We were lucky to catch up with Samuel James Queen recently and have shared our conversation below.
Samuel James, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
Most skincare on the market is highly processed and has a long list of strange-sounding ingredients. Imagine being hungry and walking out your door and discovering that there is no produce aisle at the grocery store, no local farmers market, and even the restaurants have disappeared. All that is available is pre-packaged processed foods: candy, soda, chips, some protein powder, and a dazzling array of supplements. That is the state of the skincare industry today. Fam Botanicals is changing the skincare game by making products with simple, fresh, sustainable ingredients.
In the words of one of our customers, “Fam Botanicals is like freshly-squeezed orange juice for your face.” Orange juice is a great comparison. Your senses can tell the difference between something fresh and something that is overly processed. The orange juice from the grocery store might have an almost yellowish hue, have an overly sugary and acidic taste, give you phlegm in the back of your throat, and leave you feeling thirsty. Whereas, freshly-squeezed orange juice will be deep orange, have a dynamic depth to its flavor, be packed with nutrients, and leave you feeling hydrated and satiated. We approach skincare in the exact same way. Take one look at our products and you can instantly tell that they are brimming with life. They have deep, vibrant colors and dynamic, complex aromas. That’s because we source the freshest ingredients on the planet and create our products by hand, in-house, in small batches. The difference is remarkable.
How did you find yourself making botanical skincare? Tell us about your journey into this industry.
Founding Fam Botanicals was a bit of a curveball for me. First and foremost, I identify as an artist. I spent the first part of my career as an international documentary filmmaker and photographer with a passion for social and environmental justice. I loved this work but often felt sad that the primary way to interact with my art was through a digital screen. I wanted to create something multi-sensory that brings people into direct contact with the magic of the natural world. One day, I found myself living in the Redwood forests of Northern California and the trees told me to go to Colorado and study herbalism. So I did. I studied at the Colorado School of Clinical Herbalism and was completely blown away by the world of plants. It was massive. It was immersive. It was far bigger, more complex, and more intertwined with the evolution of our human species than I ever could have imagined.
In addition to learning about botany, chemistry, biology, anatomy, physiology, and physiology, I learned the names of plants. As I learned the names of more and more plants, I began to feel a deeper sense of connection to the world around me. Imagine going to a party and not knowing anyone there and not introducing yourself to anyone. Now imagine going to a party and knowing everyone there and everyone knows you. Imagine how much more connected and supported you would feel. I realized that in my 30 years on the planet, I hadn’t introduced myself to any of the plants around me and hadn’t bothered to ask them for their names either. This way of moving through the world where we acknowledge plants as our relatives and treat them with respect is actually a very ancient practice and one that is still alive in many indigenous cultures today. This is where the name Fam Botanicals comes from. It’s an encouragement to build relationships with the plants around us, treat them with respect, and feel the sense of belonging and support that they provide.
Then, one day in herb school, we made a freshly infused Chamomile oil. It was transcendent. I was blown away by the delicate, dynamic, apple-like aroma, the soft, silky texture, and the calmness it brought to my entire being. That was it. I had found my medium.
Tell us about the process that went into creating your flagship product, the Triple Rose Vitamin C Facial Oil.
Our first line of products consisted of 8 different face & body oils, each with a single botanical infused into it. One of the plants that wasn’t in the original line was Rose and I received many requests for a Rose oil. At the time, I thought Rose was a little overplayed. I didn’t have much interest in working with Rose because it reminded me of my grandma’s potpourri and the tacky commercialization of love. But I continued to receive requests for a Rose oil. I skeptically tested Rose samples from all over the world. None of them did anything for me. Except for one. It was a Rose Otto from a multi-generational family farm in Turkey. It captivated me and won me over.
The more I worked with Rose, the more deeply I fell in love with her. She’s basically the Beyoncé of the plant world. Yeah she’s famous, and for a reason. She is sexy, powerful, and captivating. She is also soft, gentle, and protective. In herbalism, Rose is considered one of the most powerful heart medicines. Take one whiff of our Triple Rose Vitamin C facial oil and you will immediately feel your heart swell. Your heart will remember its strength and the courage it takes to be soft and vulnerable.
So I set out to capture the essence, energy, and personality of this magical being in the form of an oil. I started at the beginning, with the seed. After an incredible amount of searching, I found a gorgeous wild Rose hip seed harvested by hand in the mountains of Patagonia and cold-pressed throughout the year for maximum freshness.
The next stage of a Rose’s life is the flower. Most Rose scents on the market are artificial or extracted using chemical solvents. The Rose flower oil that we found on the multigenerational family farm in Turkey is a rare and precious extraction known as Rose Otto. The flowers are harvested by hand each morning in spring before their scent has evaporated in the heat of the day and are distilled using only the petals and water vapor.
The final stage of the life cycle of the Rose is the fruit, also known as a Rose hip. When the flowers are pollinated, they form a juicy red Rose hip packed with antioxidants. Our Rose hips are grown organically in Bulgaria and extracted using supercritical CO2. This is one of the cleanest extraction methods on earth. It compresses carbon dioxide into a liquid, which then dissolves the plant material, and then turns back into a gas when the chamber is opened, leaving no residue behind in the plant material.
In the process of turning the Rose hip into an oil, some of the water-soluble constituents are lost, such as its high content of Vitamin C. The final step is adding back in an oil-soluble and synergistic combination of Vitamins C + E.
Et voila. There you have it. Our flagship Triple Rose Vitamin C facial oil is made with only 5 ingredients: a triple extract of Rose and a synergistic combination of Vitamins C + E. It’s truly the most vibrant skincare product on the market. We believe in it so much that we offer a money-back guarantee if you don’t love it. The fresh ingredients we use are brimming with life, the fatty acids instantly absorb into your skin, and the antioxidants make your skin glow like you’ve never experienced before. This is fresh skincare. This is what it feels like to develop relationships with plants and encounter them in a holistic form.
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
I started Fam Botanical in my kitchen on the summer solstice in 2020. After 2 years in business, I partnered with one of Denver’s most renowned apothecaries, Apothecary Tinctura. Fam moved into the Apothecary Tinctura lab space in the Santa Fe Arts District in Denver and we manufacture and fulfill everything together in-house with our small and mighty team of herbalists. This allows us to stay close with our ingredients and ensure the quality and freshness of everything that makes it out of our doors and into the hands of our customers. We are excited to continue serving up fresh botanical skincare from our Denver location for years to come.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
The main thing that continues to set us apart from the other options on the market is the quality of our products. Quality is the result of a lot of interconnected values. One of these values is that simple, fresh ingredients are always better for us than over processed ones – whether in our food or on our skin. We work with farmers and wildcrafters who sustainably grow and harvest their crops, which is better for the planet and also produces higher quality botanicals. Another value that makes the quality of our products stand apart is our reverence for the natural world and our desire to create something beautiful that connects us more deeply with the earth. These values result in products that are noticeably different from other products on the market and continue to surprise and delight customers.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://fambotanicals.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fambotanicals/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fambotanicals
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fam-botanicals/
Image Credits
Photography by Samuel James Queen