From Farm To Vanity: Eco Beauty Brand Vauxhall Gardens Is Ontario-Made

In the early ‘90s, before “eco-friendly” and “all-natural” became catchphrases, Ontarian Adèle Hinshelwood’s sister was diagnosed with stage-four cancer. “She was told to go natural, as close to the farm as possible,” Adèle says, but when she began to read the labels of easily accessible beauty products, she realized that traceability and accountability were missing in the beauty industry. “That was the springboard [for my business].”

While working as a professional gardener and raising her son on her own, Adèle began researching ingredients and doing crop trials: “10 minutes a day, an hour a week—I’d always find time.” She went to school in California to learn about extraction and slowly built all of the specialized equipment necessary for making beauty products from botanicals. Since 2008, she has been able to work full-time on her business, Vauxhall Gardens.