Spring: Nature's New Era

After a long, cold winter, there is nothing quite like watching the hard earth soften; blossoms spreading along the branches of trees, plant shoots hungry for fresh air and sunlight, and the return of our resident hummingbirds and bumblebees, awaiting their botanical feasts set against the backdrop of occasional warm breezes and endless birdsong. Spring is one of our favourite times of year, because it reminds us that no matter how badly the winter tries to linger, it will always give way to a season of new beginnings.

Here at Flourish Apothecary, we're amping up our creative juices after a long period of rest and reflection - seeking new ventures, expanding our product line, and making more connections in our community to continue strengthening our local economy. With the political climate currently in turmoil, there is a huge push to support local businesses and shop within Canada. This is both a blessing and a curse for small businesses, as many don't have access to solely Canadian-made ingredients and are either struggling with outrageous tariff costs, or scrambling to find reliable alternatives to their usual suppliers. On the flip side, most are seeing sales go up as the desire to purchase locally-made goods continues to grow. It is moments like these that we remind ourselves why we initially chose to source our ingredients as close to home as possible; because when times get tough, it's always our local communities that stand together, strong and united, ready to face whatever challenges may lie ahead.

You can rest assured that our products will always be 100% made in Canada, from locally-sourced ingredients, and with the highest commitment to both quality and sustainability. With so many amazing small businesses popping up over the past few years, it's never been easier to replace your everyday goods with locally-produced alternatives.

And speaking of everyday products, we've got you covered for all-natural bodycare with our botanical bath salt blends, face serums & beauty oils (which also act as a nourishing beard oil), mineral toothpastes, and roller perfumes (made from organic essential oils). New to our product line this year we'll be introducing a soothing facial toner, hydrating mineral sunscreen, invigorating scalp spray, and more! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter and/or follow us on social media to be the first to know when these new products drop! We're looking forward to providing even more access to high quality, planet-friendly, locally-made household goods. Spring is nature's newest era, and we're here to celebrate it! So what are you waiting for? Spring into a more natural lifestyle today with Flourish Apothecary.

Flourish Apothecary of Victoria, BC is a woman-owned online herbal shop specializing in organic and wild-crafted natural health products. Each product is hand-crafted from freshly harvested medicinal herbs on Vancouver Island. We believe in planet before profit, and emphasize sustainable business practices to ensure we can deliver the highest-quality goods without having a negative affect on the planet.

Your New Best Friend: Natural Perfume Rollers

Looking to step up your scent game? Our 100% naturally-scented perfume rollers are the perfect addition to your holistic hygiene routine.

Have you ever wondered what kind of ingredients are inside that pretty little bottle of fragrance you like to spritz on before you leave the house each morning? We're about to tell you, but you may not like what you hear.

On average, commercially-produced perfumes are made up of between 2,000-4,000 different chemicals. I'm sure you don't need us to tell you that that is a LOT. Some of the most popular perfumes on the market contain a plethora of undesirable ingredients, including:

• Synthetic fragrances - Often the main source of fragrance/scent in a perfume, these artificial fragrances are far removed from their original plant parts and are chemically synthesized compounds which are designed to smell similar to the natural scents we know and love. These synthetically altered compounds have been shown to disrupt normal hormone functioning, which is turn can negatively affect reproductive health and reduce overall life expectancy; increase respiratory issues like asthma, allergies, and chronic respiratory diseases; increase the risk of developing allergies and dermatitis; cause headaches and migraines, and trigger cancer cells by introducing known carcinogens both onto the skin and into the airways.

• Ethyl Alcohol/Denatured Alcohol - While ethyl alcohol is merely a high-proof alcohol, using this as the base of your daily perfume can be incredibly drying for the skin, and lead to skin flaking/cracking, while exacerbating other skin conditions such as hives, rashes, sunburn, dermatitis, acne, eczema, and psoriasis.

• Phthalates - Common pthalates include diethyl phthalate (DEP), di-n-butyl phthalate, di (2-ethylhexyl) (DEHP) and butylbenzyl phthalate (BBzP). These pthalates are often found within synthethic fragrances, so you may not find them in your ingredient list due to being clevery hidden within another listed ingredient. Pthalates are primarily responsible for disrupting the endocrine system, decreasing fertility in both men and women, and negatively affecting the metabolism, promoting obesity.

• Benzyl Acetate - Often used as a fixative in perfumery (making the scent last longer), benzyl acetate can cause irritation to the eyes and respiratory system, and negatively affect the central nervous system.

• Ethyl Acetate - Commonly used in everything from paint, varnish, lacquer, and cleaning products, to chemically decaffeinating coffee beans (go with swiss-water decaffienated coffee, folks!), this solvent can cause irritation to the eyes, nose, throat, and skin, and repeated exposure can negatively affect liver health.

• Isolated Plant Compounds such as Linalool, Limonene, etc - These compounds are touted as being 'natural' due the fact that they have originated from a living plant cell, but this is classic greenwashing at its finest. When you utilize the whole plant structure, you are using every part of the plant, which has a beautifully built-in blueprint of balance and ultimately aims to help (and not harm) you as it works in harmony within itself. When you isolate a specific compound from a plant and add it to an ingredient list, you are taking away all of the other components which help to keep that compound balanced and healthful, and add in only the element which may provide a scent, preservative, or fixative in your perfume blend. These isolated compounds can negatively affect the central nervous system and cause adverse skin reactions and allergies. Not fun!

At Flourish Apothecary, we only utilize whole, natural ingredients that benefit your body, mind, and the planet. Our personal perfume rollers are made from a base of ultra-nourishing, unrefined, certified organic jojoba oil to lock moisture in (not suck it out like an alcohol-based perfume would). We then add consciously curated blends of therapeutically balanced, 100% organic essential oils of the absolute highest quality. The result is a refreshingly clean, balanced, and invigorating personal perfume that can be re-applied as needed throughout the day when you need a little pick-me-up, without having to worry about any negative or adverse health effects!

Each of our natural perfume rollers features a sleek stainless steel roller ball, durable frosted glass bottle, and recyclable plastic cap. Each component can easily be reused and/or recycled, and we are currently working on creating refill options to minimize our carbon footprint even further. Be sure to follow us on instagram, facebook, twitter, and of course, check back in on our website to find out when refills will be available!

In a day and age where there are so many options for personal care products available to the general public, we feel so blessed to not only have customers who choose to continue to support our small business, but also to be able to offer a truly natural perfume option knowing that it will wholeheartedly benefit your mind, body, and spirit. So go ahead, find a scent that speaks to you, and make the switch to your new favourite, all-natural perfume blend today!

Flourish Apothecary of Victoria, BC is a woman-owned online herbal shop specializing in organic and wild-crafted natural health products. Each product is hand-crafted from freshly harvested medicinal herbs on Vancouver Island. We believe in planet before profit, and emphasize sustainable business practices to ensure we can deliver the highest-quality goods without having a negative affect on the planet.

Why we don't sell "anti-aging" products, and why you should stop buying them!

If you walk into any pharmacy, shopping mall, beauty salon, or department store, you're bound to come across a wide variety of anti-aging remedies. Magical creams and expensive overnight serums claiming to erase wrinkles, age spots, cellulite, and a plethora of other age-related skin normalcies. But what's all the fuss about aging, anyway? And what exactly are they putting in these products to make them so 'magical'?

We see it every year - more and more products are released into the stream of 'anti-aging' skin and body care, with no end in sight. We all have moments where we catch ourselves in the mirror and spot a new wrinkle, a new grey hair, or a particularly 'aged' section of skin, but what makes us look at these signs of our body's natural process and say, "this is not okay"?

Dealing with change is hard. And for women, it seems like it is never-ending. From birth, to childhood, to awkward pre-teen years, we're encouraged by friends and family to smile for the camera, brush our untamable hair, keep our faces clean, and put on a nice outfit. Sometimes it feels like it's our job to look pretty, always. We spend this period of our lives navigating sensitive bodily changes like budding breasts, adapting to monthly bleeding, and dealing with a roller coaster of hormones that seem to come and go as they please.

Then comes mid-life. Our friends (and sometimes ourselves) are most likely settling down with partners and children, we may experience a rollercoaster of weight gains and/or losses as we adapt to more hormonal and physical bodily changes, and we often start comparing ourselves to the younger generation of females who seem to have their seemingly perfect 'no-filter' faces (and bodies) plastered all over the internet. We used to only be subjected to the most popular models and actresses who would grace our TV screens, billboards, or magazines. Now, with the growing use (and borderline addiction) of technology, we are barraged on a daily basis by millions of young, trendy, and beautiful social media influencers on a variety of mediums - Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and just about every other technological avenue we utilize for both our personal and professional lives.

Once we sail past our mid-life crises and begin settling into our skin, so to speak, it becomes a little easier (for most, but not all) to finally feel comfortable with who we are, where our life choices have taken us, and we see more clearly where we're heading and what we really want to do with our own unique lives. And then another wave hits. We start noticing even more changes. Grey hairs start popping up, smile/frown lines develop, and we might be surprised by an age spot or two that didn't seem to be there yesterday. This incredibly liberating time of our life happens to be when we become the target audience for the yearly 63-billion-dollar-industry (that's over $84 billion CAD) that is known as 'anti-aging'.

So, how is it that we get pulled into thinking our beautiful, ever-changing bodies now need to be corrected, halted, and even reversed? That the natural passage of time is something to slow (or stop altogether), all in the name of beauty? How do we fix the narrative to start believing that aging skin IS beautiful skin, that our laugh lines and frown lines and whatever-lines are there for a reason, and that reason is to place a time stamp on everything we've experienced in life, which has brought us to where we are right now?

“Be bold in your beauty. Take a good look at yourself in the mirror and find a story in every freckle, every wrinkle, every scar. Your skin is a unique constellation created from life events, and is the only proof you need to show that you have truly lived. Continue to be the most beautiful thing in your life, and don't ever allow yourself to feel ashamed for the passage of time.”

Why you won't find any "anti-aging" products on our website

We've chosen to stray away from the path of 'anti-aging' remedies, as we truly think the term, along with most of the products, end up doing more harm than good. If you look at the ingredient list of the anti-aging products in your bathroom right now, you'd likely be surprised at some of the ingredients. Heck, we would be surprised if you could tell us what half of those ingredients actually were.

Like most conventional beauty products, anti-aging skincare products are riddled with impossible-to-pronounce ingredients, which usually means they are synthetically manufactured in a lab, and do some not-so-great things for our bodies (or our planet). But that's not all. We think it's important to ask ourselves - what is the purchasing of these products doing to our self-esteem? When we are constantly reaching for a magic time-machine-in-a-bottle to rid us of every sign of aging, what are we telling our bodies and minds? Do we really need to look ten years younger in order to feel great? Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could look in the mirror and think of all the amazing life events that brought us here, looking exactly this way, and reflect on how much we have grown, how much we have loved, and how much we still have to look forward to instead?

Flourish Apothecary of Victoria, BC is a woman-owned online herbal shop specializing in organic and wild-crafted natural health products. Each product is hand-crafted from freshly harvested medicinal herbs on Vancouver Island. We believe in planet before profit, and emphasize sustainable business practices to ensure we can deliver the highest-quality goods without having a negative affect on the planet.