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.

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.

Why Organic Matters

With our global communities being affected by seemingly endless price hikes and inflation, how do we justify spending a little extra on organically-sourced and locally-created products?

What does it mean to purchase organic? For some, it's a way of life. For others, it's an unnecessary expense. For all, it's a way to ensure you're getting the highest quality product for your body and home. Purchasing organic goods means you are supporting the growing, harvesting, and manufacturing practices that are most sustainable for our planet. There are quite a few misnomers out there about what 'organic' truly means, and we'll break down some of these below.

Organic Farming

When you purchase an organic product, you are ensuring it has been organically farmed. This means supporting farmers who work in harmony with the seasons and soil, encouraging biodiversity and longevity of their home-grown goodness by minimizing (or eliminating) the use of pesticides, herbicides, and other chemical compounds which, ultimately, end up doing more harm than help. Farmers, wild-crafters, and organic gardeners all know how important sustainable growing practices are, and they do their best to produce the healthiest, highest-quality goods that money can buy, all while ensuring the land and the many creatures that share it can reap the benefits as well. At Flourish Apothecary, we only source ingredients from certified organic farmers (or highly knowledgeable and skilled wild-crafters) to ensure our products are packed full of vibrancy, color, nutrition, and optimal healing benefits.

Organic Harvesting

Organic farming practices include sustainable harvesting. In terms of harvesting from the wild, this means knowing how much and how often a plant can be harvested before it starts to negatively impact the surrounding ecosystem, or the plant itself. In terms of harvesting from the farm, this means carefully watching the growing cycles and knowing when each plant is at its peak in terms of medicinal value, and working with the weather and seasons to ensure the plant is ready to be harvested at said peak. Both methods require a knowledge and understanding of our local ecosystems, including native plant species, sustainable wild-crafting etiquette, and proper storage/handling techniques.

Organic Processing

Processing plant materials is a delicate and time-sensitive business. In order to reap the potent healing benefits of each plant, they must be picked and immediately tinctured, dried, or infused, depending on what your end-product is going to be. Processing is an important part of the field-to-bottle process, as many companies will use heavy machinery and chain-production practices which result in a lesser-quality product. When you support organic processing practices (especially in small businesses), you are encouraging hands-on experience, encouraging local job placements, and ensuring your product is free of any heavy metals or other contaminants that may come along with larger-scale production and processing facilities. Organic processing means minimal processing. It is building a connection to the ingredients you are working with, touching, smelling, feeling, and seeing any impurities or issues long before they end up in their final packaging.

Organic Packaging

Ok, ok, so this isn't really a thing. But it should be! We spent a lot of time and energy researching and reviewing all packaging options before we finally settled on ours. We get a lot of suggestions (and questions) about our packaging, because everyone seems to have their own idea of what 'sustainable' really is. The truth is, there is no wholeheartedly sustainable way to package products. No matter what, we are utilizing resources, creating a product that has a shelf life, and eventually will need to be properly disposed of (hopefully after being used and reused until it is no longer usable). What we choose to package products in does matter, though. At Flourish Apothecary, we strive to be a truly zero-waste company, and that means keeping plastic and other hazards out of the landfills, our soils, and our waters. We package most of our products in easily recyclable (but more importantly, reusable) glass and metal containers, and utilize hand-made, non-toxic, food-safe glue on our 100% recycled paper labels, making it easy for our customers to peel off their labels, recycle or compost them, and reuse their glass & metal containers indefinitely. We only utilize re-used and recycled paper & wood shredding for our shipping needs, and any plastic that may work its way into the mix is always 100% re-usable, recycled, and recyclable. By making conscious choices to do better when it comes to producing goods for the public, we are helping to raise awareness of truly eco-friendly shopping habits, and hopefully inspiring other companies to follow suit! To read more about our packaging, check out our blog post here.

The Takeaway:

Sometimes it costs a little extra to purchase goods that are made organically and sustainably, but in the long run, it's always worth it! When purchasing organic products, it's important to remind yourself of the bigger picture. Organic products keep your body healthy, your home clean, and your children safe. Your extra pennies are going towards keeping the earth & all of its creatures happy, and showing the companies (like us!) who put time, thought, and effort into creating beautiful eco-friendly products that you care. And for that, we thank you.

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.