Sage & Thistle
Sage & Thistle Handmade Goods is a small, Toronto based family-run soap and body care business. Mikael does all product design and creation, communication and marketing, and runs the Sage & Thistle Urban Garden. Sam works behind the scenes to ensure things run smoothly, helping build relationships with local farmers and suppliers, running deliveries, lifting heavy things, and checking for errors in Mikael's Instagram posts. Their three young kiddos help out as well, napping through deliveries, popping bubble wrap, and making sure everyone takes snack breaks! The name Sage & Thistle is representative of who they are: Sage is one of Mikael's favourite plants, and Thistle pays homage to Sam's Scottish heritage.
Sage & Thistle was established in 2018. Mikael, pregnant with their first child, was frustrated with the lack of natural baby care product options, and started to research ingredients. From that research, she created Sage & Thistle's very first product: an organic diaper cream. From there, Sage & Thistle began making bath soaks, body scrubs, and ultimately soaps. Sam is a butcher by trade, and was frustrated at seeing animal fats routinely wasted and tossed into the garbage. After plenty of research and planning, Sam made the first batch of soap using hand rendered tallow in a mold he made out of scraps of wood. They waited six weeks for the soaps to cure, and when they tried them they found that this worked better than anything they'd ever purchased in a store. It left their skin feeling soft and moisturized, and they were hooked!! Soon, requests began to pour in from friends and family. As word spread, Sage & Thistle was invited to their first market. It was a daily mostly spent chasing their energetic toddler, and soothing their newborn, but they were proud of offer a small seelction of natural goods. Though they had to leave early to put their children to bed, the spark was lit and Sage & Thistle began to grow.
Since that first market in 2018, Sage & Thistle has come a long way...though they do still have toddlers running around. As Mikael and Sam continue to grow their product line, creating more artisanal soaps and other natural body and home care goods, their commitment to quality remains the bedrock of the company. Mikael still makes each and every product by hand, in small batches, using the best local ingredients right in their home studio. Sam and Mikael now create a line of vegan and vegetarian soaps and other products that are made with organic and/or Fair Trade Certified oils and plant butters. The animal fats that are used in some soaps are sourced exclusively from ethically practicing Ontario farms, with whom Sam and Mikael have close relationships, Their clays, salts, and essential oils are pure and unadulterated, while many of the botanicals are responsibly wildcrafted, foraged, and grown in their own pesticide-free and herbicide-free Urban Garden! Keeping the chain of supply as clean and local as possible will always be important to Mikael and Sam. Each product they craft is completely natural, and free of synethetic dyes or fragrances, preservatives, unnecessary chemicals, fillers, or detergents.
Mikael and Sam believe in giving back to the communities that support them. One way they can do that is to donate soap and other natural products to Toronto organizations that care for and provide essential services to our city's more vulnerable populations. Their goal is to provide their community with the same products that they want to use for their own family: natural body and home goods that are beautiful, functional, and made with real ingredients we can trust.