With all the talk of tariffs and trade wars, it’s a better time than ever to shop Canadian. When it comes to makeup and skin care, that’s easy, because we have a slew of amazing homegrown beauty brands making world-class serums, lipsticks, body washes and much more.
All 14 of the brands below also happen to be founded by women, inspiring change-makers who made their dreams a reality and created the products we now know and love. Read on to learn more about some of our favourite Canadian beauty brands.
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F. Miller
Fran Miller herself is one of the most inspiring creatives in Toronto, and her F. Miller skin care line is so wonderful, too. The newest launch is the Support Serum, which hydrates and supports the skin barrier with botanicals like tremella mushroom and a peptide complex. The cleansing oil is excellent: When you apply it to dry skin and start massaging, you can feel the debris of the day collect under your fingertips, and then, with some water, wash beautifully away. It gives you the sensorial satisfaction of a Bioré pore strip, without, you know, having to use a Bioré pore strip. The formula is a silky smooth botanical blend, featuring safflower and camellia seed oil. We guarantee you’ll use every drop of it.
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19/99 Beauty
We love the spirit of trail-blazing Toronto makeup brand 19/99 Beauty: These are products made for all, including women over 60, who often star in their ads. The creamy pencils are all-purpose, made to be used on lips and cheeks (even lids!)—the perfect product. And the Lash Tint Mascara is an editor fave, because sometimes, you don’t want to look like you’re wearing a full set of falsies: school drop-off, yoga, grocery stores come to mind. It has a skinny wand designed to precisely coat even the sparsest lashes, even the shy tiny ones that hide in the corners, and the tubing formula conditions with jojoba and avocado oils. The effect is noticeable definition without a made-up look, and it lasts all day.
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Cheekbone Beauty
“I call Cheekbone Beauty my reconciliation to my culture, my community, my family and myself, ultimately,” Jenn Harper told The Kit in 2018. She’s honouring her Anishinaabe heritage with her makeup brand, which includes sustainable vegan lipsticks housed in refillable or biodegradable packaging, formulated in bright, punchy hues and enriched with shea butter. Each one is also named in one of the 4,000 Indigenous languages. Harper also donates part of Cheekbone’s proceeds to various causes including the Cheekbone Beauty Scholarship Fund Program for Indigenous students.
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Apprenti Ôr’ganik
Alexandrine Pierre started her brand as in 2018 in Montreal after she and her husband decided to make a switch toward more natural everyday products. It was a hobby at first, but after Pierre, a flight attendant, was laid off in the wake of COVID, she decided to devote herself entirely to the endeavour, as she shared on Instagram. Now, Pierre’s brand is thriving, with rich body butters, heavenly scented candles and beautiful room sprays, all handmade in Quebec. We especially love her hand and body washes, which smell gorgeous thanks to essential oils and nourish skin with Canadian hemp oil.
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Ilia
Raised in a rural, oceanside town in British Columbia, Sasha Plavsic has always been close to nature. As a young child, her little brother Zac suffered from acute asthma and allergies, so their mother sought out natural remedies to help him and even co-founded an organic food co-op. Zac went on to compete in sailing in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, despite doctors predicting he’d never be able to play sports. Now Sasha and Zac are business partners, having created Ilia, a line of safe, effective and natural cosmetics boasting a huge cult following, like the bestselling Super Serum Skin Tint. This silky cream highlighter is one of their newer hits; it’s made with antioxidants and imparts a soft-focus glow to cheekbones or wherever you choose to pat it.
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Skinfix
Amy Risley was pretty much destined to be in beauty. Her father worked in manufacturing for Estée Lauder in the ’70s and she loved playing with the creams he’d bring home from the factory. After university, Risely worked for various cosmetics brands and even got to collaborate with Jo Malone herself in London. Years later, she moved back to Nova Scotia to be closer to family but was on the verge of relocating to the U.S. when she met the great-great-granddaughter of Thomas Dixon, a pharmacist who’d developed a healing balm known as Skinfix way back in the 1870s. She was blown away by the formula passed down over generations and decided to buy the company. Flash-forward to today and Skinfix’s soothing powers have evolved into a full range, including this new regenerating, wrinkle-smoothing cream that relies on gentle peptides and exosomes rather than potentially irritating ingredients such as retinol.
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Evio
In 2012, Brandi Leifso was living in a women’s shelter in Vancouver after experiencing domestic violence. It was there that she set out to become an advocate for change. These days, Leifso is redefining the clean beauty space with Evio, a line of luxury good-for-you products that are both conscious and affordable. This multi-purpose chubby stick has a creamy, velvety texture with essential fatty acids, and imparts a flush of pretty colour on lips and cheeks.
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Three Ships Beauty
Toronto-born Three Ships was founded by Laura Burget and Connie Lo in 2017, inspired by Lo’s struggles with the mess she encountered while using coconut oil to remove her makeup. They started with cleansing oils, expanded into serums (you have to try their jelly-like Dew Drops), moisturizers and masks — all made in Canada. This editor-beloved eye cream is made with upcycled caffeine, a go-to for tackling dark circles and puffiness, which comes from the coffee seed oil left over in the grounds after brewing. Plus vitamin C from cherry for brightening and squalane, grape seed oil and shea butter for moisture.
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Cake Beauty
Before Cake Beauty came along, most of the clean beauty world felt either super-crunchy granola or just plain boring. Heather Reier of Kitchener, Ont., wanted to inject some much-needed fun into the category. She founded Cake Beauty as a way to combine her desire for natural ingredients with her passion for all things sweet and girlie. With its punny names, whimsical packaging and dessert-inspired scents, her brand has gained a loyal following over the years. Standouts include its high-performing dry shampoo, delectable body treats and this ultra-creamy body wash scented with their signature French vanilla.
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Province Apothecary
Having suffered from allergies and eczema all her life, Julie Clark began whipping up natural beauty products in her kitchen after struggling to find formulas suited to her sensitive skin. She went on to study aromatherapy, holistic health and esthetics in Toronto, where she built an expertise in skin care. Her brand, Province Apothecary, has since outgrown her kitchen but remains committed to producing sustainable, small-batch products using organic ingredients sourced in each of the Canadian provinces. This toner mist is made with rose and lavender flower waters and couldn’t be more refreshing.
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Nudestix
Jenny Frankel, a chemical engineer who worked as a product developer for M. A. C cosmetics (you can thank her for Lipglass and Studio Fix), got the idea for Nudestix from her daughters, Taylor and Allie, who told her they didn’t want a complicated routine, but simple makeup that could be achieved in just a few minutes. Frankel and her daughters thus came up with easy-to-use makeup sticks designed to accentuate features in a few swipes — like the bestselling Hey, Honey bronzer stick — and have expanded the line to include a range of skin care and Stax stacking blushes, plus collab kits with influencers such as Glamzilla.
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Velour
Mabel Lee had been an avid wearer of falsies ever since she put on her first pair at 16 and felt an instant confidence boost. Though she loved the look, she was often disappointed by the quality of lashes on the market. Eventually, she and her best friend decided they’d try to fix the problem themselves by creating fake lashes that would mimic the look and feel of real ones. Today, Velour’s lashes are carried at Sephora and are proudly cruelty-free and vegan. The brand has also expanded to eye-centric products, including an award-winning eyeliner.
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Wyld
Having been told she was “too wild” when she was growing up, Joy Yap launched her skin care brand Wyld (pronounced “wild”) to fully embrace it. An acronym for What You Love Doing, Wyld offers clean beauty essentials inspired by love and empowerment. Its hero product, the konjac sponge, is made of konjac root and fully biodegradable (you can throw them in your garden or compost!) and can help gently exfoliate the skin when used with a body wash or cleanser.
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BKIND
Microbiologist Marilyne Bouchard always had highly reactive skin, which meant that most products found in pharmacies and department stores would trigger inflammation and rashes. She therefore began applying her microbiology knowledge to skin care, concocting her own salves with only the gentlest ingredients nature had to offer. She founded her brand BKind in 2014 in Montreal and now makes everything from skin and body products to packageless hair care and these great toothbrushes made with biodegradable bamboo handles and soft bristles infused with purifying activated charcoal.
With files from Katherine Lalancette.
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