Best friends and fellow teachers Carly Broberg and Lindsay Jones have combined their creativity and love of all things natural to produce a line of eco-conscious bath and body products handmade in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Broberg, who lives in Stoughton, teaches at Gordon F. Kells High School in Carlyle, while Jones is based in Edmonton. The friends met while studying education at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, where Broberg grew up, although her family has roots in Carlyle.
“My mom-Sherri Sacher Broberg-grew up in Carlyle, and she's always been very naturally-driven. I grew up in a fairly organic household and we used lots of biodegradable, natural products. We always valued stuff that wasn't packed full of chemicals, and thats what we're trying to do with our products.”
“Lindsay and I came up with the concept for Rosa & Lilium Apothecary in January 2014. We were already making lots of natural products for ourselves and our friends, for Christmas and other occasions, and people started asking us for stuff.”
“We decided it was time for us to become entrepeneurs and we launched in December of 2014 in Edmonton, so we've really only been in business a few months,” adds Broberg. “It's been a journey, for sure, and we want to start small and market and build the business so we can get to know people and people can get to know us.”
“We started small with our product line, because it's important for us to do it right. We also want to respond to our customers. In Edmonton, someone asked, 'What do you have for men?' and that's how we came up with our beard oil.”
Broberg says, “The toughest, coolest, most unique thing” about being in business is that she and Jones are not in the same province.
“We really have to balance our work and our friendship,” she says. “We make technology work for us. People often ask about our business's name. We came up with that on a Skype date that lasted about five hours!”
“We were trying to come up with a name for our business and coming up with the most lame names. We were laughing and having a good time. We really wanted a name that would connect with the provinces where we live-Saskatchewan and Alberta. We thought of the provincial flowers-the Western lily and the Wild rose, and we decided to use the genus names, which are rosa for the rose and lilium for the lily, which became Rosa & Lilium.”
“We have a few wholesalers for our natural ingedients, but down the road, we would like to use more locally-sourced ingredients,” Some stuff, like our organic shea butter comes from Africa, but we hope to get locally-sourced ingredients where we can. For example, we currently use a wholesaler for our organic beeswax, but my uncle, Darren Sacher (formerly of Carlyle) is a beekeeper, and we'd like to get our beeswax from him.”
Broberg says, “We've had such great support from people in both provinces and we'd especially like to thank our family and friends. Their support has been awesome.”
“We've applied to some festivals and markets for this spring and summer,” says Broberg. “We're looking forward to meeting people and sharing Rosa & Lilium Apothecary with them.”
For more information or to purchase products, check out www.rosaliliumapothecary.com and follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
