We were lucky to catch up with Birgit Flori recently and have shared our conversation below.

Birgit, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?

It was 2001, I was just settling back into work and daily life after having a wonderful family vacation back in South Africa. I received the phone call that I’ve always dreaded. My mother had passed away in a fatal car accident. What was worse is that I did not have the means to fly back home again on such short notice. My boss at the time used her credit card points and purchased me a return airline ticket. That meant that I could not only attend my mothers funeral but that I could also be with my family when I most needed it.

That was the most kindest thing a person has ever done for me. It meant so much to me and I’ve shared the story so many times over the years. When I asked my boss how I can repay her, she replied, “pay it forward”. So without hesitation, whenever there’s an opportunity to pay it forward, I do.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Blue Haven Holistics is a small-batch, botanically-infused, cruelty-free, and environmentally friendly, natural skin & body care line. Our unique handcrafted formulas are filled with ethically harvested, phytonutrient dense, whole botanical extracts, known for their powerful soothing, nourishing and skin loving properties.

We have a firm belief in not only taking care of ourselves but our environment too. Therefore we source our ingredients exclusively from companies who share our vision in creating a softer impact on our planet.

Our mission wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t pay it forward. It’s part of the reason we started Blue Haven Holistics. We wanted to give back to a cause we where passionate about. We love animals and for every purchase made, we donate a percentage of the profits to animal shelters and rescues around the US.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

I started my business on Etsy. It was my main source for retailing our products for quite a while. Once we’d grown a bit and started getting interest for wholesale we decided to create our own website through Shopify. That brought more exposure and interest for us to join other larger retail platforms such as Pantastic and Verishop. It also opened more opportunities for us to partner with other wholesale platforms such as Faire, Peeba, Abound and Tundra.

Etsy is a great platform for handmade creations. It provides a lot of exposure, however, there are limitations. As a seller, you don’t have full autonomy over your store. You are limited in the creative process of how to promote your creations and have limited access to your customer base. This is where owning full rights to your own website is so beneficial and so I made the transition. Partnering with these other retail and wholesale platforms also opened up a whole other market that I had not previously tapped into which has brought a great deal of exposure. It really is about exposure and increasing your visibility to reach new audiences.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

I wear many hats, one is manufacturing, or in my case, formulating, which is creating, it’s what lights me up. There’s an art to it, working with the different colors, textures and scents of botanicals and dreaming of different ways to use them. It’s an intuitive and therapeutic process that I relish. Although creating has taken many different forms over my lifetime, I started making skincare products at home after questioning the ingredients in store bought skin and body care products. I wanted to have full control over the ingredients in the products. I wanted ingredients that were pure from nature. No synthetics or toxins.

A lot has changed and our product line has evolved over time but I’m still involved in the formulation process. It took many years of studying herbalism, botanicals, and skincare formulating to hone my skills. Formulating in-house also means that we have to have certain procedures in place to ensure that the products meet a set standard. So I think while I may delegate many other tasks of the business, I will always have my hands in the formulation process.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bluehavenholistics.net
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/bluehavenholistics
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/bluehavenholistics
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bluehavenholistics360

Image Credits
Jenelle Botts