14 Canadian Beauty Brands to Discover
Try these homegrown brands to refine your skin-care and body-care routines while supporting local businesses.
Sunja Link
You could say the makings of an enriched, satisfying skin-care routine or shower ritual come not just from the ingredients but also from knowing it lessens strain on the environment and supports a Canadian business—not to mention, beautifully designed packaging that looks good on the bathroom counter and in the shower.
As the demand for production transparency, sustainable methods, and alternatives to international beauty brands continues to rise, here are 14 Canadian beauty brands to discover—from body care to perfumes.
Avoiding parabens, carcinogens, cruelty, and more, this Vancouver-based brand commits to providing quality body-care products with natural ingredients, free from negative side effects. With a mother-daughter duo at the helm, Nala started with natural deodorant and has expanded to include a sponge, hand sanitizer, and breast oil.
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Jenn Harper started Cheekbone Beauty in 2016 because she had a dream. “Sometimes I say that people interpret it as a vision because I’m Indigenous, but it was an actual dream—a crazy dream about all these Native girls covered in lip gloss, laughing. It was joyful,” Harper says. Harper, who is Anishinaabe, had no background in beauty, but she did have curiosity, tenacity, and a desire to help other members of the Indigenous community. —Aileen Lalor
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Keeping the different phases of life in mind, the founders of Collage encourage others to avoid labels that state they have “anti-aging” properties and instead opt for naturally sourced products—with the belief that nutrition, rest, and recovery should be a part of a healthy skin-care routine. With a focus on hydrating the skin and gentle exfoliation using botanically based products, the brand’s lightweight products include hyaluronic acid, rosehip, willow bark, chamomile, and green tea.
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With its only two skin-care products finding fans in Canadian facial bar darlings such as Formula Fig as well as upscale menswear boutiques across North America, Toronto men’s skin-care brand Margin is proving that when it comes to taking care of your skin, sometimes less is more. Made with exfoliating fruit enzymes and acids, as well as hydrating ingredients such as niacinamide, vitamin E, and glycerin, Margin’s gentle gel-based cleanser leaves skin feeling clean but never dry. —John Clegg
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Taking part in a centuries-old tradition of communal bathing emphasized the intergenerational bonds of the women in her family, and the intimacy and care she describes transcends the self. That relaxation and enjoyment of the daily act is what Karen Kim recreates with her Toronto-based lifestyle brand, Binu Binu: offerings of soaps, incense, and design-forward home objects. (Binu is soap in Korean.) —Lauren Edwards
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When life gave Victoria Ferguson lemons, she made skin care. Ferguson, the founder of Vancouver-based East 29th skincare, was only 15 years old when she became pregnant and so she ended up battling seismic hormonal shifts amplified by puberty. The result was epidermal chaos. “I was flaring up so badly with eczema and acne all at the same time, but I was too busy worrying about my new baby to be able to do anything about it,” says Ferguson. An artist at heart, eventually Ferguson made her way to Vancouver’s Blanche Macdonald makeup school. “I had never used a makeup brush before—I was a portrait artist and designed tattoos—but I needed more of a challenge,” she says. “I thought, ‘what better challenge than a canvas that lives and breathes like skin?’” —Amanda Ross
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Social entrepreneur Barb Stegemann’s clean fragrance line seems to check all the boxes: hypoallergenic, organic, vegan, and kosher, each blend from The 7 Virtues is free of sulfates, parabens, phthalates, synthetic colors, and UV inhibitors. And while Stegemann focuses on creating safe, sustainable, and truly sumptuous scents, her true passion is humanitarian in nature. With a penchant for ethical economic development, Stegemann sources only fair-trade raw materials from farmers in the developing world: rose and orange blossom from Afghanistan, vetiver from Haiti, jasmine from India. Through their Peace Perfumes line, this Canadian company economically supports these communities as they rebuild and recover from conflict. —Leah Scott
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Obbaki Skincare is a collection of top-grade plant-based beauty products made in Canada from sustainably sourced African ingredients. Bath oils, sugar scrubs, soaps, shea-butter-based lotions, and various facial oils are made with ingredients like balanites, prickly pear, baobab, and macadamia. —Lauren Edwards
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It was a long road to the point where Ilia Beauty products were being imitated. Ilia’s origins began as an idea in 2009 when Sasha Plavsic returned to her native Vancouver from Los Angeles, leaving behind a career in branding, a relationship, and a cushy job offer. The ball got rolling when she was looking for a lip balm that didn’t exist. Citing Burt’s Bees and similar products found in health food stores as well as those sold in drugstores, “I felt like there was nothing luxurious in between,” she says. The entrepreneurial wheels started turning, and Plavsic toyed with the idea of creating a product “that was a lip balm and a lipstick so that it had buildable pigment.” —Lesa Hannah
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There is beauty in simplicity. Saltspring Soapworks started in 1979 in the Canadian Prairies as a much-needed remedy to synthetics that had inflamed skin. The soap recipes were passed down from generation to generation, resulting in 45 years of making bath and body-care products—from British Columbia’s oldest soap makers—using natural and effective ingredients.
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A popular spot to shop for a curated selection of quality body-care products, Sunja Link offers its in-house product line, featuring essentials such as body wash, a serum, toner, cream, moisturizer, and face oil. Each product was designed to be used individually or together as a set, together without overwhelming skin.
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When Varun Sharma was growing up, his lips would become inflamed and tear during the winter months, causing him to steal his sisters’ lip remedies. When those didn’t provide lasting relief, his mother would say, “Why don’t you put some ghee on your lips?” Roughly four years ago, Ghlee, the first ghee-based beauty brand, came to fruition—“because Mom was right.” —Lauren Edwards
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If you have a soft spot for those 3-in-1 skin-care products, might we suggest a Canadian-owned clean beauty brand? Designed, developed, and manufactured in British Columbia, MIFA is a gender-neutral skin-care company that focuses on bringing the benefits of a spa into the home. —Jennifer Nguyen
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Growing up, unable to find a suitable scent, Bree Hyland wore men’s cologne. “I didn’t want to smell like toast with cinnamon on it, or like cotton candy, or like a really intense, rich flower,” says Hyland, 40, a visual artist and perfumer in rural Nova Scotia. “I think that’s why I started blending stuff on my own, because I thought, well, maybe I should just see if I could make a perfume that resonates with me.” So in 2015, shortly after obtaining a BFA from NSCAD University in Halifax, Hyland founded Barre, a line of artisanal, small-batch, genderless perfume. —Josh Greenblatt
