Hello, Dahlin'!
Written here are the words of a well-mannered old soul with an affinity for mindfulness and details with a love for handwritten notes, cross-stitching, and playing pretend. As Chief Alchemist (and Human Test Subject No. 1) at APRICITY, I welcome and thank you for your visit and hope you find things you like!
xx LINNIE { LINKEDIN | YELP }
P.S. This is the tl;dr version. If you just want to know who we are and what we do in about a 100 words GO HERE instead. You're welcome!
+ + + + +
WHAT'S WITH THE NAME...?
Warmth. Winter. Apricot blossoms. APRICITY.
APRICITY is a noun meaning "the warmth of the Sun in winter." Having been born and raised in Southern California, that's how I best remember my favorite season in this Mediterranean climate. I picked up that word at some point during my nerdy life and tucked it away in a tiny room in my mind palace reserved for quirky concepts and then revisited the room years later when trying to figure out a name for this company.
The apricot color became part of APRICITY's visual identity based on the ethereal image of walking through winter and feeling the light kisses of apricot blossoms falling. The image brings my heart boundless leaping spurts of joy! Apricot blossoms also have quite a distinctive feature: They blossom in the winter which keeps with our theme. The apricot blossoms' tender strength evokes a reminder to believe in one's capacity to be resilient, which incidentally was great spiritual support in trying to navigate (with great frustration!) this journey of building a company.
ALQUIMIE is the Old French spelling for "alchemy." I think that all creators and artists are alchemists and as the Chief Alchemist at APRICITY (how many Chief Alchemists do you know?) I want to work with other interesting and talented alchemists in the community to turn ideas into something -- anything -- more than just ideas. There is an ineffable beauty in both the process and the end result of transformations! I want to curate, showcase, share, and integrate other alchemists' creations in this space. The works of these featured alchemists are sold on a consignment agreement with Apricity: The works are created and owned by the creator and sold by Apricity. Collectively we are alchemists who handcraft items you enjoy! I'm most excited to experience the transformation in our growth and relationship and counting the days one at a time.
WHY START A COMPANY?
Necessity is the mother to the first-born in APRICITY: Face + Body Sugar Polish (once upon a time known as Moisturizing Sugar Scrub). I couldn't find high-performance skin exfoliating products that were both gentle on my delicate skin and cost-effective to be used on face and body daily. APRICITY started from a very selfish motive to allow myself to experience luxury (and a little simple happiness) every single day without having to spend too much money for smooth, soft skin. I wanted a product that I could use daily rather than one that I would use once and then tuck away on the top shelf out of fear that I would use it up, run out, and have to buy another expensive replacement.
There's the truth behind the start: I made the stuff for myself! I packaged some batches as gifts and got honest and constructive feedback (including people who also have highly sensitive skin). I decided that since I was going to continue to make products for myself and for my friends anyway, I might as well invest my time and money wisely and put some serious effort into starting a little stealth startup.
DOES APRICITY RELY ON ANIMAL TESTING?
No way! As a cruelty-free brand, APRICITY does not incorporate animal testing into the development phase or at the production level. Each product is, however, tested on friendly human volunteers which include those with quite sensitive skin.
WHAT IS THE SHELF LIFE OF YOUR PRODUCTS?
Typically 12-24 months. This is because we don't use any unnatural preservatives. Keeping our products at room temperature or below and our of direct sunlights will help them stay fresher longer. We use Vitamin E in some of our products to extend the natural shelf life. In the extremely rare case that you've purchased one of products and find that it is not at its freshest point, please contact us so we can handle this on a case-by case basis.
ARE YOUR PRODUCTS MADE IN THE U.S.?
Yep! All our products are handmade in small batches in our ALCHEMIST STUDIO in Orange County, California.
WHERE DO YOUR ITEMS SHIP FROM?
All our items ship from our ALCHEMIST STUDIO in Orange County, California.
WHERE CAN I FIND THE NEAREST APRICITY RETAIL STORE?
We do not have a brick-and-mortar store. We primarily utilize our e-boutique for a couple of reasons...the most prominent would be that we simply cannot afford it -- there's no fancy answer to offer. The second reason is that we'd rather spend money on buying quality ingredients rather than on overhead.
We have friends in the community who sell our products in their shops, yoga studios, out of the drawers in their corporate cubicles, etc. If you know of any local businesses that would like to adopt and give our products a cozy home please let us know. Hopefully, this will make it more convenient to get the products you want and skip waiting for a delivery. You can buy APRICITY products at the following stockist locations to support local brick-and-mortar retailers.
DO YOU ACCEPT LARGE ORDERS?
We sure do! We accept orders for retail sale and also for special occasion gifts/favors.
DOES APRICITY OFFER PRODUCT SAMPLES?
Yes! We provide free samples with each online order. From time to time, samples are made available by our authorized resellers at their brick-and-mortar locations. We do not mail out samples by request.