Ancestral wisdom | Modern beauty
Meet Elysia Samarodin, Founder & Formulator
Holistic Esthetician | Skin Therapist | Makeup Artist | Skincare Formulator | Raw Food Chef
Elysia Samarodin is the founder of Living Cosmetics, a Canadian skincare brand born in the Okanagan Valley and rooted in ancestral wisdom, raw nutrition and modern wellness. She has built her life and business around a simple truth: real beauty starts within and radiates outward.
The Raw Beautician
Elysia trained at Blanche Macdonald Centre in Vancouver, Canada's leading beauty school, and first made her mark as a makeup artist and esthetician. During beauty school she adopted a raw, living-foods lifestyle and saw her skin, energy and vitality change in ways no beauty cream ever had. Her classmates started calling her “The Raw Beautician,” and that idea, raw meets spa, became the seed of her future brand.
Today, Elysia's professional education and courses live at The Raw Beautician →
A brand forged in resilience
Years later, after the birth of her fourth child and a difficult postpartum chapter, Elysia deepened her own wellness journey through mineral-rich nutrition, fermented foods and inner work. She rediscovered fermentation through her Russian and Doukhobor heritage, explored ancestral ingredients for the skin, and found grass-fed tallow and its remarkable compatibility with our skin's own lipids. The kitchen became her apothecary, and Living Cosmetics was born from that clarity, fuelled by resilience, motherhood and a return to nature.
As a former competitive bodybuilder, Elysia brings the same discipline, focus and attention to detail to every formula she creates.
Professional education
- Esthetician, Makeup Artist & Skin Therapist Diploma, Blanche Macdonald Centre, Vancouver
- Organic Skincare Formulation, Formula Botanica, the world's leading online formulation school (currently enrolled)
- Raw Food Chef & Instructor, Raw Food Culinary Arts Institute, Vancouver, studying under Janice Skoreyko
- Judge, 2022 Clean Beauty Awards hosted by Cert Clean, North America's certification for cleaner and safer skincare. Elysia sat on an international panel of clean beauty experts evaluating emerging products for performance and formulation quality.
- Over 20 years studying skin health, nutrition and ingredient formulation
Our ethos: use only what the body recognizes as real
The name “Living Cosmetics” speaks to a deeper philosophy: our skin is alive, dynamic and responsive. Skincare should nourish it like food. Every person is a “Living Cosmetic,” with beauty that radiates from within.
- Grass-fed tallow from small Okanagan farms, fermented botanicals and mineral-rich ingredients
- Organic, unrefined, non-GMO and sustainably sourced ingredients wherever possible
- No synthetic preservatives, artificial fragrances or fillers
- Minimal formulas designed to support the skin barrier and work with the skin, not against it
- Handcrafted in small batches in Kelowna, BC
Beauty meets intention
Every Living Cosmetics product carries a positive affirmation, a small daily reminder that self-care is also a mindset: I Am Unlimited. I Am Restored. I Am Pure. I Am Beauty.
Today, Living Cosmetics is carried by Nature's Fare Markets, Save-On-Foods, Choices Markets, Nesters Market and wellness clinics and spas across British Columbia.
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Eat real. Think clean. Glow hard.
With wild roots and a fierce heart,
Elysia Samarodin