Inside In Fiore with Julie Elliott, steeping botanicals into ritual

In Fiore began in a small New York apartment where Julie Elliott steeped flowers in oil after long days in fashion, and it still moves at that careful pace in San Francisco. Her botanical line treats cleansing, balm and scent as one daily practice. This is a conversation about roots, patience and why harder ingredients are worth keeping.

Julie Elliott used to end her days in New York by making balms at her kitchen table. By day she directed stores and led 700 people in fashion. By night she infused oils to restore herself after travel, studying plant signatures and essential oils quietly, on her own.

She remembers walking the cosmetic floors of department stores and feeling no resonance or connection to what was there. She wanted to take floral ingredients out of health food corners and into a more considered, luxurious setting. The seed idea came in 1997. She cashed out from fashion with about 10,000 dollars, supplemented her income with work for an art dealer, and launched In Fiore in 1999 with body balms and body oils.

Customers soon told her they were using body balm and body oil on their faces, with visible improvement, and asked when she would make facial care. She entered facial skincare in 2001, reached profitability after about five years without investors or borrowing, and kept the company founder led. What we noticed, and what others often miss, is how much of that steadiness lives in the method. Infusions, macerations, extracts and tinctures are still crafted in house from scratch, at ambient temperatures, with a committed lab that otherwise makes botanical medicine.

Thank you for sitting down with us Julie. The seed idea came to 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 disconnection feel like in the aisle, and what did you start making at home in response.

The seed idea came to me over 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 worked in fashion as a director of stores with 700 employees. I understood presentation and service, but nothing on those shelves spoke to me as a person who loved plants.

I had studied plant signatures since I was a young girl and I made infused balms in my New York apartment. I studied botanical medicine and essential oils quietly on my own and made products to restore myself after travel. It was practical at first. Dry air, long days, tired skin. I would steep herbs and flowers in oil and watch how they softened the skin and settled the mind. I wanted to bring natural products out of health food environments and take floral ingredients into luxury. It was 1997, and I launched In Fiore in 1999. I started with body balms and body oils because that was what I knew how to make well by hand.

You launched in 1999 with about 10,000 dollars after cashing out from fashion, doing work for an art dealer and not living off the business in the first two years. How did that lean beginning shape the way you formulate and grow.

I grew my business without investors and without borrowing money. That choice set everything. Eighteen years of steady growth turned out to be a blessing because I have not really screwed up. I have learned that growing at a slower, more thoughtful pace in the long run is better because, if there is a problem, you can squelch and change it.

When you begin with very little, you learn to do the essential work yourself. We craft all of our infusions and macerations and extracts and tinctures in house, from scratch. That takes time and attention, but it means we know every steep and every strain. I rather be known for doing new things than for not doing them, yet I want to try them at a scale where I can correct course. Slow growth let me keep the craft intact and keep the formulas honest.

Customers told you they were using your body balm and body oil on their faces with improvement, and you entered facial skincare in 2001 as the market shifted toward face. What did you learn from watching people repurpose those first balms.

That moment taught me to listen to skin before trends. People would come back and say the body balm calmed their cheeks in winter, or the body oil left their foreheads more supple. They were not asking for more steps. They were asking for the same nourishment, refined for the face.

I feel that our skin has this incredible capacity to heal itself if we allow it to, and oil is an amazing nourisher and protector. So I carried the body logic forward. Feed the barrier, do not strip it. Keep textures that invite massage. Let scent be part of the effect. Facial care then became a natural extension, not a new category. It was the same philosophy in a lighter hand, with infusions chosen for the thinner skin of the face and for the way the face holds tension through the day.

In Fiore is driven by your intense love of artisanal processes and the traditions of crafting products, combined with the infinite potential of materials. What does in house crafting actually look like week to week, and why refuse stripped commercial extracts.

In Fiore is driven by my intense love of artisanal processes and the traditions of crafting products, combined with the infinite potential of materials. Week to week that means sourcing certified organic or wildcrafted herbs, oils and floral waters, then steeping and tending them ourselves. We craft all of our infusions and macerations and extracts and tinctures in house, from scratch.

A commercial extract can be efficient, but it is often standardized and stripped down to one marker compound. We prefer a fuller infusion because the plant arrives with more of itself intact. Ambient temperatures, no harsh chemicals, time in the jar. It is slower and it ties up material, but the resulting oil has depth you can feel in massage. Essential oils, that is my lane, that is what I love and where I live very comfortably. When we blend them into those bases, they do not sit on top. They belong there.

You say you would rather nourish and feed skin than strip and attack it, and Lustra anchors your 4-2-4 cleansing method with a four minute massage over face, neck and decollete. Walk us through that ritual and what the oil is meant to do.

We begin with Lustra as the first cleanse because cleansing sets the tone for everything after. Warm a small amount between the palms. Massage over the face, neck and decollete for four minutes. That length matters. It gives the oil time to lift stagnation and dissolve impurities while the hands soften the tissue underneath.

I want our product to be a bridge for people. The bridge here is from the day into care. Slow strokes along the jaw, around the nose, across the forehead, down the neck where lymph moves. Then remove gently and follow with the second cleanse. Four minutes sounds long until you try it. The skin looks clearer because circulation has been invited, not forced. Oil is an amazing nourisher and protector, and when you cleanse with it first, you do not start the routine by taking the skin down to zero.

I feel that our skin has this incredible capacity to heal itself if we allow it to, and oil is an amazing nourisher and protector.

Julie Elliott

Complexe de Fleur has been your number one product for three years, described as a true serum and a multivitamin for skin, used as a serum layer after cleansing and balm. What is inside that emulsion, and how should someone layer it morning and night.

Complexe de Fleur is an emulsion texture that feels refreshing. Think imbued water with plant extracts, a multivitamin for skin. It is not a heavy cream and not a dry oil. It sits in the middle and carries whole plant extracts to skin that has just been cleansed and warmed.

How it is used is simple. Massage into skin as serum layer after cleansing and balm. In our order, Lustra first, then a floral essence if you use one, then balm to seal and feed, then Complexe de Fleur pressed over it to refresh and renew. Morning and night. People love it because it leaves skin looking radiant without weight. That balance took work. Water and oil phases each carry different plant fractions, and the emulsion lets them arrive together in a way that feels light on the face.

Fleur Vibrante is dense and full bodied, beloved by estheticians, and core to your own routine as a serum cerate layer. When do you reach for balm instead of cream, and how do you massage it in.

Fleur Vibrante is a reparative balm that melts into skin. It is dense, full bodied, and beloved by estheticians because it gives slip for massage and then settles into a soft veil. I reach for balm when skin feels thin, dry or over treated, often in the evening and again lightly in the morning in colder months.

Massage it as a serum cerate layer. Warm a small amount until it liquefies, press into the cheeks and forehead, then use slow upward strokes along the jaw and down the sides of the neck. Do not rush. The balm holds heat from the hands and lets you work a little longer without dragging. Calendula Solution can layer nearby on the body after bath and cold rinse to replenish the lipid barrier and move lymph. Together they teach the same lesson. Skin responds to warmth, pressure and patience more than to force.

You refuse discounts and friends and family sales, synthetic fragrances and heavy perfumes, and over treating skin. You also speak of perfumery as medicine and light as the potential of everything. How do those refusals and those phrases live in a formula.

The refusals protect the work. No discounts keeps the value where it belongs, in the materials and the time. No synthetic fragrance keeps the scent true to the plants we actually used. No over treating means we do not chase a stripped, tight feeling that later needs repair.

Perfumery as medicine is not abstract for me. Scent changes breath and attention, and attention changes touch. Light is the potential of everything. Our golden oils, calendula and jasmine and sea buckthorn notes, are linked to light and radiance for a reason. They remind people to look for brightness that comes from nourished skin, not from coating it. Beauty that works on every level means the formula, the aroma and the ritual point in the same direction. Fine craftsmanship with exquisite materials is how we get there, batch after batch.

Closing note from the desk

What stays with us is the steadiness of the method. Elliott did not scale by stepping away from the bench. She stayed near the jars, kept the lab close, and let customers show her where to go next, from body to face, from balm to serum.

In Fiore set out to bring floral ingredients into luxury without losing their field character. More than twenty five years on, that aim still reads clearly in the routine. Cleanse with oil and time, feed with balm, refresh with an emulsion, and let scent steady the hands.

Product spotlight

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

Fleur Vibrante, 85 dollars, is the dense reparative balm that melts on contact and is favored for massage. Use a small amount as a serum cerate layer in the evening, and lightly in the morning when skin feels dry, warming first between palms then pressing and stroking into skin.