We were lucky to catch up with Maggie Saltiel recently and have shared our conversation below.
Maggie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
I love this question- it’s why and how Botanical Touch even exists!
The Botanical Touch mission is to aid people in reconnecting and reclaiming their relationship to their Selves and their bodies. This is the goal behind every product we make.
But the ripple effect is that when we reconnect with ourselves and reclaim our relationships to our bodies, we are taking our power back from consumerist forces that prey on making us (especially femme-identified or BIPOC -identified people) feel less than. In this way, I feel really strongly that Botanical Touch is not just about “selfcare” but community care.
So the story behind the mission of botanical touch is really the story of how selfcare and community care became a way of taking power back- in multiple ways. It’s a very personal mission and personal story for me because it’s my own story.
I started making what is now called The Pleasure Oil as a way for me to heal after sexual trauma. I wanted to reconnect with my body and rebuild a relationship to myself after feeling like that was something that was taken away from me a little bit. I had been studying herbs that helped with healing from this kind of experience and attending herbalism workshops. One day the idea came to me to make a lubricant that contained the healing herbs I had been working with. I wanted to make a product that was more than just a lubricant, in fact, I didn’t want it to be sexualized at all. I simply wanted a selfcare product to aid myself in reconnecting and reclaiming my relationship to my self and my body.
Through my healing process, I realized a lot of other people had a similar story and wanted similar things for themselves, but maybe didn’t know where to start. The pleasure oil was a starting place. It was an offering that, as it turns out, resonated with a lot of people!
As I started making more and more product, people close to me started to reach out and ask me to make other products for them too. One day, my sister asked me to recreate a post wax/aftershave oil that she had been using that was over $60. I took a look at the ingredients- there was really no reason for the product to cost so much money. Again- it seemed like something simple that the beauty industry had commodified in a really toxic way. So- I infused some oils with chammomile and calendula, made a calendula single-herb extract, got some high quality organic clary sage oil and created something similar.
Looking back, I view these two anecdotes as catalysts that inspired me to build Botanical Touch into the mission-based product-line that it is today. I realized that this way of connecting with myself and my community was a powerful way to reject the shame and disconnection pushed upon us by consumerism and take “selfcare” back into our own hands. Especially for femme bodies or bodies of color, the wellness and beauty industries try to make us feel like sh*t to sell us a product. I wanted to build something that was the opposite of that-That was founded on principles of community care, selfcare as ritual, and reconnection to self and body as power.
So, the story behind this mission is really two-fold. There’s the story of how botanical touch was born out of my own healing process from sexual trauma and there’s the story of how botanical touch grew solely by being a resource for my community. Both exemplify this idea of selfcare and community care as power- and that’s the larger picture of our mission!
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 background and context?
Yes! Definitely! Hello! I’m Maggie. My background is in social work, and aside from being the owner of Botanical Touch, I work as a therapist in an integrated care health clinic, working mostly with OB patients. I started Botanical Touch in July of 2020 and launched the online shop in January 2021. Later that year, I partnered with Cali Machen of Ovum Doula Care to create our line of postpartum products. Botanical Touch has quickly become a way for me to marry all my interests and passions. As a therapist, it feels natural to create a selfcare product line that is very much so rooted in healing. As a perinatal specialized therapist, I felt so excited to be able to offer products that are tailored to the unique challenges in feeling connected to our bodies that this time period presents.
To Date, Botanical Touch offers several products that aim to aid in reconnection and reclamation of self and body:
-An herbal aphrodisiac lubricant
-An herbal aftershave oil remedy
-A vaginal steam for cycle regulation
-A postpartum sitz bath
-A postpartum healing salve
-A bathsoak
All Botanical Touch products are all natural, non-toxic, chemical free, paraben free, and fragrance free. All ingredients are organic, vegan, and fair trade/locally sourced whenever possible. All products are made in small batches with herbal ingredients selected intentionally for their medicinal properties.
Botanical Touch is unique because we are community-based and purpose-driven. We have been completely funded by our community and customers from day one. We got a little bit of a niche-market going on- our products really cater to the most intimate ways in which we connect with ourselves. We are a humble, honest, and heart-centered business. We didn’t hire a chemist to formulate our products, all products were specially formulated and crafted using traditional and time honored folk method herbalism practices. I really do believe that these things are felt by our customers. We are unique because we are able to really have a personal relationship with our customers and with the retailers we partner with. We are selective and intentional with who we partner with, choosing to support femme-owned and mission-based retailers and businesses. It’s all part of the larger mission!
How’d you meet your business partner?
My business partner was a customer of Botanical Touch! This is the best story because it speaks to all the parts of Botanical Touch that are special and meaningful.
Cali received the bath soak as a Christmas gift and reached out in the Botanical Touch Dm’s to say it was the best bath soak she’s ever used (it’s unique because we use the plant matter made to make the pleasure oil, so its got a luxurious moisturizing touch to it). She wrote in saying she was a Doula and was interested in my products because she was interested in making herbal products for her clients to use after giving birth.
We got to talking and the solidification of our business partnership was almost instant. We collaborated on a line of postpartum recovery products that we hope to expand later this year. We researched and formulated our propriety blend for months before launching- it’s a line of products we are both really proud to be able to offer as it’s so central to our work as a doula and a perinatal specialized therapist.
I am so grateful for the knowledge and experience that Cali brings! We are in the process of building a Preparing for Birth workshop and a Postpartum support group.
I think our partnership really speaks to the value of relationships and the mission of community care that Botanical Touch has.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
- Relationship building: with customers, with other businesses, with “Competitors”. The best source of customers for me has been through the partnerships I’ve made with other aligned businesses.
2. In a similar vein, viewing everyone as a resource and no one as a threat.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.botanicaltouchco.com
- Instagram: @botanicaltouch
- Facebook: Botanical Touch
Image Credits
Hannah Dresdner