A conversation about upscale selfcare with the founders of L:A BRUKET

vor 2 years

A reminder for and to ourselves.

The last few years we have all gone through an equally exhausting, as well as undeniable, formative phase. Through it, we were pointed to our actual speed, that of our thoughts, our work and especially our life in general. All of a sudden, all of these aspects took place in one setting and our home became the pivotal point.
Our compulsive deceleration moved us to engage more with ourselves, to reflect, to question, and most importantly, to take care of ourselves again. A veritable flood of self-care rituals and mental health thoughts flooded social media. And we in the middle of it, at the mercy of the question: How could we lose ourselves at our own pace for so long?

But we also became aware: rituals can be integrated into everyday life, you just have to consciously take time for them, consciously decide for yourself. A bigger and bigger topic became something so banal, which was actually already a fixed part of the daily routine, but was processed rather partly thoughtlessly and under the same speed as the daily mails:  skin care.
This should be the moment of awareness, realizing that you are taking care of yourself and your body, your skin. Allowing  yourself the moment of rest and return the favor for what it does for you every day. On this very topic, we talked to two people who know exactly what we’re talking about here: Mats Johansson and Monica Kylén, the founders of Swedish skincare brand L:a Bruket.

L:a Bruket stands for natural and organic products and lets the various elements of nature find a home in them. In doing so, they act on the principle of giving our nature the chance to get closer to the human being again – and vice versa. Because in Sweden, nature comes to you, carried by the wind, the sun, the salt of the sea. L:a Bruket lets itself be driven by innovation, seeks inspiration and answers in nature in order to keep evolving, to create space for contemporary treatments. Aiming  not only to provide uncompromising care, but also to support and train the skin to function better on its own, offering a holistic approach to skincare, not a short-term, quick fix.
L:a Bruket brings nature in its purest form into our four walls.

With Fräulein Mats and Monica shared their routines, how to find true peace and the special connection between nature and L:a Bruket.

What moved you to dedicate yourselves to body care?
Rooted selfcare from Varberg spa practices. A wish to encapsulate those powerful treatments into bodycare products, to make travel our Swedish identity.
Having travelled a great deal over the years we found ourselves appreciating the simple dimensions of quality of life more and more. Understanding that time, silence and connection to nature was the new luxury, we saw that there was room for a brand that, for real could bring that inspiration and experience into a hectic urban lifestyle.
Our vision with L:a Bruket has always been to capture the Swedish lifestyle and the very authentic and qualitative but simple way people of Varberg relate to health, to the sea-bathing culture and to well-being in general. Based on our kurbad-history and the traditional treatments, maintained through generations, we wanted to bring a new level of natural and organic skin and body care solutions relevant to a contemporary audience.

I feel that especially during Corona skincare was more and more categorized as a direction of Selfcare. What does Selfcare mean to you in general?
To me selfcare means allowing yourself to step away from the pressure for a while, to reward yourself and give yourself the attention and treatments needed to be able to cope with all challenges your daily life presents to you. During Corona most of us has been given the chance to explore and appreciate the effects of selfcare and I believe and hope that we all will bring that insight into an updated post-Covid lifestyle.
I am convinced that experiences during Covid, to many of us has awakened our senses, brought new-found appreciation of silent time for yourself and also a higher degree of body-consciousness which leads to paying more attention to your health and your body needs.

The other day I read something about true relaxation and that it can also be exhausting and intense. How would you define true tranquillity?
When I seek tranquility and new energy, I always turn to nature to find peace of mind. In nature I take time to let my thoughts fly free and be amazed by the perfect imperfections the nature presents. It doesn´t matter if it is in the forest, by the coast, in a lake or on the sea, I always seem to get a new perspective and restore energy levels and my ability to cope with daily issues. Yes, true relaxation means that you should embrace your low energy levels to have them filled again. The result might not come instantly, as we often hope for, but by allowing sufficient time for the process the reward will be there.

How do you think a care ritual helps and promotes inner relaxation?
I believe that care rituals not only help you to give your skin what it needs to stay healthy, they are a great help to take enough time for yourself, to focus on your needs, to allow your mind to escape for a while. The sensoriality and tactility are key dimensions to any ritual since they will bring an emotional connection and inspire you to truly focus on living the experience and be present in the moment.
I can make a parallel to my work with pottery, which thanks to the above dimensions is as much therapeutic as it is creative, and I use it as an escape from the world for a while.

Keywords mindfulness & digitalization: How do you decelerate your everyday life?
It is easier said than done and I have a sensitive mind and is easily disturbed by impressions from and interacting with my surrounding, so it is even more important with private space and time. What I do to maintain creative focus is to prioritize time for myself as much as I can because that is when I can come up with new ideas and solutions.  I escape from crowds and try to maintain a healthy distance from other people as much as I can and prefer to interact in very small groups of people I know well.

What do you value most at La Bruket and what is the “L:a Bruket” experience?
What I value the most is the fact that we do things for real and that we see that skin health is the long-term route to true beauty. We are totally uncompromising on quality of our natural ingredients and the actual result our treatments bring, and I am confident that we though our scent experiences, our tactile textures manage to reconnect our audience with nature when using any of our products. Adding to that a very Swedish approach and an escape to our west coast.

L:a Bruket also stands for natural and organic skincare, but still follows the philosophy of innovation, which might seem contradictory to some people, as progress is often not necessarily associated with the natural. – How to combine innovation and nature?
Having been creating natural and organic skin and body care for 13 years we have gained a lot of experience in combining these ingredients to create active formulas for face and body. The last 2-3 years we have put a lot of effort to take this experience to the next level by combining it with biotech innovation. This have allowed us to even more refined get access to the active parts of the natural ingredients and with them maximize efficiency and create targeted skin care products with dermatologically proven effects.
While adding the above dimension to innovation we are also having COSMOS certification applied on our full range of old and new products. We do this through a third party to show that we have always had a responsible approach to nature, and we maintain it when adding this new level of innovation to our product range. To give back something to nature we are continuously running our “Forest pledge” activity where we give 5% of our worldwide sales value of our Spruce collection to “Naturarvet”, a Swedish nonprofit organization who buys up Old grown forests to save them from being harvested, maintaining carbon in the ground counteracting global warming. To minimize the number of produced bottles we have a range of refill products allowing the recyclable bottles we have made with recycled plastic to be use multiple times.

It is equally important for L:A Bruket to adhere to traditional craftmanship. What do these look like in skin care?
Craftmanship has always been part of the brand and lives on through my limited edition drops of ceramic pieces or my handcrafted sinks in our stores. It has always been the way we have developed and produced our products. It allows for maximum tactility; it gives you a direct understanding of the quality of the naturally grown ingredients, their condition, and an intimate sensorial interaction with the formula. Our seaweed harvesting is a traditional handcraft that we still use to harvest our seaweed for the detox bath we offer for home use.
Craftmanship and the effects it has on skin was also a driving force when we have developed our extended hand care treatments with our new 273 REJUVENATING HAND SERUM adding to the recent 246 RESTORATIVE ALGAE HAND PEEL being introduce this fall. They aim to cure and care for the most important tools of any artist or craftsman. 

 

Interview Carolin Desiree Becker

Picture courtesy of L:A BRUKET

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