PLANT: The Sleek Apothecary Brand With Innovative Ingredients
Founded by husband and wife Bjarke Ballisage and Holly McWhorter, PLANT Apothecary is a USDA Organic beauty brand whose minimalistic charm and botanical sensibility, naturally makes the brand stand out as one of the most sought after in the industry.
What started out as an organic travel spice kit brand, later spiraled into a much needed skincare and apothecary line. Co-Founder Holly, aka the “nerd” of the duo was very fascinated with ingredients and scrutinized the scientifically proven effects of essential oils and aromatherapy. During the inception of this new beauty brand, Holly saw a hole in the market place due to the lack of beautiful and clean graphics for healthy products.
“Everything had flowers and vines … I wanted to have something that I was proud to display in my bathroom”
In this space, a brand has to not only be effective but also beautiful. Additionally, the eco-conscious community tends to gravitate towards the same scents such as lavender and lemongrass. What PLANT intended to bring, were essential oils that were unique and “actually going to do something for you”.
“Like the wake up body wash – this is going to wake you up. If you’re looking to wake up, this bottle is going to help you wake up.” says Holly
All of PLANT’s suppliers are in the US and they make a conscious effort to not order ingredients from outside of America. With retailers all over the country, they try to keep everything as local as possible and again, sticking to their mantra of working with unique ingredients.
“I’m always just looking for stuff that I find interesting and effective. I’m always looking outside the box!”
Sea buckthorn oil for example, is a staple oil amongst their products. This oil, which is surprisingly not used more often, has balancing, soothing and rejuvenating properties. Another oil is Camellia Oil, which is green tea or white tea seed oil which has been used in Japan for hundreds of years.
Although Holly’s husband is not a man of color, as a black woman, Holly hopes that she’s influencing other women of color.
Holly says the following:
I hope that I’m influencing other women of color I didn’t want people to support the brand just because they were supporting a black business. I wanted them to become popular because they’re good. And of course I want people of color to see that it’s a black owned company”
In recent months it sort of occurred to me that many people don’t know that it’s a black-owned company. So we’re starting to make a bigger part of it – hash tag #blackowned so that people can at least find us if they’re looking for that.
Black women especially tend to use products that are particularly toxic so as the brand grows, I really want to educate all of our consumers why and how to avoid toxic ingredients. There’s a certain urgency around black women particularly – something I want to do.
The future of PLANT Apothecary is bright! They are looking to launch hair Hair Products soon, but Holly is taking her time to do the research as the ingredients are the key for the best hair results.