Interview with Julie Clark
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We’re back with our interview series and I’m beyond excited for you to meet our next interviewee Julie Clark, Founder and Co-CEO of Province Apothecary (PA)! You see PA holds a special place in my heart. Like your first love, PA was the first clean beauty brand that I came across in my search for natural skincare. At a time when very few brands were available and even fewer places (whether virtual or brick and mortar) to purchase them, something that seems inconceivable now (we’ve come a long way since the early twenty-tens), their products were effective and felt luxurious. Julie herself has also been instrumental in my personal wellness journey. She recommended that I connect with one of her former teachers, Jan Benham, whom I eventually studied under; and she’s been an inspiration to watch. Julie has grown her brand and community over the years from just a few products and offerings to a full-fledged wellness and beauty brand that includes skincare products, tools, and treatments (such as naturopathic, acupuncture, osteopathy, meditation, and facials). When I worked in Toronto my office was close to their Dundas West location and I’d often visit during my lunchbreak, taking in the smells, chatting to the staff, or indulging in a treatment. It became my beacon during busy times. There isn’t a product I haven’t tried and loved! Their clear skin advanced spot concentrate is my go-to whenever my skin is being problematic, and my house is never without their incense on hand (black spruce and fir balsam being my fav, especially this time of year).
Julie struggled with allergies and eczema all her life but was drawn to holistic skincare while she was a costume designer and stylist. She’d spend her time off experimenting with oils, waxes, and herbs crafting natural, organic beauty products out of her kitchen. In 2010 she began her journey of becoming a certified holistic esthetician and aromatherapist. Today, Julie expertly formulates, blends, and packages all products by hand in small batches using only the highest quality ingredients. She sources natural and organic ingredients from across Canada. Some of her favourites include organic seaweed from Nova Scotia, maple syrup from Quebec, organic sunflower oil from Ontario, organic beeswax from Alberta, organic lentil flour from Manitoba, and organic raspberry oil and glacial clay from British Columbia.
Let’s chat to Julie!
Can you recall your first experience with essential oils and how you felt? My first memory was being in Jan’s program, getting to know all the different essential oils, taking them home and experimenting with them. I was using conventional skincare products at the time and saw a huge difference in my skin after using the essential oils. My skin has always been really sensitive and reactive, so I was nervous about what I used and the product’s ingredients, but I just fell in love with the essential oils. Carrot seed, frankincense and rose otto were the first three oils that I really loved and used a lot for my skin care. It was such a different experience to buying a cream and having no idea what was in it and being disconnected from that process. I just remember falling in love with essential oils and the process of adding them to lotions and creams, it resonated with me immediately. It was only a 2-week class but afterwards I knew that this is what I wanted to do. I was doing costume and styling before and just felt out of place in that industry. Then when I met Jan, started studying and seeing the results, personally and with clients, I just knew. It was a life changing event as a whole and I thank the plants for that.
What attracted you to the field of aromatherapy? During Jan’s class, after seeing the results and helping clients with issues I switched over to natural products and essential oils. I loved giving facials and briefly studied reflexology, so I found it to be such a powerful application of plant ingredients – the power of scent to calm the nervous system and the power of aromatherapy. I was just blown away by them. I hadn’t had any experience with essential oils before until meeting Jan and learning about them. Afterwards I dove straight in. Honestly, I was obsessed. Back then, chemicals in products weren’t common knowledge or spoken about, which is completely different now, people are more aware and have a much better understanding of it. But for me, at the time, I think aromatherapy was convenient, it was easy to get your hands on essential oils, use them, and see instant results. Clients could also see and experience something instantaneously, so I think it was just all of that. I gravitated towards the effectiveness and combination of using essential oils for facials in skincare.
How did your learnings of essential oils inform your decisions to create your skincare line? With Jan, she had many skincare recipes, like lotions and creams, that we made from scratch, which was a great learning experience. We also worked for a few different farms learning how to grow and cultivate the plants, then how to blend them into products. It was very hands-on. Learning to blend them led me to want to make a clean line that was good for sensitive skin so that was my focus originally because that’s what I had. The essential oils were very effective, so I knew from the start that they’d be incorporated. After Jan’s class I went on to study more about essential oils with a woman named Danielle Sade (founder of Healing Fragrances School of Aromatherapy), who’s amazing and her program is more in depth than Jan’s. Through Danielle’s program I became a certified aromatherapist and that’s really where I developed the knowledge of product making along with essential oils, its properties and blending.
Has the way you use essential oils personally changed over the years, especially now that you’re a parent? If so, how? After becoming an aromatherapist, I started studying with herbalist John Redden* here in Toronto. That experience really changed the way I used essential oils and my perspective of them. It made me rethink aromatherapy, which is amazing, but it’s such a small picture. So, I stopped using essential oils completely in my life outside of products after that, because I became more interested in whole plants and not only just essential oils. I think just the realization of how much plant material goes into one drop and how much it’s costing us and the planet made me stop. I find the industry to be unsustainable in the long run. We, at PA, use them in our skincare products, as they’re affective, but we work hard on sourcing sustainable essential oils, giving back to the planet, and trying to minimize our carbon footprint. But at the end of the day, in my personal life I just don’t use essential oils at all in anything really. Instead, I try to use whole plants, so I do a lot of tea and oil infusions and cooking with plants.
Any tips for those starting out with essential oils? I would suggest instead of going out and buying 10-20 different essential oils, I’d ask yourself what it is you’re interested in? Is it rosemary? Or lavender? Or something else? Then instead of getting the essential oil grab the whole plant and try cooking with it or infusing it in water for an herbal tea or room scent. Look towards the whole plant and how you can incorporate it in your life in general. I've really stepped back from aromatherapy now that we’re talking about this, and it’s become more about plant medicine and the whole plant which I think is more important. Essential oils are a great way to introduce people to plant medicine, but I wouldn’t stop there. Try to get your hands on the actual raw ingredient. That could be planting it yourself in the spring or summertime and watching it grow, then drying it for wintertime use…that’d be the ultimate.
If you could only use one essential oil for the foreseeable future, or live with one plant, what would it be and why? I like lavender essential oil because I find it just works for everyone and has so many benefits. It’s incredible for first aid being antibacterial and antiseptic, but it’s also great to help with sleep issues and calm the nervous system. It’s user friendly and safe for both kids and adults. It’s the one I recommend to people the most. And then plant-wise I love cedar, drinking it in a tea and using it as a smudge to clear to the air, it’s super easy to do. We boil cedar to infuse our space with the scent. I also just love that it’s green all year round. I find it’s an incredible tree to have around, especially in the winter when it’s just grey and gross. I want cedar trees to surround my house!
*John Redden, RH and vital member of the Ontario herbal medicine community, sadly passed away late last year. You can read all about his life’s work here. The article was part of a series that honoured and explored the unique contributions of longstanding members of the herbal medicine community in Canada, and abroad.
Province Apothecary is located at 1554 Dundas Street West (entrance on Sheridan) in Toronto, Ontario. Check out their (gorgeous new) website to book an appointment or shop online. You can also follow them on Instagram for great skin tips, news and product info.