Introducing Erikka Groeneveld, Sun Seeker & Founder Of Isle De Soleil
Every brand has a story and so does every person. In the case of Isle de Soleil, the story of our brand and our founder are one in the same. Isle de Soleil was born from equal parts passion and purpose, a vision imagined and brought to life by Erikka Groeneveld, our founder.
Erikka is a clinical esthetician and a hair and makeup artist who grew up in Ottawa, Ontario. She has always found peace and purpose outside. “My sanctuary is in the sun,” she said. Erikka spent her summers at her grandparents’ cottage on the water as a child. She remembers swimming in the lake, kayaking, and playing in the garden during the summer.
Throughout high school, she focused on track, cross-country running, and biathlon. After high school, she moved to Canmore, a small town in the Canadian Rockies, to continue competing in Biathlon. This is where she met her husband who grew up in Canmore and shared her love for nordic sports. Eight years ago, she started her business in Canmore offering professional hair and makeup services. Drawn to salty air and sunshine, Erikka and her husband Eric recently moved to Victoria, BC. “I love taking time to watch the sunset, I especially love watching it in an oceanside town, everyone pauses and watches it together,” Erikka mused.
Health and wellness have always been key pillars of Erikka’s life. When it comes to her professional pursuits, Erikka wears many hats that each work to support and inform the others.
As a hair and makeup artist, her approach is to embrace her clients’ natural beauty. “I specialize in wedding hair and makeup, I want my brides to feel like themselves, confident and glowing. On a day that can feel overwhelming, I believe my job reaches further than applying makeup and doing their hair. I love to create a warm and friendly atmosphere.”
She is also a Clinical Esthetician. “Through my own journey with acne as a teenager and again as an adult I have been fascinated with skin and what environmental factors affect it. I wanted to know about different treatments, products, and routines. This led me to taking a clinical esthetics program and then working in the field where I got to help so many women with their skin.”
All of her professional endeavours have led her to “realize the importance of nourishing our mind, body and soul and the impact this has on our skin. I am devoted to helping people discover their own healthy lifestyles and find confidence in their own skin. I love helping people feel like the best version of themselves,” she said.
Now that you’ve got a picture of her background, let’s chat about Erikka’s day to day. She starts her day with warm lemon water and coffee in bed while reading and doing morning pages before some type of movement. “I love my morning routine, it sets the tone for the rest of my day. Spending time by the water before starting my day is so grounding."
There’s nothing quite as telling about a person as their Notes app. Erikka is constantly taking pause to jot down notes in her phone, here is one of her recent entries:
“My Approach to beauty:
- Is very intuitive.
- It's not just about how we look but how feel.
- Slow down, keep it simple and make it an experience.
- I think it is equally important that we are mindful of what we put on our body and on our skin. Our skin is our body’s largest organ, so it’s important that we take care of it.
- I believe optimal wellness is the cumulation of what you watch, what you think, how you move, what you read, what you eat and who you surround yourself with.
- Rest is not indulgent, it is essential for optimal health.”
Erikka feels that her biggest strengths as a person are her optimism, creativity, and her ability to follow her intuition. Quality time and deep soulful conversations are the things she values most in others. When it comes to inspiration, Erikka draws hers from being still and quiet with the intention of disconnecting as well as her passions for nature and travel.
She was always offering special care and attention to her skin growing up because she struggled with acne. As time passed, she realized that skincare, and self care for that matter, were so much more than skin deep. As Erikka embraced the idea that everything is connected, her rituals and practices became so much more holistic.
When asked about the connection between beauty and wellness, Erikka believes that “it's all connected. True beauty radiates through when we are caring for all areas of our life. Nutrition, sleep, movement, stress levels, hydration and what we put on our skin all go hand in hand.”
Isle De Soleil’s first-ever offering is the Sun Empress Serum, a completely plant-based formula. Abundant in antioxidants and nutrients for quenched, brighter, blue light protected radiant skin. Each ingredient has been intentionally selected to assist in preventing free radical damage and their ability to repair and nourish the skin. It felt like a really organic creation for me,” she reflected. “Skin has always been at the forefront of what I love to learn about. The concept of creating a sun serum came to me on a quiet afternoon while I was meditating. All of my worlds and interests came together to create this.”
Soon enough, Isle De Soleil was born. “I wanted the name to sound deeply connected to the feeling of oasis and paradise,” said the Founder. “There is a lot of intention behind every detail of the brand. our brand mark (little logo of palm leaf with sun above) was designed as a visual reference for Sun Empress Serum. The dot represents the sun (organically represented in an imperfect circle). The palm leaves paint the visual of an island empress being fanned in the shade.”
The idea behind the serum itself came from Erikka’s fascination with the healing properties of botanicals and the ways that they promote healthy skin through the use of nature’s nutrients.
“I wanted it to protect and nourish my skin by day and then repair and regenerate by night. As a makeup artist and esthetician, I had a long list of criteria.”
The journey began quickly, fuelled by intuition and collaboration with an incredible team of creatives to bring the vision to life.
“As the beauty and wellness industry is quickly reforming to be partial to non-toxic, sustainable brands, Isle de Soleil is bringing a luxury product to the market that feels elevated in design, and effective in formula,” said Erikka.
“Each ingredient has been intentionally selected to assist in preventing free radical damage and their ability to repair the skin. I am using only the highest quality ingredients and organic when available, two of our ingredients are upcycled raspberry and blueberry seed oil preserved from the juicing industry.”
Beyond what’s inside the bottle, Erikka is focused on the community she is building around it. She wants to build connections and her love for the earth and its many gifts with the world.
“Just launching feels wildly exciting, having had something in my head and now birthing it and bringing it to life is pretty surreal. I am excited for new opportunities and connections that I am continuously making as Isle de Soleil grows.”
Erikka has watched incredible changes take place in the beauty and wellness industry over the past several years. “I’m noticing a more holistic approach to beauty,” she said. “I think that comes from an increasing demand for enhancing natural beauty. When I first started doing hair and makeup it felt like the makeup trends were so mask-like. I have always loved keeping it natural and enhancing one's natural beauty and features instead of covering it up, so it’s nice to see the industry embracing it.”
She’s also excited to see that “instead of just treating skin topically, we are looking at the full picture. In esthetic school we are taught so much about the external, what to put on our skin, what chemicals to use to peel away a layer of skin, I think a big part of it starts from the inside and it isn’t talked about enough. We need to take into consideration our lifestyle, what we are consuming, our stress levels, etc. I think that is a way better gauge. Our skin is always communicating with us. It’s up to us to listen to what it is trying to say.”
One thing that Erikka is hoping to see in the industry moving forward, and something she hopes that her brand can contribute to, is no longer needing to call products “clean and safe” because everything will simply be that way. “I hope to bring more awareness to how everything we do is connected and the need to slow down and need to take care of ourselves; mind, body and spirit. I also plan to share my love for the sun and how we can mindfully enjoy it.”
This journey is so deeply special, and so close to Erikka’s heart. She hopes to empower sun seekers like herself to elevate their day to day life with luxuriously simple additions to their daily rituals. Beyond beauty, beyond wellness, and beyond skincare, this is a step towards enrichment and empowerment in a truly beautiful way.
