The word apothecary has a certain romance about it, conjuring images of wizard-scientists mixing mysterious ingredients in glass bottles to weave some magic in the backrooms of their stores. Esthetician Justine Kahn has developed her own version of an apothecary, but her ingredients are anything but mysterious: They’re healing botanicals like chamomile and comfrey, many of which go straight from her own organic garden to her skincare lab. There, they’re transformed into “single-note” skincare ingredients that can be carefully mixed to meet her clients’ individual needs.
Ms. Kahn founded Botnia in 2017, based on what she was seeing in her treatment room. “Modern cosmetic skincare—Botox, injectables, lasers, and so on—was causing irritation, dysfunction, and inflammation in the skin. I just wanted to heal skin,” she said.
