My Story
After surviving an abusive relationship, I found comfort and healing when working with herbs in my garden. As a qualified beauty therapist, I was inspired to use these healing plants to create a line of skincare and wellbeing products. My goal was to create selfcare products that were not only great for the skin, but also had healing properties for the mind.
After personally experiencing great results and receiving nothing but positive feedback from family and friends, I decided to pursue my passion further and see what I could turn it into. Thus, Fortitude Skincare was created. The word fortitude means ‘courage in pain or adversity,’ and that is exactly what I hope to foster through my products.
Some of my key botanicals of choice were jasmine, which has calming and uplifting effects on the nervous system; and petitgrain which helps relax muscles and settle the nervous system during emotional turmoil. These are just some of the powerful healing herbs I have infused into my products.
All of my products are designed to support mental wellbeing as much as physical wellbeing, and I donate 10% of all profits to charities that support domestic violence victims. I also volunteer with Wellington Women's Refuge as a way of giving back, and also to get more experience with supporting women who have trauma caused by domestic violence.
My long-term goal is to create a women’s retreat where others can benefit from the healing power of nature. A place where survivors of domestic violence can go to heal and rest. The plan is for this place of healing to be supported by the skincare business, which will also provide education and employment opportunities for any of the residents that may want to learn about herbalism and natural skincare formulation.
I recently partnered up with Kareen from KD One Skincare & Cosmetics with the plan to be mentored into taking over her business – a successful natural skincare business with an established customer base in Wellington. I have jumped on this opportunity and am now working to grow both businesses with the goal of one day combining them. Due to this, my focus currently lies mostly with the KD One brand as I work to grow this and to work my way towards becoming a shareholder. This doesn’t mean the end of Fortitude – just a faster way to make my ultimate goals a reality!
Stay tuned to see where this exciting journey will take me!
- Mikayla Hopkins
