In our 10 Minutes With... series, Mats Johansson, the co-founder of the Swedish brand, shares why he thinks ‘health is the route to beauty and self-love is the route to happiness’
There’s a long tradition of spa culture in Varberg, on the west coast of Sweden. And it’s this rich history that entrepreneur Mats Johansson wanted to bring to the modern beauty industry. In 2008, Johansson and his wife Monica Kylen combined this passion for spa heritage and natural remedies with a sustainable outlook—and came up with the luxury skincare brand L:a Bruket.
Fast forward to December 2023, and the brand has just released three face masks—the 300 Nourishing Face Mask, 301 Purifying Clay Mask and 302 Exfoliating Herbal Peel—all harnessing Sweden’s natural ingredients.
Tatler spoke with Johansson about the importance of brand authenticity and what makes L:a Bruket stand out.
What in your opinion makes L:a Bruket’s products stand out?
When we started the brand 15 years ago, we were early [in our sustainable approach], at least in the Scandinavian scene. At that time, there was a [growing] interest in sustainable products that had a connection with nature but there wasn’t really a brand which had [yet] embraced the traditional understanding of natural ingredients.
We also needed skincare to help cope with the harsh climate on the west coast of Sweden—that’s where a lot of the inspiration comes from. My wife is the brains behind product development.
What inspired you to combine nature with biotechnology?
There is a Swedish expression—lagom—which means not too much and not too little, and it’s significant in how we develop products and balance biotech with traditional remedies.
We wanted to elevate the experience of using well-known ingredients from Sweden, and using biotechnology can both boost the efficacy of said ingredients and contribute to improve our sustainable approach [as other ingredients can be synthesised in a lab].
We are working with an ingredient supplier just north of Gothenburg who grows micro algae in labs. It’s a fully circular production, because they bring in seawater, only use shells to grow the algae, the biomass goes as fertilisers to the fields, in animal food or fish farming, we crush the shells for ingredients and the wastewater goes back to the ocean.