Pura Botanicals
Lane Edwards’s Edmonton apothecary.
Pure Botanicals’ headquarters is located in an unassuming building in north-central Edmonton. One might expect to find offices inside, maybe a dentist, but nothing quiet as ethereal as beauty entrepreneur Lane Edwards’s apothecary—decorated in white with wildflower arrangements set on vintage cabinets and quartz crystals smattered about (a hidden gem, indeed). Yet subverting expectations seems to be a speciality of Edwards’s. “I’m not interested in the term ‘anti-aging’,” says the mother of two, who runs her skin care company with her mother-in-law, Cathy, Pura Botanicals’ director of operations (or “Good Witch”, as Edwards amicably refers to her). Rather, “I’ve always been more interested in how to take care of ourselves in a really holistic way, and how to be preventative, making sure we live to a ripe old age and do it gracefully”.
A childhood “potion-maker”, Edwards began crafting skin care in earnest when pregnancy rendered her ultra-sensitive to chemical additives in her products. The ingredients she works with (kept in glass vials lining the walls of her workspace) are wild-harvested, natural, organic, or a combination therein, and include Canadian-grown chamomile, tea tree, neroli, lemongrass, and Alberta rose. Pura Botanicals’ products are imaginative blends—an overnight mask, for instance, uses watermelon peptides, while a beachy hair spritz features ground, roasted seashells, and a Marshmallow Guru bath oil smells of Italian lemon and meringue.
“Beauty comes from being well, inside and out.”
“We make our products in micro-batches; we make them all the time. There’s no preservatives or synthetics in them,” Edwards explains, whipping up a batch of frosting-textured Watermelon Overnight Mask in an industrial KitchenAid stand mixer. Edwards has a knack for identifying what women want—her neroli-based under-eye roller ball that fades dark circles and the incredibly effective honey-ginger deodorant are godsends for those on the hunt for beauty regime boosters that are both all-natural and hard-working. She uses this well-honed intuition when crafting bespoke scents for Pura Botanicals’ custom fragrance clients as well—carefully composed accords intended to perfectly fulfil complex olfactory desires.
With a new baby-care line and an extended collection for men on the horizon, Pura Botanicals may be one of Canada’s most ambitious holistic beauty companies—and with a refreshingly pragmatic ethos, too. “I want to ensure women can enjoy their beauty rituals without compromising their health,” Edwards says. “Beauty comes from being well, inside and out.”
Pura Botanicals, #204 10132 124 Street Northwest, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T5N 1P6.
