Grounded Sage:
By: Dana Leigh Lyons
Tags: Self Care, Skincare, Natural Beauty, Body Positive, Holistic Health

Natural skincare, small batch skincare, nontoxic skincare, natural beauty, natural makeup, skin positivity, self-care, ritual, morning routine, women in business.

Those of you who’ve been following me in this space know my passion for safer skincare…and my love for sharing interviews with women rocking their own businesses.

Today, I’m delighted to feature Jamie — owner of Grounded Sage Skincare, a natural small-batch skincare company in Ontario, Canada, and co-founder of Lily’s Place Animal Sanctuary.

Below, Jamie talks about:

Her natural skincare mission + vision

Skin positivity + making peace with your skin

The skincare ingredients she loves + avoids

Her past struggles with cystic acne + how her relationship with her skin has changed

Her intuitive, holistic, seasonal approach to skincare

Her summer-to-autumn transitional skincare routine

How to create your own simple skincare ritual

I’m excited to feature Jamie + Grounded Sage in this space! Please enjoy!

Could you talk about the mission + vision behind Grounded Sage?

Grounded Sage Skincare evolved from a desire to care for my skin in a way that put wellness, understanding and nourishment at the forefront. I felt detached from the mainstream beauty industry and the products it was offering — nothing felt wholesome, authentic or earthy enough.

Since its inception in 2009, Grounded Sage has grown but its mission to empower others to lead gentler, kinder lives hasn’t changed. From the natural ingredients, to the handcrafted products, to the straightforward skincare education, Grounded Sage makes “the care of skin” less stressful and less confusing.

Today, Grounded Sage Skincare offers a safe haven for those who want to cut through the noise and find wholesome products that align with their values — whether that’s the hunt for a cleaner, greener moisturizer, or whether that’s making peace with their skin — perhaps for the first time!

Through skin-positive messaging, products free of fillers, and a connection to nature, Grounded Sage Skincare and our community of Radiant Rebels are moving “the care of skin” into a personalized journey of self-care, empowerment and kindness.

What sorts of ingredients do you use…and what do you avoid?

I focus on wholesome, supportive ingredients that are cruelty-free and as sustainable as possible.

Ingredients that “make the cut” go through a lot of filters before I formulate with them. For example, they need to be cruelty-free, nature-based, effective, and provide at least one benefit to the skin.

This means that “filler” and “bulking” ingredients don’t end up in Grounded Sage products because I want every ingredient to be “pulling its weight” so to speak. I don’t need fluff or filler in my skincare — I meet the “fluff” quota in my life by indulging in guilty-pleasure non-fiction books :).

What are your most popular products?

I wanted to answer this objectively, so I looked at what my bestselling products have been this year. The top 5 are:

What is your beauty philosophy?

I think a beautiful life is one that is deep, grounded, and full of gratitude. My approach to “beauty” follows that thread as well. You see, I have a hard time relating to the broader world of “beauty” that often focuses on trends, surface-level aesthetics, short-term “gains,” and our bodies as a “showpieces” rather than part of us as a whole human being.

In truth, the “outside part” of my body seems the least relevant to my life’s work, my goals, and the value I can add to the world. And while I do love and appreciate some things that come out of the broader beauty space (for example, the creativity and artistry of makeup artists), I’m most comfortable outside of a world that focuses heavily on external appearances.

Instead, I find myself gravitating to spaces and philosophies that are stable, predictable and constructed to support my whole health. And let’s face it, worrying whether I’m on-trend or my makeup is just right doesn’t support my emotional wellbeing. Those aren’t things I enjoy, and I want my thoughts to focus on listening to how I’m feeling, not how others are feeling about me.

All of that is to say that my “beauty philosophy” is built on a foundation of supporting my whole self for long-term health — and so far it’s working for me :).

How about your relationship with your skin…and how it’s changed?

My relationship with my skin has completely changed over the years! For example, if my 12-year-old self read my current beauty philosophy, I would have thought, “Well, that’s nice for you, but my skin is ruining my life!” And honestly, that’s how it felt — and those feelings were very real and justified.

My “relationship” with acne as a (previously) constant companion started before the age of 12. By the time I was in sixth grade, my acne was full-blown and cystic. I was seeing a dermatologist while most of my classmates hadn’t even experienced their first pimple. Acne was a mask that covered my skin that I couldn’t take off, hide or leave at home.

During that time, my relationship with my skin was negative and exhausting. I felt like I was in a battle with an enemy that wasn’t playing fair. I’d call in reinforcements — from products to doctors to prescriptions — often gaining a bit of ground but never tipping the war in my favour.

What I didn’t know back then was that the largest organ in my body was communicating in loud, bold and desperate ways to get my attention. After a decade of broken promises from conventional approaches (including a round of Accutane), something had to give.

I document the mindset shift that sparked a complete about-face with my approach to skincare on this page under the “our story” section.

Speaking of mindset, what’s your take on skin positivity when it comes to skincare and products?

I think it takes a lot of energy and resources to strive to keep up with unrealistic beauty ideals. When we’re able to untangle our self worth from those ideals, we find the space, healing and freedom to appreciate our skin for what it is. Our skin is a part of us that does amazing things to support us each day.

Just like us, our skin is doing the best it can with what it has to work with. Seeing our skin in this light, rather than something that needs to be defined by how it’s viewed through someone else’s eyes (and the external opinions and judgements of those eyes), feels like letting out a breath we’ve been holding for far too long. A breath that wasn’t ours to hold in the first place — that breath didn’t belong to us, and it’s ok to release it.

After exhaling, we’re able to approach the care of our skin from a place of true support so it can continue to support us in a mutually beneficial union. Gone are the vanity measuring sticks that determine if we’re “keeping up” or “making the grade.” Instead, the relationship we have with our skin becomes a healthy one based on support and wellbeing.

Fostering a skin positive relationship is so important because it frees up our mental and emotional resources to focus on things that we want to see in the world. For me, that’s a kinder world for all living things. I can’t be purposeful, mindful and impactful when I’m depleted and tangled up in expectations I’ll never reach.

When I’m not burdened under that weight of negative self-talk, I’m free to allocate my resources to make a positive difference in the world. That freedom doesn’t come overnight for many of us. It is hard work due to destructive, internalized societal conditioning, but it’s work worth doing.

This freedom is what I want for others as well. This is why I do the work I do. I want to be a different voice in the beauty space that says you don’t have to keep running the race, you can find comfort in who you are, and you can choose to use skincare for the care of your skin — and nothing more (not keeping up with trends, not striving to satisfy beauty ideals, not validating stereotypes, etc).

Could you walk us through your skincare routine?

Sure! I like to follow an intuitive approach to skincare, so my routine often changes with my skin’s needs. However, I know how helpful it can be to see what a well-rounded, balanced skincare routine looks like.

Right now, my skincare routine is seasonally focused and based on supporting my skin through the transition from summer to autumn. So I’m doing two things:

I’m supporting my skin as it processes the lingering heat of the summer. This is important even though I’m an avid user of proper sun protection (free radicals are still present even with the use of sunscreen). I’m keeping buildup at bay by using ingredients that break up congestion without sparking inflammation. So many of us experience an increase in oil production during the summer that can turn into congestion if it’s not addressed. Right now, I’m focusing on keeping congestion at bay until my oil production slows down later in the fall.

The products I’m using in the morning are:

Cleanser: Wild Basil & Cucumber

Hydrator & Repairing + Protecting Treatment: Vitamin C + Probiotics Serum

Moisturizer: This is the product I switch up the most! When I’d like a tinted moisturizer with some coverage, I go with Nature’s Veil CC Cream. When my skin needs deep repair but a light feel (and no coverage), I go with Cucumber Refresh. When my skin feels sensitive (like when I’ve spent a lot of time outside over the weekend in nature with the blissful country winds whipping across my face), I go with the Patchouli Facial Moisturizer because it calms my skin down every time without fail and deeply nourishes my acne-prone, often fussy skin.

The products I’m using in the evening are:

Cleanser: Green Tea & Pineapple

Hydrator & Repairing Treatment: Hydration Mist

Moisturizer: Pumpkin Enzyme Mask with Probiotics — I use it as an overnight treatment for gently lifting buildup, a big dose of repairing antioxidants, and deeply nourishing lipids.

Any suggestions for people wanting to create a simple skincare ritual?

Start with something simple and sustainable. For example, if you know you moisturize your face each night, seek out a moisturizer that deeply nourishes your skin in a way that works with your skin type. By doing this, you’re practicing a healthy habit rather than slathering on something on that’s full of filler ingredients that don’t support your skin over the long haul.

To take it a step further, while applying that moisturizer, be mindful and present. This could include thinking about all the building blocks of healthy skin you’re infusing into your body at that moment. Or it could be a time that, while applying the moisturizer, you commit to thinking about all the things you’re grateful for in that moment.

Tweaking and adjusting things we’re already doing in small, simple ways is how I’ve developed a supportive life based on self-care over time. Each baby step and quiet, mindful moment counts.

Where can people find you and learn more?

Thank you for asking! To reach out or for more about Grounded Sage, please visit groundedsage.com. For more about our animal sanctuary, please go here.

Thank you so much, Jamie! Such a treat to share you and your amazing products in this space!