By Sabrina Cardoso, Style Editor

Photos courtesy of Willow & Birch

Many of us are always on the hunt for retro or vintage inspired products that fit into our lifestyle. Over the centuries we have learned that certain products contained items that we in fact poisonous. Needless to say, our beauty products and cosmetics have come a long way since the lead based, white makeup known as ceruse, from Elizabethan times. Needless to say, we at Marjorie, were so excited to be introduce to Willow & Birch Apothecary.

The company, based out of Delhi, New York, was founded by Anna Krusinski, with the idea of selling products inspired by the Victorian age. The line is all-natural, with four signature scents. English Fog is their most popular scent and has floral notes mixed with the spice of cloves. Lavender Breeze, Lemon Zen and Orange Spice are the three other scents featured in the soaps, bath salts and home fragrance the Willow & Birch sells. They also carry two bath teas, rose with calendula and lavender with chamomile, along with two face creams and four different lip balms. The shop also carries antique-style perfume lockets to carry the perfumes they sell in the four scents mentioned above.

Says owner and founder Anna Krusinski, “We’re all looking for ways to make our everyday lives more special, more intentional…I want to help women feel beautiful and empowered, every single day. I’ve created a world where one can step into another time to explore the grace and loveliness of the Victorian era, alongside the power and perseverance embodied by so many women of that period.”

To celebrate the recent re-launch of Willow & Birch Apothecary’s online store, Anna modeled for a recent photo shoot which included some of their products. For the shoot, Anna personified the Victorian lady, graceful and demure yet strong-willed.

“Victorian women did not fit into a single mold…although the culture certainly wanted them to. They were wonderfully complex; they showed softness and strength, grace and power. We’re the same today; we all have both sides to us, and each should be celebrated in its own right,” Krusinski adds.

Before sitting down to write about Willow & Birch, I decided to order their Land of Luxe travel set. The set has five items contained in a drawstring bag, an English Fog scented soap, Lavender Breeze bath salts, a Lemon Zen soy candle, the Sweet Dreams Night cream, which smells of Lavender and the Rose Petals Day cream. I was not disappointed. The fragrances of the face creams are soft and sweet and the English Fog soap transported me to the streets of London with memories of The Great Dickens Fair, which is held every December, here in the Bay Area. I will indeed order more products in the future for they do personify the romantic beauty and nostalgic grace of the Victoria age. As one of the companies tag lines suggests Willow and Birch Apothecary is, “BREATHING NEW LIFE INTO A BYGONE ERA: VICTORIAN-INSPIRED BEAUTY BRAND BREAKS THE MOLD”

For more information about Willow & Birch Apothecary, please visit www.shopwillowandbirch.com

California native Sabrina Cardoso has dressed for almost every century with her wide knowledge of historical fashions and participations in period reenactments (you can find her starring as Mary Fleming, cousin of the Queen and head lady-in-waiting across many local Scottish Guild events). She also runs Timeless Elegance, an insightful Facebook Page featuring historical archives on beauty and fashion.