Sḵwálwen (skwall - win) is a luxury Indigenous brand creating botanical skin care products. Honouring traditional Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) plant knowledge, we incorporate sustainably harvested and sourced plants and organic, high quality ingredients. Each product has a Squamish name to honour the place where this plant knowledge comes from.
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Creating Sḵwálwen products begins with time spent on the land — forests, estuaries, or subalpine meadows — to harvest plant foods and medicines. Using Squamish cultural teachings, Leigh approaches the natural world gently and respectfully, harvesting with techniques that are ethical and sustainable. (Learn more about this stage here.)
Once the plants are harvested it’s time to process them. This usually includes scraping bark, cleaning, hanging to dry, infusing in oil and more. After processing, it’s time to create! Leigh loves this part — developing each recipe, pairing particular plants based on their healing properties with the highest quality oils, clays and plant butters. (Her five-year-old daughter calls these her “potions”.)
Each batch of Sḵwálwen products is made with care and intention, bringing you luxurious skincare products free from harsh chemicals, phthalates, synthetic fragrances, synthetic colors and parabens.
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From the heart
Sḵwálwen Botanicals is a luxury Indigenous beauty brand offering plant-based skincare inspired by, and grounded in, Indigenous plant knowledge. Sḵwálwen (skwall-win) translates to “heart” or “essence of being” in the Squamish language. This name was chosen to represent the inspiration behind the business: building connections to the land through working with plants in a way that feeds one’s heart and spirit.
Founder Leigh Joseph thrives on finding creative approaches to drawing on Indigenous knowledge in a contemporary way. Sḵwálwen products offer an opportunity for people to incorporate Indigenous plant knowledge and the clean, effective properties of plant-based ingredients into their daily beauty and self care rituals in keeping with the heart-centered foundation of the business.
On the Land
Leigh loves walking out the door with her basket in hand and heading into the forest or estuary or subalpine meadows to harvest plant food and medicines. Skwxwú7mesh culture considers plants to be relatives, thus they are to be respected. This is why Leigh takes a moment to breathe and connect with herself, bringing her mind and heart to a place of peace and presence. Then she says a thank you to the plants and trees she will be harvesting from.
As a botanist, Leigh is passionate about plant identification. She observes plants throughout their growing season, looking for the cues and signs that a particular plant is ready to be harvested. This kind of awareness of one's surroundings leads to a connection to place and a knowledge that can only be developed over time.
When Leigh harvests plants she follows cultural teachings that ensure a sustainable relationship based on reciprocity. There are many ways to ensure plants regenerate if you understand their individual structures and lifecycles. Leigh takes care to not harvest too much of any one plant so as to ensure the plant will come back for years to come and can be used by other lifeforms that rely on it.
Many Sḵwálwen product ingredients come from seasonal harvests, meaning that some products are seasonal as well. This adds to the allure of aligning with nature to care for yourself and the anticipation of the next harvest season bringing wonderful things.
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