Why this blue body cream from Vancouver brand Flora’s bare won an Award

With more than 60 years of combined experience as estheticians, Sarah Haaf and Dawn Wilkinson bring impressive expertise to their hand-crafted natural skincare line Flora’s bare. Inspired by the goddess of spring, Flora’s bare is aptly named, reflecting the minimal, eco-friendly packaging and clean formulas with no chemicals or fillers.

Haaf and Wilkinson have worked in high-end spas all over the world, including Los Angeles, New York and Seattle, U.S.A.; London, U.K.; Sydney, Australia and across oceans aboard cruise ships. “We have worked with literally hundreds of different skincare lines and worked on thousands of different complexions,” says the duo.

After many years of using other people’s products, Haaf and Wilkinson became frustrated with the number of chemicals present in many skincare products—not to mention the excess packaging. With three teenage daughters between them, the Flora’s bare founders looked at what their daughters were putting on their faces and decided to create products that weren’t rife with harmful chemicals and that weren’t packaged in plastic.

We spoke with Haaf and Wilkonson about their Bare Romance Body Cream, winner of the CertClean 2021 Clean Beauty Award in the BodyCare category.

Why do you think your Bare Romance Body Cream was chosen as the winner?

Bare Romance Body Cream was chosen as a winner because it is truly unique. It has a beautiful blue colour, created by antioxidant and mineral-rich blue spirulina and a romantic scent, which will leave your senses reeling. Plus, skin feels radiant and dewy after you’ve applied it. We called it romantic for a reason. Be prepared to have people stop you and ask what you’re wearing! There’s nothing like it!

Why did you create this product? What need were you fulfilling?

We created this body cream with luxury and richness in mind. We wanted to obtain a nourishing textured cream that would blend into the skin without feeling too greasy with a complex, luxurious scent. We wanted to create something that was a pleasure to use, would feel silky smooth and that would actually relieve dry skin, a need that many women have asked for. With, of course, zero chemicals! When you are applying a cream everyday to your body, you really want to ensure it is natural.

Would you say this is your best-selling product?

Bare Romance Body Cream is definitely one of our best-selling products! It started as a Christmas special but it was so popular and so many people became obsessed with it that we decided to continue making it! We also work with a lot of people with sensitive, reactive skin so we created a soothing line which is another one of our best sellers. Our Bare Soothing Cream is our top moisturizer as it really works on irritated skin. Also top-sellers are our anti-aging Bare Co-enzyme Q10 & Goji berry Serum ****and our unique Bare Ylang Ylang Face Scrub, which was also a finalist with CertClean!

What are the ingredients of this product and what do they do?

We carefully selected ingredients for the Bare Romance Body Cream that would work cohesively together. We started with a rich base of shea butter and a little cetyl to help keep that lovely thick texture. We then chose cocoa butter to give a light chocolatey scent and for its ability to nourish dry skin by leaving a protecting layer. Baobab oil, a favourite, is highly moisturizing and instantly nourishes the skin with its high content of vitamin E, A, C, D and F. Babassu oil helps lighten the cream a little with its lightweight texture and it’s packed with antioxidants. Squalene oil gives it a lovely silky slip instead of nasty silicones! And finally blue spirulina for its high mineral content and lovely natural blue colouring.

The scent was obtained by carefully layering warm spicy base notes of sandalwood, patchouli and benzoin with a citrus top note and a mid-layer of flowery rose absolute. It’s a subtle, soft and sumptuous scent, leaving you feeling layered in luxury and highy nourished.

What does winning this award mean to you?

We were thrilled to win this award. It means so much to us as it’s a clean beauty award! And this is more important to us than anything. We appreciate all the hard work CertClean does to maintain green brands in this industry and for us to be recognized as number one and a runner-up with two of our products was so exciting.

Why is being a clean beauty brand important?

Being a clean beauty brand is important because in our minds there really is no other way forward. For the health of our bodies and the safety of our planet we have to strive to change the beauty industry. And to be totally honest our products really work! As soon as we took all the chemicals out of products we saw exceptional results, our clients’ skin changed for the better and we are continuously seeing that now. The old myth of ‘natural doesn’t work’ is NOT true, watch as your skin thanks you for being clean and green!

What’s next for your brand?

We would like to expand into more spas. We already have several in Vancouver, as our treatments are amazing and compliment the skincare line. We are continuously on the lookout for new effective and active green ingredients, and for ways to better our products while staying clean.

Looking for more natural body products? See more winning bath and body products from the Clean Beauty Awards.