Folia Mae grew out of a very different life than the one I imagined for myself.
My background is in fashion and travel retail, and for more than eleven years I worked in different leadership roles. I was used to moving quickly, taking on responsibility and always looking towards the next thing.
Then my health made me stop.
After a serious diagnosis, I started questioning much more than what I could do to feel better. I began looking at how I was living in the first place. The pace, the pressure, what I was putting on and into my body, how little space there was for rest, and how disconnected I had become from many of the things that actually made me feel well.
That period sent me deep into the world of herbs, traditional plant medicine and other ways of understanding health. What started as something very personal slowly became a much bigger part of my life.
I began studying herbalism and yoga, learning to formulate natural skincare, making preparations at home and becoming increasingly interested in the quieter, slower ways we can care for ourselves.
Not in the pursuit of perfect health. More as a way of paying attention.
Having gone through my own health crisis, being highly sensitive and empathic, and having spent years working closely with hundreds of people in leadership roles has also shaped the way I listen.
I tend to notice the small things. What someone says, what they leave out, where something doesn’t quite add up, or where there may be more going on underneath the obvious.
That has become an important part of how I work now, both as a practitioner and creatively. I rarely look at one thing in isolation.
Along the way, I started Earthly, my first botanical skincare brand. It gave me a place to begin putting some of what I had been learning into practice, and to understand more clearly what I wanted to make and why.
Then I became a mother.
That experience made me want to go deeper with everything I had already been moving towards. Not only skincare, but herbalism, everyday rituals, slower ways of living, and the kind of care I want to bring into my own home and work.
Folia Mae grew from that next chapter.
It is botanical skincare made slowly and by hand, herbal preparations, plant education and a space to explore wellbeing with a little more curiosity and a little less pressure.
I am still learning, studying, making and changing my mind as I go. Folia Mae is very much part of that process.
I'm so happy you made your way here.
All my love,
Djulijana