Our “Bay Area Made: Small Batch & Made to Order” exhibit for San Francisco Design Week, hosted by Arion Press, showcased the high quality and innovative work of 50 of our member companies. The purpose of the exhibit was to educate and inspire the audience about the benefits of small-batch and made-to-order production, and the conscious choices the participating companies have made from concept to finished product that result in products that are better for the user, the community, and the planet. From the clothes we wear to the food we eat, to the products we use daily, what WE MAKE locally and HOW WE MAKE IT really does matter. In the excerpt below from the exhibit, Botnia Skincare shares insight into their values and making process.
Botnia Skincare was created in a spa in San Francisco, designing each product around what our founder, Justine was seeing on the treatment table. What she realized is that modern skincare was well intentioned but approached the skin from the ideology of changing it using harsh chemicals. These chemicals don’t work with your body’s natural rhythms, so she was seeing client after client with inflammation and irritation. Armed with decades of hands-on experience, she crafted Botnia around the central philosophy that using organic whole ingredients will aid your skin in becoming its best self. With this approach, we have seen dramatic and long-lasting results. Better yet, we grow some of our botanicals and hand-make all our skincare in our own laboratory in Sausalito, CA, ensuring the ultimate quality to match the results.
The Makers and Their Production Space
Our founder Justine works with Melanie, our cosmetic chemist, and Michelle, our in-house herbalist, manufacturing skincare. We hand-make each and every one of our products in our small but mighty laboratory in Sausalito.
“Plants are the heart of Botnia, and ultimately we chose to grow our own plants in order to make the finest skincare imaginable and to be the best stewards of the earth that we can be.”
The Making Process
It starts with our agriculture and the quality of our botanicals. When we look to other farms for our raw ingredients, we want to work within our values of supporting our community to source products from places that have the same organic farming practices we use on our own land. We make our own hydrosols and extracts with our plants to ensure that the raw ingredients we use in our skincare come to your face fresh and ready to heal, nourish, and ultimately contribute to your overall health and wellbeing. After processing our key ingredients, it moves to our lab where we manufacture and handcraft each product in small batches. Next, it’s biologically tested for safety before being hand-labeled and individually wrapped to ensure against breakage during shipping. In the end, our hope is that you can feel the artisan-handcrafted nature and care that we put into our skincare!
The Production Model
We create our products in small batches. The coolest thing about the way our lab operates is that it’s by demand. Every day we review the new orders and decide what to make next based on need. So your skincare is always fresh – revolutionizing organic skincare!
The Materials & Ingredients
Our products are organic, ethically harvested, and locally sourced when possible from farms with sustainable farming practices. Each batch is microbiologically tested and elevated to our highest standards. Our intention is to be a low-impact company when it comes to the way we treat Mother Earth. Plants are the heart of Botnia, and ultimately we chose to grow our own plants in order to make the finest skincare imaginable and to be the best stewards of the earth that we can be. Being an environmentally driven small business means taking responsibility for each step of our process and questioning how it can be less of a burden on our planet.
Our mission is to always meet the highest quality, from seed to serum and from farm to face. We’re unwilling to compromise on ingredients or practices in the garden or lab, and when you buy from us, we want you to know that we are thinking about our skincare from all angles. We care just like you do, because we make our skincare for you.
View the Botnia Skincare profile.
www.botniaskincare.com
For a recap of the in-person “Bay Area Made: Small Batch & Made to Order” exhibit at Arion Press, click here.
To view the virtual version of the “Bay Area Made: Small Batch & Made to Order” exhibit on the SF Design Week website, click here.