One Sooke company is using the power of the ocean to give skin a new glow.
Seaflora skincare company started in Sooke in 1998, when founder Diane Bernard saw a skincare brand exaggerating its use of seaweed in its products.
“The last and least-used ingredient was seaweed, and 100 per cent of the marketing was about seaweed – 100 per cent of the benefits in the marketing were seaweed,” said Adam Butcher, the current owner and “Sea.E.O.” of Seaflora, who took over the business after his mother retired.
“But there was none in it. It was heavily processed, heavily perfumed and fragranced. And she said, ‘Well, Vancouver Island is gift-wrapped in seaweed – I can do something like this.’”
Fast forward over 25 years, and Seaflora was born, launching a line of skincare products with seaweed as the foundational ingredient. Now, the company has seven full-time employees and 42 individual products available online and in-store.
They had the opportunity to showcase products among other seaweed lovers at the recent International Seaweed Symposium, held May 4 to 9 at the Victoria Conference Centre. As the world’s premier seaweed conference, the event features the latest research, products and business ventures centred around seaweed.
Catherine Line, co-owner of Seaflora and Butcher’s wife, explained that the conference was a great opportunity to share the powers of seaweed. One example she gave is seaweed’s natural ability to produce squalane, an organic compound often used in skincare.
“Squalane comes from shark livers. We already have enough problems with people slicing fins off for shark fin soup,” Line said. “So I keep telling people, why don’t you extract squalane from seaweed and sell it to L’Oréal or Estée Lauder?”
“There are so many things that come from seaweed that make it more sustainable.”
Butcher said it's been great to spend the week surrounded by appreciators of the oceanic plant, given seaweed’s often poor marketing.
“As my mom always said, seaweed has such a bad PR problem. So a lot of it is getting people more excited about seaweed, which is easy to do here at the Seaweed Symposium,” he said.
“Somebody told me yesterday, ‘The world is sleeping on seaweed.’ And they really are.”
Butcher explained that part of what makes seaweed an effective skincare ingredient is its many natural benefits.
“Whatever is trending in skincare, seaweed has it,” he said.
“Whether it’s vitamins and minerals – seaweeds have more than any fruit, vegetable or herb grown on land – or whether it’s unique bioactive compounds that are beneficial to human skin.”
Seaweed is also sustainable, Butcher explained. Some species, like Macrocystis — a kind of kelp — are among the fastest-growing organisms on Earth. They don’t need fertilizer, soil or any human intervention, at least not from Butcher, who wild-harvests his seaweed about 12 times a year – enough to sustain the business.
“I’ve maybe harvested in 300 square metres of area. You just give the seaweed a little haircut, and the rest of it keeps growing. You come back year after year after year.”
Glass bottles and bulk shipments of their products for hotels also help keep Seaflora sustainable.
While Butcher never expected to be running a skincare brand, seaweed, you could say, is in his blood.
“One of my summer jobs when I was a teenager, in high school, was harvesting local seaweed,” Butcher said.
“I had a list of chefs here in Victoria and up-Island. I’d give them a call and say, ‘Hey, it’s Adam – these are the seaweeds I’ve got this week. How much do you want?’”
After a few years of school, some travelling and eventually returning to Sooke, Butcher saw the opportunity to keep working with seaweed. He jumped at it, eventually taking over the company from his mother when she retired. Since then, he’s had the opportunity to travel the world, spreading the good word of seaweed with no plans of stopping anytime soon.
“We’re celebrating 25 years in business this year, and it’s been a really cool ride,” he said.
“The future is just doing what we’re doing – but doing it better.”
