished rocks, crystal jewelry and carved figures, as well as higher-end crystals and minerals.

Since opening, Sofranin has come up with fresh ways to expand, including selling her products on the community marketplace Whatnot as well as Amazon. 

She recently added $10 interactive DIY “spell jars.” Customers seal herbs and crystals inside a tiny bottle “designed to bring luck, love and protection.” Those are good vibes to go.

Prices range from $2 to $3,000 for crystals. Candles, which come in scents such as vanilla and cinnamon doughnut, run $9 to $30. The shop also features items by a few other vendors selling jewelry, perfume and skin products.

Mind Body Crystals, 184 Merritts Rd., 516-404-2765; mindbodycrystalsllc.com