Julie Elliott on steeping flowers into daily skincare ritual

San Francisco holds In Fiore in a Post Street studio where jars of herbs rest in oil and the work still follows Julie Elliott’s hands. What started as kitchen table balms in New York now lives as a full routine of cleanse, balm and scent. This is a talk about texture, vessels and why slow formulas suit real mornings.

Elliott once closed long retail days in New York by warming infused oils at her own table. In daylight she ran stores and guided 700 fashion staff. After hours she studied plant signatures and essential oils alone, blending to recover from travel.

Department store beauty aisles left her cold and untouched by anything on display. She saw botanicals tucked into health food shelves and pictured them placed with greater care and craft. The notion formed in 1997. She left fashion with roughly 10,000 dollars, took on work with an art dealer, and opened In Fiore in 1999 with body balms and body oils.

Shoppers soon reported smoothing body balm and body oil across their faces, seeing clearer tone, and asking for dedicated facial care. She moved into face in 2001, became profitable after around five years with no investors or loans, and stayed founder led. What holds our attention, and what many overlook, is the sensory logic inside that patience. Infusions, macerations, extracts and tinctures remain made from scratch in house, at ambient temperatures, beside a committed lab accustomed to botanical medicine.

Thanks so much for joining us Julie. You started in 1999 with about 10,000 dollars after leaving fashion, assisting an art dealer and not drawing from the business in the first two years. How did that spare start influence your touch and your pace of growth.

I built the company without investors and without borrowing money. That decision shaped all of it. Eighteen years of even growth proved a gift because I have avoided major mistakes. I have found that a slower, more considered pace serves the long term because, when trouble appears, you can halt and adjust it.

Starting with almost nothing teaches you to handle the core work by hand. We make every infusion and maceration and extract and tincture in house, from scratch. That demands time and focus, yet we recognize each soak and each pour. I would prefer a reputation for attempting fresh ideas than for avoiding them, though I like to test them at a size where I can change direction. Measured growth allowed the handwork to remain and the formulas to stay truthful.

That lean origin is useful context for your method, and In Fiore reflects your deep love of artisanal processes and the traditions of crafting products, combined with the infinite potential of materials. What does hands on crafting involve across a week, and why pass on stripped commercial extracts.

In Fiore reflects my deep love of artisanal processes and the traditions of crafting products, combined with the infinite potential of materials. Across a week it involves finding certified organic or wildcrafted herbs, oils and floral waters, then soaking and watching them ourselves. We make every infusion and maceration and extract and tincture in house, from scratch.

A commercial extract can save effort, yet it often arrives standardized and narrowed to a single marker compound. We favor a fuller steep because more of the plant remains present. Ambient temperatures, no harsh chemicals, patience in the jar. It holds material longer and costs more time, but the finished oil carries a roundness fingers notice in massage. Essential oils, that remains my area, that is what I love and where I live very comfortably. When folded into those bases, they do not float above. They feel part of it.

We love that focus on feel. The seed idea reached you in 1997 while living in New York and shopping the cosmetic floor of department stores and feeling a lack of connection to beauty products. What did that distance feel like up close, and what did you begin blending at home in reply.

The seed notion reached me more than twenty years ago while living in New York and shopping the cosmetic floor of department stores and feeling a lack of connection to beauty products. I served in fashion as a director of stores with 700 employees. I grasped display and service, yet nothing on those shelves addressed me as someone devoted to plants.

I had followed plant signatures since I was a young girl and I prepared infused balms in my New York apartment. I learned botanical medicine and essential oils quietly on my own and blended products to restore myself after travel. It began in a practical way. Dry air, long days, tired skin. I would soak herbs and flowers in oil and observe how they eased the skin and quieted the mind. I aimed to lift natural products out of health food environments and carry floral ingredients into luxury. I found it in 1997, and I opened In Fiore in 1999. I began with body balms and body oils because those were what I could shape well by hand.

Shoppers told you they were smoothing your body balm and body oil on their faces with improvement, and you moved into facial skincare in 2001 as attention turned toward face. What did you take from seeing people adapt those first balms.

That period showed me to heed skin ahead of trends. Visitors returned saying body balm soothed winter cheeks, or body oil left foreheads more pliable. They sought not extra steps. They sought that same feeding care, tuned for the face.

I sense that our skin holds this remarkable ability to renew itself if we permit it, and oil serves as a wonderful feeder and shield. So I brought the body reasoning forward. Support the barrier, avoid stripping it. Keep textures that welcome massage. Allow aroma to shape the effect. Face care then grew as a natural continuance, not a separate category. It expressed the same view with a softer touch, with steeps suited to thinner facial skin and to the way the face stores tension during the day.

You speak of feeding skin rather than stripping and attacking it, and Lustra supports your 4-2-4 cleansing method with a four minute massage over face, neck and decollete. Guide us through that ritual and what the oil aims to do.

We start with Lustra as the first cleanse because cleansing prepares the tone for all that follows. Warm a small amount between the palms until it melts to skin temperature. Massage it over face, neck and decollete for four minutes. That duration counts. It lets the oil loosen stagnation and melt impurities while fingers ease the tissue below.

I want our product to act as a bridge for people. Here the bridge runs from daytime into care. Unhurried strokes near the jaw, beside the nose, over the forehead, down the neck where lymph travels. Then lift away softly and continue with the second cleanse. Four minutes seems extended until attempted. Skin appears clearer because flow has been encouraged, not pushed. Oil serves as a wonderful feeder and shield, and cleansing with it first avoids opening the routine by reducing skin to zero.

Use slow strokes along the jaw, around the nose, across the forehead, then down the neck where lymph moves.

Julie Elliott

Fleur Vibrante feels dense and full bodied, cherished by estheticians, and central to your own routine as a serum cerate layer. When do you choose balm over cream, and how do you work it in.

Fleur Vibrante acts as a reparative balm that dissolves into skin. It feels dense, full bodied, and cherished by estheticians because it offers glide for massage then rests as a tender veil. I choose balm when skin seems thin, dry or overworked, usually at night and again sparingly in the morning during cold months.

Smooth it on as a serum cerate layer. Warm a small amount until fluid, press across cheeks and brow, then trace slow upward lines near the jaw and down the sides of the neck. Avoid hurrying. The balm keeps warmth from palms and permits a longer pass without tugging. Calendula Solution may layer close by on the body after bath and cold rinse to replenish the lipid barrier and move lymph. Both share one teaching. Skin answers to warmth, pressure and patience rather than force.

Complexe de Fleur has held your number one place for three years, framed as a true serum and a multivitamin for skin, applied as a serum layer after cleansing and balm. What sits inside that emulsion, and how should a person layer it day and night.

Complexe de Fleur carries an emulsion texture that feels refreshing. Imagine water charged with plant extracts, a multivitamin for skin. It behaves neither as a weighty cream nor as a dry oil. It rests between and delivers whole plant extracts to skin freshly cleansed and warmed.

Its use stays simple. Press into skin as serum layer after cleansing and balm. In our sequence, Lustra first, then a floral essence if one is used, then balm to seal and feed, then Complexe de Fleur smoothed above to refresh and renew. Morning and night. People cherish it because it leaves skin appearing radiant without heaviness. That equilibrium required effort. Water and oil stages each hold separate plant fractions, and the emulsion allows them to arrive as one in a manner that feels airy on the face.

You decline discounts and friends and family sales, synthetic fragrances and heavy perfumes, and over treating skin. You also call perfumery medicine and light the potential of everything. How do those refusals and those lines appear in a formula.

Those refusals safeguard the work. Avoiding discounts holds value inside materials and time. Avoiding synthetic fragrance keeps aroma faithful to the plants truly used. Avoiding over treating means we reject a stripped, tight sensation that later requires repair.

Perfumery as medicine feels concrete to me. Aroma shifts breath and focus, and focus shifts touch. Light carries the potential of everything. Our golden oils, calendula and jasmine and sea buckthorn notes, connect to light and radiance with intent. They prompt people to seek brightness from fed skin, not from covering it. Beauty that functions on every level means formula, aroma and ritual aim together. Fine craftsmanship with exquisite materials is how we arrive there, batch after batch.

Closing note from the desk

What remains is the tactile constancy. Elliott did not leave the bench to expand. She stayed beside the jars, kept the lab near, and allowed shoppers to point the way forward, from body toward face, from balm toward serum.

In Fiore aimed to place floral ingredients in a refined setting while retaining their field character. More than twenty five years later, that purpose still feels legible in use. Cleanse with oil and time, nourish with balm, revive with an emulsion, and let aroma steady the hands.

Product spotlight

Complexe de Fleur, 160 dollars for 50 ml, serves as the nutrient dense cellular renewal serum and enduring bestseller. Smooth it as the serum layer after cleansing and balm, over face, neck and decollete morning and night to support radiance and the appearance of long term skin health.

Fleur Vibrante, 85 dollars, offers the dense reparative balm that softens on contact and suits massage. Take a small amount as a serum cerate layer at night, and lightly in the morning when skin seems dry, warming first between palms then pressing and stroking into skin.