(Re)wilding with L:A BRUKET

After cottage-core and secretly mastering the art of obsessive sourdough baking, society seems to have evoked the desire to switch cityscapes for wide fields, endless greenery and home-grown food. Rewilding is the trend, which is making its rounds through various social media platforms, showcasing a more conscious, slower side of life. Whilst this trend may be unknown territory for people used to urban environments, it is certainly no stranger to the organic skincare brand L:A Bruket. Born in the Swedish wilderness, more than a decade before we all flew the cities for rural life, the brand is a pioneer in its field. Based on the power of mother nature, the brand wants to revolutionize how we see and treat our bodies. Bodies come in all shapes and colours, and for the latest Campaign for their brand new body clay mask, the brand has teamed up with the British art collective Marfa.

SLEEK Magazine had the privilege to speak to the co-founder of L:A Bruket, Mats Johansson to talk about all things skincare, the natural world and visual body standards.

SLEEK: You are based in Sweden. How has being surrounded by this incredible nature influenced your brand?

L:A Bruket: It did not directly “influence” the brand. It’s the platform we’re resting on, in a way. We weren’t “influenced” by it, it’s something that comes with the package of being Swedish. Without the nature around us, we wouldn’t have our particular approach and our brand may not exist in the way it does now. We’ve created this company and the products out of passion and interest. Resulting from our close connection to Varberg and its surroundings and nature, we started to experience natural cosmetics. It became a real success, our brand started from there and we started to explore our creativity through new fields. Today, the market has changed a lot, we are talking a lot about natural skincare these days. We were part of this growing trend back in 2008 when everyone was suddenly wanting to brew their own beer, bake their own bread, and fuel their life with local ingredients, produced outside the city. We are part of this trend, which grew really strong, in many ways. We are based in a small Swedish town, which has a 200-year-old spa tradition. This spa tradition is very much related to nature. In the old days, they just used what they had, and in many cases, that was nature. We were inspired by this rewilding trend, which was going on at the time, and we looked at all these old traditions, remedies, formulas and religions but still felt that something was missing. We were missing a natural concept for skincare that was relevant. Everything that was available on the market seemed to be so outdated, everything from packaging to communication was rather reminiscent of grandma’s old socks than a contemporary brand. We wanted to create something that was relevant today. This was the inspiration, and coming back to nature seemed to be an unnegotiable value. We wanted to be a true alternative to those big, international brands, that had nothing to do with nature. We wanted to create something simple and understandable. That was the core concept. Besides that, Sweden is a country inhabiting only 10 million people on 2000 kilometres, so you grow to have a good relationship with the outdoors, which is reflected in our brand.

In your brand manifesto, you mentioned that “going back to the (natural) roots” is your philosophy when it comes to creating products. How did you know that you need to take this unique approach into the world?

We felt that due to the modern lifestyle that most people are practising, living in these urban hubs around all the world, we were losing the connection to nature in many ways. You can see it clearly these days. When we started 12 years ago, everyone started to realise that this is going to be an issue. We looked at our own lives, we were working a lot, and we had a stressful life, just like so many other people. We saw that the only moment we had to ourselves on the daily basis was in the bathroom when we could lock the door and spend a few minutes with only ourselves before chasing subways and buses. So, we felt that in those few minutes you should reward yourself and feel good about yourself. It’s about prioritising yourself. It’s like when you are in good shape with yourself, you can make the world a better place. So, essentially, people were getting more and more disconnected with nature every day and with creating a skincare product, we had the chance to contribute to those eight intimate minutes every day, for example, our algae body scrub. We are a global skincare brand, offering products from body to face. And of course, if we play a part in this routine, we want to do that part really well. We did not only want to use natural ingredients, but we also wanted to take the step further and make you feel connected to nature every day you use the product. This will make your life richer. If you cannot spend every day in nature, at least we are able to give you this product.

Your hometown has a rich spa history. How has this influenced your approach to modern wellness culture?

I think it has actually influenced us a lot. What we want to reflect in the brand is the bathing culture of the Swedish west coast. It’s very straightforward, just seaside, coastal rocks and sand. This results in a very straightforward relationship with nature, bathing, and how to use the ocean and its surrounding nature in order to take care of yourself. This is the point we wanted to reflect on. The tradition of the spa remains the same. It has influenced us in terms of focussing on seaweed and sea salt, which are the two most important ingredients. Moreover, it has inspired our simplistic approach. In our body-conscious approach, we celebrate the ritual of rewarding yourself, which is certainly also a ritual in spa culture and we also apply this wellness approach to face care by creating a simple, efficient and sensorial routine and to home care, by creating scented creations to make our interiors warmer and more sensory, inspired by Swedish culture and art of living.

Before launching your brand more than a decade ago, how was the process like to create your unique formulas?

I would say it’s a lot more simple today since our brand grew over the years and is a lot bigger now. We have more power when it comes to purchasing ingredients. When we started out, it was very difficult to get our hands on specific ingredients. We were rather difficult to work with since we were really picky with what we wanted to use. I would say it’s a lot more simple today since our brand grew over the years and is a lot bigger now. We have now an internal Research & Development department that is directly working with our factories with one ambition: take the very best of nature to create efficient and safe cosmetics, improving skin health in the long term.

When it comes to your most recent collaboration with the Marfa, how did meet?

They are long-term friends of the brand. We knew them before since they were shooting images for their magazine in our office in Paris. Usually, they were not really paying attention to what was happening in the lab, but at one point, we showed them what we were up to and they really liked the latest innovation we were working on. We showed them the product, talked about its benefits and the pleasure of using it. It’s a body clay mask, but since we added seaweed as an ingredient, it does not quickly dry, as you would usually expect a body clay mask to do. This aspect of the product gives you a little playtime once you use the product, which is something we also reflected in the product’s campaign. It has sufficient time to be efficient on the skin. Marfa loved the idea and the size of the product (that comes in a giant tube). All they said was that they wanted to document it, and they want to do the communication campaign. On the day we shot it, clay day, they went creatively crazy. They were really enthusiastic about it. 

The scent reminisces of a seaweed bath or a walk on the beach. In a world full of fruity and flowery scents, what made you choose this rather unusual combination?

With that, we wanted to go back to the reconnecting with nature aspect. It’s important to us that you see this product as a piece of nature in a bottle. This experience is a lot more worth it for us than just a “nice scent”. Obviously, it has to smell good, but this product should remind you of the coastline. Additionally, the green colour is another clue for the natural origin, since it is given by the spirulina. The scent experience is very important in order to reconnect with nature.

The product, the body clay mask, is about celebrating the body, do you think keeping certain rituals are important to worship our bodies?

Oh yes, of course, it is. Losing the connection to nature is causing us to lose the connection with our bodies in many ways too. I think we’re losing the understanding of how our bodies when they’re at their best and there is a tremendous focus on visual standards of body shapes. In every dimension of it. It’s even happening over here in Sweden, where we tend to be quite natural in our approach. This campaign with Marfa, it really takes the drama out of nudity. In Sweden, we were brought up with the Bastu tradition, which is a common thing to do. You do it with your friends and neighbours. So, I think that raises your body consciousness. You get used to the nudity exposure. In this ritual, your body gets exposed to the heat and cold, which is also a way how we train our bodies to resist climate change here in Scandinavia. In our hometown of Varberg, there are three huge nude bots, which everyone uses, regardless of age. This is also why we are nourishing a platform when it comes to skin and body care. Body consciousness is very important o us, and we want you to be happier with yourself. Our approach to skincare is that health is the true way to beauty. We are not a quick fix, but we will make sure that your skin and your appearance will be healthy, fresh and strong. We also have recently opened a temporary spa in Paris for the Paris Fashion week. This shows how we want to spread the importance of taking care of your bodies, to recharge and align your energy, even during the most intense times.

Lastly, with modern diet culture, the celebration of the body has been disrupted, if not erased. How do you wish we’d see and treat our bodies in the future?

We want to be part of the movement that sees you as a person rather than just a visual shell. We have always been afraid to have actual humans in our imagery since we do not want to promote a certain body type. That’s why we never had bodies in our campaigns, until now. We never wanted to present a cliche image of a beautiful, blonde Swedish girl, sitting in a bathtub on a beach in Barbados and the sun is going up. We never wanted to communicate this, since that’s not reality. We want to communicate reality, but still, make it visually attractive. Joy and pleasure, all the beautiful things in life. I think if we’d relax more we’d enjoy it more. We’d be much happier with our bodies and treat them better. As long as you take care of yourself, we’d want to be a part of that. We want everyone to look at their bodies in a more relaxed and natural way. We want everyone to feel better about themselves. So, if we can be a part of that, that’s a mission in itself. We see beauty in the big picture from the body, to the face.

Purchase the L:A Bruket Clay Mask here.