YYC Feature: Bloom Body Co.
Sarah & Sara’s 100% natural bath and body products are ‘handmade with love’
Business partners and lifelong friends Sarah and Sara had a coffee date in 2018 and ended the meeting with a shared vision: bath and body products made out of plant powered ingredients that are 100% toxin free! They soon turned their vision into reality, and today their company @bloombodyco offers some of Calgary’s best natural body products. The pair are passionate about handcrafting their product— everything is made from scratch in small batches, right in YYC! They use a Canadian supplier for their oils, and utilize oils that are organic or wildcrafted, and sustainably produced.
We love that Sarah and Sara use Bloom Body Co to give back to the Calgary community! They donate $2 of every sale from their Blush Bath soak to the YYC Petal Project. This local initiative provides pre-loved florals to people in the YYC community that would benefit from receiving the emotional support. The pair are not only mindful of their human impact, but also their environmental impact: their products are cruelty free and all of their packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable containers! Sarah and Sara offer a beautiful example of what it means to be purpose-driven entrepreneurs, and we’re thrilled to continue following their journey!
I’d love to hear a little more about both of your backgrounds! What were you doing before Bloom Body Co?
We're a team of two women, who are lifelong friends. Sarah has experience in sales, customer service, and marketing. She gained a lot of first hand experience working for a previous start up, wearing many hats, which has had a substantial benefit to us while building our business. The other Sara, has a marketing diploma, experience in customer service and a variety of administrative office skills. She's ultimately the brains behind the operation and regularly has to reign in all of Sarah's crazy ideas.
We always wanted to be entrepreneurs, but weren't exactly sure how it would unfold until we found our combined passion for making non-toxic products together. We wanted Bloom to look and feel luxurious, without the luxurious price tag. Being non-toxic, as well as eco-friendly, has been important to us from the beginning. From our clean ingredient deck, to our reusable glass packaging; we really try to keep our carbon footprint as low as we can. We work really well together, and have similar visions for the company and where it's going. We are currently a home based production business, but have big goals of having a fabulous space of our own one day very soon.
Are your products hand-crafted right in Calgary? Are you both personally involved in the ‘making’ process? If not, what are each of your roles?
We're both really hands on in all aspects of our business, including making all of our products from scratch, right here in Calgary. We both enjoy, and are apart of the research and development of new products, our website, packing of orders and sales. Sarah has an eye for the creative side of the business; such as social media and photography. Whereas Sara - who is more of an analytical thinker, keeps our administration side organized and functional. Together, we've found a great balance and enjoy our 'making days' side-by-side!
You use 100% Natural, Plant Based Ingredients, which is awesome! Could you give me an example of a few of the ingredients used in your products, and why you selected these ingredients specifically?
Number one for us is that we use NO fragrance oils/perfumes in any of our products, and we never will. We're really passionate about only using natural plant oils for scent in our products. We spent a long time finding the perfect Canadian supplier that produces quality oils, in a sustainable way, that met all of our values. Our plant oils are organic or wildcrafted and sustainably produced. We love using Apricot Kernel oil in our products. It's rich in Omegas 3,6, and 9, Vitamin A + E. It's moisturizing, and deeply skin nourishing, and is great for all skin types. Organic Aloe Vera, and Raw Shea, Cocoa, and Mango butters are also favorites of ours to use in our products, with very similar benefits to Apricot Kernel oil. We're also in the process of switching our supplier of Shea Butter to be fair trade, and organic this year. It's important to us that we do the best we can, when we're able.
As huge animal lovers, it's also very important to us that all of our ingredients are Cruelty Free, and Vegan wherever possible. The only ingredient that prevents all of our products from being Vegan, is raw honey. Which we have sourced from a small family based beekeeper, right here in Calgary - and they truly love and respect their bees!
You said several years ago that you did research on toxic ingredients in everyday products— what was the most shocking thing you found, and want other people to know?
Many people don't think what they put on their skin matters; but it really does! Our skin is the most permeable organ of our body. The most shocking thing we found out, is that a single ingredient listed as Fragrance/Perfume on a product can within itself contain hundreds of potentially harmful chemicals. These do not need to be individually disclosed, or tested. There are many synthetic ingredients that are known carcinogens or endocrine hormone disruptors, that mainstream personal care products contain - that have commonly shown up on urine and blood tests. Meaning, these harmful ingredients can easily pass through our skin and end up in our blood stream and lymphatic system.
For us, its simple. Why risk it? There are non-toxic ingredients that are just as effective - if not more so, that pose significantly less of a risk of use. Formulating with clean, plant based ingredients is definitely more challenging and expensive, but to us it's all worth it to feel confident with what we're using for ourselves, our families, and for our customers. We want our customers to know, and trust, that our products will always be safe AND effective, and that we've done the research for them.
It’s wonderful that you’ve partnered with the YYC Petal Project! Why did you decide to support this initiative in particular?
Yes, we love what they are doing in our community! A small loving gesture can make such a difference in someone's day, and we love that they bring joy to many people who are in need of a little uplifting. We also love that they take preloved flowers from events, and reuse them! We're giving $2 from every jar of our Blush Bath Soak to help with their initiative, and we hope to have the opportunity to volunteer with them as well.
In the last five years, what new belief or habit that has most improved your life?
- Wisdom and growth comes from the failures in life. Don't be afraid to fail, you will come out stronger for it. We've failed many times building our business over the last 2 years, but we sure have learned a lot, and have come out better and stronger because of it.
- The most successful and fulfilled people, never stop learning, believing, trying, and being grateful.
- People are doing the best they can. Give them some grace. You have no idea what someone is going through.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused as an entrepreneur, what do you do?
We unofficially call a team meeting, which typically is one of three scenarios.
- Video chat; because we can't physically be beside each other, but seeing each other's faces makes decisions less stressful.
- Coffee shop goal planning session; we both love coffee, and baked treats, and sitting down together. Setting goals, timelines, and making a plan of action helps us refocus and is motivating!
- Wine date; we love wine. Period. And having a small business is a rollercoaster. There are many times where a cheers is necessary, and just as many times that a glass of wine along side your bestie can turn the day around.
No matter which scenario is called for, we have always done well with encouraging each other, and reading when the other is burnt out.
Find them here: https://bloombody.ca/