About PLANTiful

Who are the people behind PLANTiful?

PLANTiful was founded by Amy Beaith-Johnson, a Health Information Specialist (MISt.), Herbalist, and Lymphedema Patient & Advocate. Amy was inspired by her own health struggles to start PLANTiful Apothecary. She was at a increasing risk of chronic skin infections that greatly impacting her quality of life, and so began creating her own toxin-free natural skincare & herbal medicines, as a way to lighten the toxin load on her lymphatic system and hopefully reduce her risk of infections. Along the way, Amy fell in love with plant potions and has been mixing and making ever since, using plants as her teacher.

Who makes your products and are they handmade?

We are a small one person operation and Amy makes all the products by hand at our little apothecary. We are a home-based business with a dedicated kitche/lab for our Apothecary. We label, package your orders, and write old fashoned handwritten note inside to say Thank You! Every time you buy something from us, it supports us to continue doing what we do: Zero waste, Lymph-loving, Herbal skincare.

Is everything vegan?

No. We are plant-based and love local plants, but we are working to support traditional way of living in this bio-region and use made local ingredients from the area including honey, beeswax. We believe in locally grown ingredients and getting to know the farmers and their farming practices.

How do you strive to be a zero waste company?

We look at the whole picture from an ecological perspective such as sourcing our ingredients as local as possible to reduce waste.

Packaging:

We believe conscious products need conscious packaging. Our 2019 goal was to eliminate as much of the remaining plastic on our packaging as possible. We were able to do this with our lip balms! They used to be packaged in the standard clear plastic tubes. We had so many, we chose to use them up until we found a solution that we loved. We made the switch to paper tubes and love them! In 2020, so far we have eliminated one of the last tricky items. LIDS for our balm jars! Hallelujah! This was surprisingly challenging to find a supplier of amber glass jars with metal lids, but we did it! The last remaining plastic item for us is labels. We have switched over all our our labels to paper-based in 2021 and haven't looked back! 

About the Products

What are lymphatic friendly or lymph-loving products?

Lymphatic friendly or lymph-loving products don't burden our lymphatic system and may work to support it's health. Toxin-free products go a long way to reducing the burden of the lymphatic system because one of its main roles is to detoxify whatever toxins the body can't get out through other means. The other important role of the lymphatic system to keep in mind when choosing skincare products is that it is the water ecosystem, our inner ocean. This system delivers water, & nutrients to the cells, so products that support that role and are toxin-free = a happy lymphatic system, which is key to maintaining overall physical and mental health. To learn more about the lymphatic system go check out our Lymphatic Health page, and Lymphatic Herbalism page.

What is so special about Castille soap? 

We think it's the best kinda soap out there! Castille soap generally means soap that is made primarily with olive oil and can contain other vegetable oils. It's a very ancient way of making soap, originating in Europe in the 1400s. It is a gentle and effective, multipurpose soap. It's made with sodium lye instead of potassium lye which is very drying to the skin and can worsen eczema. 

Check out our blog post on Castille Soaps and 8 ways to use them! We have been making our soap the true castille way with 72%+ extra-virgin olive oil for 10+ years and love it for hands, body, face, house cleaning, dishes. Yep, it can do it all!

Many castille soaps out there contain palm oil, which we refuse to use.

Palm oil is a dirty oil in my mind both in content in that it is highly processed and not healthy for us and it is contributing to deforestation in the East and destruction of Orangutan habitat. Palm oil is a highly industrialized, cheap oil, and the people who make it aren't paid a fair wage for their efforts.  If you like closely, you will find palm oil in many packaged foods, fast foods, and personal.  from granola bars and chocolates/candies, to fast food to skincare products. Read your labels and avoid it as best you can.

Does your deodorant actually work?

Yep! We formulated our original baking soda deodorants and got real humans to test them and tell us if they worked or not. We made sure to include people on their feet a lot and doing physical activity all day like health care workers, trades, yoga instructors, and office workers too. We used those results to keep tweaking our formula until we perfected it. Want more proof? Check out the reviews from customers on the deodorant listings. 

Does your deodorant contain baking soda? Do you have deodorants without baking soda? 

Yep! We make 4-5 clay based deodorants that are baking-soda free. They are very effective and help your body detoxify as well, which helps your body reduce body odour over time. That's an awesome benefit, right? 

Do you have anything that will help my eczema?

Yes! We recommend our red skin bee gone balm which we formulated for eczema sufferers who often have red dry itchy skin. It contains zinc oxide to soothe and protect and important plant infusions like spruce resin, chickweed and plantain, which help soothe, protect, and take the itch away. Be sure to try a castille soap for your handwashing, body, shampoo needs. Our castille soaps are coconut and palm oil free. Those are two oils that can aggravate eczema.

Do your products contain water? If not, why not? Isn't water good for our skin?

Many of our products are anhydrous, meaning they are made without water. Water's ph is 7, oil ph is around 4-5 and our skin's natural pH is 4.5. When you add water, it raises the pH level of a product, leading to the need for preservatives to maintain the shelf-life of the product and make sure it doesn't become a nice little place for harmful bacteria to grow.

A product with a pH level closest to our skin, would be the most helpful to the synergy of the nutrients and out skin being able to absorb it by working with the natural pH instead of against it. Oil hydration is important to maintaining skin integrity, collagen production, keeping out sebum layer intact, but also its key to nervous system health. Our nerve fibres in our skin need lipids to send messages back and forth. This layer is part of our immune defence system, keeping bacteria and other pathogens out, so lets support it not fight it.

Our skin doesn't need water-based products. Our skin loves getting water in the form of drinking fluids which travel to our cells through our circulatory and lymphatic systems. As well as soaks in salt baths, showers, spritzes or splashes of water on the face, or swimming are great to re-hydrate, clean, and freshen the skin.

What is the shelf life of your products?

The shelf-life of our products is approx. 2 years from the date of production. 

Why doesn't PLANTiful use CoQ 10, hyaluronic acid, peptides or other natural anti-aging solutions?

 We believe in the power of whole plants the way mother nature designed them. Whole plant infusions rather than chemically extracted components are like working with one puzzle piece when you are trying to make a puzzle. Plants are complex by design and their nutrients, botanical components work in synergy together.

A perfect example of this is the natural salicyclic acid found in willow bark contributes to willow bark being an effective herb for pain relief. So effective, that the plant led to the creation of aspirin pain relief pills. But, if you take willow bark in tincture or tea, it offers pain relief without gastrointestinal discomfort unlike aspirin or common pain relievers on the market.

Do you test on animals?

No way. Nada. We care deeply about sourcing our ingredients as natural as possible and as close to use regionally as possible. None of the ingredients we use have been tested on animals, nor our products.

USAGE

Is putting oil on my skin going to clog my pores or make me break out?

Oil on the skin is a form of hydration that our skin needs to nourish and restore/replenish our natural sebum layer. Our sebum layer is made up of oils and waxes our body makes to protect our body from the elements and keep water inside.

Our oils we use in our facial products are non-comedogenic meaning they don't clog your pores. We recommend cleansing the face daily with an exfoliator scrub or cleansing oil and face cloth to help remove dirt and dead skin cells, which are often the culprit behind clogged pores. our toners are another helpful product that can tighten up pores and balance your skin pH reducing breakouts. Our facial serums are anhydrous oil-based potions. The oils are non-comedogenic, highly nutritious, so that you you only need a few drops at a time. They are the last step in your facial care regime, giving you nutrients and protection from the sea buckthorn, raspberry seed oil, and spruce resin.

I've heard using oils can benefit our nervous system. Can you tell me more?

Another benefit of oil on the skin is that it is very nourishing to the nervous system and helps calm/soothe the nerves giving a calming effect to the body & mind. It turns out that our nerve fibres need lipids found in oils to send messages back and forth along the fibres. Our nerve fibres extend right up to the top layer of our skin, so applying oil on our skin, gets it right to where it needs to go to help our nervous system work efficiently and effectively. In Ayurvedic Medicine, oil is used to nourish and cleanse the skin. One such practice is called Abhyanga - self body oil massage. In sanskrit, love and oil are the same word, Sneha. To oil your body means to love it. Isn't that beautiful? Check out our body oils here. 

How do you push up the deodorants? 

Before using your new deodorant for the first time, turn your deodorant tube upside down and push on the middle disk to release the seal, then push up until you have exposed enough of the deodorant above the lip to rub onto your skin. Push up from inside as needed to keep raising the product up.

Shipping 

• Free Shipping. Did you know that we offer FREE shipping on orders over $125 CAD?
• Flat Rate Shipping in Canada. We offer flat rate shipping through Canada Post. The rates are re asonable and we share the costs with you. It's approx. $11 for Alberta orders and $15-$18 for orders in the other provinces and territories of Canada.
• Do you ship zero waste? We ship in compostable mailers and boxes with aspen wood fill called excelsior, and wrap bottles in paper, and use paper tape. The boxes we use are either made from recycled content or are a box we have received something in that we reuse.

 

Do you have a question you would love to know the answer to? Send it our way using the form below!