We were lucky to catch up with Ann Gilbert recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ann thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The launching of my business, Still Botanics, felt like a combination of a natural progression and a long time coming. I became interested in cosmetics at a young age – watching the current trends via MTV and beauty magazines. In my early 20’s I was struggling with my skin and eventually was diagnosed with an uncommon Rosacea. The thing about rosacea, and this goes for a number of skincare concerns, is when you look at the “triggers” that will cause your skin to flare up – it is basically anything under the sun. Including the sun! My dermatologist prescribed me steroid creams, which didn’t work and felt like kind of a bandaid instead of a permanent solution.

I was just becoming more aware of what I was putting on my body as I researched more about skin. I wanted a more natural approach if I could find one – so I started buying from brands marketed as natural, coming to find out, they weren’t so natural after all. Needless to say it was a frustrating journey. Eventually, being a naturally creative and curious individual, I started reading ingredient lists and realizing that I could probably make some of these products on my own. So, I did. And I experimented quite a bit. It was a lot of DIY nights with my roomies, selling colored chapstick to my coworkers, and slinging my facial serums at little maker parties at my friends house. I talked about how fun it would be to have a little booth at a farmers market someday.

I played with many modalities of the organic skincare world. My partner and I would take our kiddo to forage for medicinal herbs. I would bring them home and distill them in my copper alembic still to make my own hydrosols. This was actually the inspiration behind my business name by incorporating the word “still”. At the time, I thought I would continue to distill for all of my products. I eventually learned that I can’t actually “do it all” while keeping my sanity. Some things I would have to source out.

I launched my business at the beginning of the pandemic in May of 2020. I was a new mother with a 5 month old baby, and my partner was laid off. After realizing that it’ll be quite some time before he would head back to work, I thought: it’s now or never, and I went for it.

I dove into researching organic skincare formulation and found it fascinating. There are endless ingredients to work with, limitless possibilities in formulations, and always more to learn. How could I resist? With my initial launch, I made a variety of skin and body products. I also made all sorts of products for my baby which I sold as well. I still haven’t found a diaper balm that works as well as mine. However, after time I realized that I needed to dial in a clear focus for my brand, so I chose the one I was most passionate about – natural facial skincare products.

Oh, I forgot the most important piece of information! My skin was thriving like it never had before! It continues to thrive now in my late 30s. Initially, when launching my business, I was nervous that maybe my products only worked for me, and my customers wouldn’t share the same benefits. Much to my relief and excitement, I’ve had nothing but positive reviews and feedback. I love helping others find something that finally helps them feel good in their skin. Many have a similar story to me. Others love the natural scents, textures and ritual of using Still Botanics products. Hearing that I can help people find joy in what can be such a mundane daily task brings me so much joy. Knowing that I can help someone who’s struggled for 40 years with their skin find solace in my products just amazes me. I feel so grateful to have the opportunity to facilitate that for them, because I know how hard it can be.

Ann , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I believe I covered quite a bit about my story in the first question I chose, but I will answer on the questions that I didn’t cover here.

What you think sets you apart from others? – There is a clear difference between my business and my products compared to that of “Big Beauty”. The obvious difference that sets me apart from the big guys is the quality of my ingredients and the freshness of my products. I am a small batch skincare brand and can pretty much guarantee that any product you receive in the mail or in my shop has been made within the last couple months, likely weeks for many of them. This is different than how larger brands operate. Many pack their ingredients full of harsh preservatives so they can withstand a longer shelf life of 1-3 years depending on the product. My customers can count on Still Botanics to provide them with some of the freshest natural skincare products out there.

Another major element that sets us apart are our core values. Big Beauty is notorious for telling women all about their flaws to instill insecurities in us to make a sale. Not all of them, but many. They body shame, create a fear of aging, and perpetuate very harmful and unrealistic societal beauty standards by emphasizing all of our “flaws”.

At Still Botanics, we believe beauty is multi-dimensional. Feeling and looking good should be available to all people and no one is inherently “flawed”. We want to shift the toxic narrative that is impressed upon women. Let’s normalize that women age too – and beautifully so! Also, that humans have pores all over their bodies, textured skin is beautiful, acne happens to many of us and it is all okay! We want to help people feel good about themselves while sharing the knowledge we have with our community. I want people to understand the importance of skin health and what a difference natural ingredients can make. Shifting this narrative from a fear mongering approach to inclusive and educational messaging will absolutely change lives.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

I can’t say this enough – but word of mouth is by far the best form of marketing a small business like mine has. We are flooded from every angle with information. “Do this”, “don’t do that”, “why you need this in your life”, “why you are unsuccessful”, “5 steps to get a better _____”. Particularly, from social media.

Social media is a double edged sword for me because I have this ability to get in front of eyes all over the country, but at the same time, I sometimes feel like I am just another ad that is contributing to a consumerist culture. I have mixed feelings about it. Needless to say, my small business can easily get lost in the shuffle. As a consumer, I am bombarded by ads like anyone else, however if my friend tells me about something that they are absolutely in love with and could benefit me as well, I will absolutely seek out that product and purchase it. Word of mouth is king – always.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

With that being said, I have created my brand loyalty with “word of mouth” in mind. I have set up my website with loyalty points from the very beginning. I genuinely want to thank my unwavering supporters and this is one easy way I can accomplish that. I am also very excited about my referral program that I just launched. This not only thanks my customers for spreading the good word via extra points to cash in, it encourages people to do so. For example, for each referral – them and their friend get $10 in Still Botanics points- which is huge! Should other businesses adopt a referral program of some kind, I recommend setting up automated reminder emails so that your customers don’t forget about their points they’ve racked up.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.stillbotanics.co
• Instagram: @still_botanics
• Facebook: @stillbotanics
• Other: tiktok: @still_botanics

Image Credits
Emily Shirron Sabina Dizdarevic