Birch Babes

One of our favourite parts of discovering new vendors is learning about how they came to find themselves in the world of natural, clean, human & earth-friendly products. Birch Babe is one of the best.

It all started when founder, Debbie, was working in a cubicle in an office 10 years ago and just needed a break. Many of us think a "break" would be heading to a lovely location to relax and unwind.

But not Debbie.

Debbie decided that - for her - a break meant taking 6 months off work, and hiking across South America. This inspiring woman did a 5 month trek from the southern tip of Patagonia to the Northern tip of Chile.

Solo.

She found a couple things on this journey. One being that - after many scary moments - she has an incredible strength. The other is that while certain areas like Chile and Argentina have a waste issue, other more remote areas, like Patagonia have communities that are meticulous about keeping the area clean.

Debbie came back with the inspiring thought of a cleaner world being possible. She had always cared about what she put in her body, but had a new realization that what she put on her body and on the earth were equally as important. That's when she quit her job, determined to help make this a cleaner & healthier world, and created her first product - Lip Tint in a jar.

Soon after, at the lovely age of 60, she went back to school and earned not one, but two diplomas in organic skin care formulation, and kept creating beautiful natural skin care products. In 2020, well... we all know what happened that year, and her two daughters, Kelsey & Lindsay, lost their jobs. So they hopped on board with their incredible mom to help rebrand and make these wonderful products available to more people.

In just 4 years, they've gone from carrying their products in just 30 stores to over 300 in North America! We're so pleased by this, not just because this is an amazing women-owned, family-run business with truly lovely humans making fabulous products, who deserve all the successes (which they do!), but because this means people are demanding better. There's a shift happening. Debbie, her daughters, their team, and all of you opting for clean, healthy, waste-free, and ethically-made products are contributing to the vision Debbie dreamed of a decade ago.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Mead