Celebrating Canadian Beauty with a New Brand Directory
Collective action.
It started, as so many of the best things do, in a WhatsApp group—a chat that was set up a year or two ago by Canadian founders of indie beauty brands after a real-life get-together. “It was just about sharing resources, what’s working, cheering each other on, which is really nice,” explains Jayme Jenkins, co-founder of Everist. The group has around 20 founders from across the different areas of beauty. They’re mostly women, some in direct competition with each other, but sharing a “rising tide lifts all boats” mentality.
In the past couple of weeks, shoppers have become increasingly motivated to buy Canadian, and naturally, the group chat was buzzing. That’s how the Canadian Indie Beauty Collective was born. “This was really our way just for us to help customers find what they were looking for and to share some of the incredible world class innovation that Canada has to offer,” says Jenkins.
Elate
The group contacted PR pro and media relations expert Katie Green (herself a founder, though of a fashion brand, &Or Collective) and things went nuts. Within days, they had a website, Shop Canadian Beauty, a directory of brands. It includes virtually every type of beauty product you can think of: Elate, the Victoria, B.C.-based brand that specializes in refillable makeup, Sahajan (skincare based on ayurvedic principles), LOHN (candles and essential oils) and Paume (hand care). “It’s really a tool to help people find what they’re looking for and to help elevate collectively all of these beautiful, ethical, sustainable Canadian brands doing really great innovative things,” Jenkins explains. Click on one of the 26-and-counting brands and you’ll be taken to its website to shop, so you’ll be spending your dollars directly with them.
Sahajan
What was supposed to be a tiny little side project has ballooned, Green says, and now she’s fielding queries from founders across the country who’d like to join the collective. There are some simple criteria, she explains: They have to be Canadian companies, based in Canada, with more than 50 per cent of their products manufactured here. They’re currently all founder-led, and by happenstance, or because that’s the kind of beauty brands that Canada produces, many share the ethos of thoughtful product creation, using natural ingredients and focusing on sustainability.
Paume
Things have moved incredibly fast and the interest from both consumers and brands has been much bigger than anticipated, so the group doesn’t have a grand plan of what this will become. “Just like the project kind of came about very organically, I think it’s kind of evolving organically in real time as well,” Jenkins says. One thing they all know, though, is that this isn’t a one-off project that will fade away. “What’s most important to the group is that we continue to make this resource truly helpful,” says Green. “The No. 1 thing is to continually evolve the directory and the site to be helpful to brands and consumers.”
