2025.

We’ve been through some really interesting times this year. Mostly it’s been a year that surprised me.

At the beginning of the year, I plan the year ahead and we move through the months checking off our to-dos, inching closer to the goals we set. But this year felt like a massive departure from the expectations I had. I’m realizing as I sit here typing this out how boring the written word has become. AI and ChatGPT and all the marketing noise… it feels like it overwhelms everything. Or maybe that’s just me.

The honest, true things seem to get lost in the mix of communication. And yet here we are, not reflecting as an act of noise but as an act of documenting the year that was. Because we did big fucking things at Botnia. And you were a part of those big fucking things.

The theme for me this year was “best in class skincare.” I set these themes at the beginning of the year as a way of setting the vision and creating a tone for everything that follows. Our skincare is the best not to compete, but to show who we truly are and break through the fractured way we consume marketing, culture and of course skincare right now.

We did big things.
We gathered at our home in Sausalito, CA with estheticians from across the country, some traveling from as far as Vermont and as far south as Texas, for a two-day retreat. We shared herbalism, treatment room skills, and so much more.

We hosted continuing education through our annual workshop, two full days for holistic Botnia estheticians on menopause & business skills, with over 200 practitioners. We learned how menopause changes the body and how to care for the skin through this transition and beyond. We hosted classes for estheticians not yet inside our community, opening the door to holistic esthetics for so many new faces.

We presented at our first ever industry trade show, highlighting our apothecary backbar. We met so many practitioners. Hugging humans this year has genuinely been one of my favorite things. There is so much greenwashing in our industry, and being honest and true with practitioners whose reputations rely on truth-telling was powerful in a way I’ll never forget.

This year I launched mandelic acid two ways: an at-home product and a back bar ingredient that had been a missing link in our library of ingredients. A soft active that gently exfoliates, brightens, and is safe for all skin types and all skin colors.

This year was also about showing the world behind the curtain. About being honest in a time when it’s hard to trust what we see and hear. I’ve always believed we could be different as a company, but what I learned this year is that it’s not about being different it’s about being us. This year felt like being us. Walking nose-down through the noise, committed to our values and the people we grow and make our skincare for.

Botnia is more than skincare too. It’s a team of people who make this skincare every day. They bring their all, 40 hours a week, to this dream. Every part of this company is considered. And in reflecting on 2025, I’m so grateful we are intact. We are here, still, in a world that swirls around us. We remain. And that’s the part that makes me feel the deepest gratitude I could. To be on this journey to have this chance at something good, real whole. Botnia is my life's work. When you start something it's hard to know if it will be the thing you end up committing 100 percent of your energy t0 in 2010 when I opened my apothecary spa with the idea of doing it differently I had no Idea this would come, and yet now 15 years into being a small business owner and 8 years into launching botnia I see how this year changed me, I stepped into being a business founder in a new way… I am best in class skincare.

Xo,
Justine