Building The Brand: How It All Began

MIRROR WATER Founder Estée Lalonde on the in-between years that became a brand.

If I really think about it, I've been searching for something I could sink my teeth into since childhood. I didn't always know it would be a self-care brand - but I knew I wanted to build something bigger than me. Something I could dedicate my whole self to.

For a long time, that thing was sharing my life online, which I obviously still do. But in the run-up to the pandemic, I couldn't ignore the uneasiness brewing inside me. I had outgrown a version of myself without knowing what the next one looked like. Anyone who has been there knows it's a strange, frustrating holding pattern, especially for someone who always wants to be moving forward. It's not a problem that can be solved quickly. It's something to sit with - and often, that is the work.

The pandemic gave me the luxury of time, which was a huge privilege. For the first time in my life, I didn't feel the urgency to rush into the next version of myself just because the current one no longer fit perfectly. Everything around me felt like a signal to slow down. I became much more tuned into myself; prioritising self-reflection and healing above all else. I've always been an introspective person, but when life gets busy the first person who gets left out is, ironically, you.

Looking back, I didn't start MIRROR WATER because I had clarity. I started it because I was willing to sit with uncertainty, and it slowly began to take shape through my own process of self-discovery. The most important part of building something new, I've learned, is being willing to stay in the unknown and the uncomfortable a little longer. Sort of like an emotional ice bath. I didn't know what this inner world of mine would become, but I was tuned in enough to know how I wanted it to feel. Once I accepted that I had to follow the feeling rather than the thoughts, that was enough to begin.

Around the same time, I started spending much more time outside than I had in previous years. Long walks turned into the classic Couch to 5K. I realised how much I had missed being in green spaces, and how nice it was to notice things I would normally rush past. It reminded me of my childhood in Canada and felt like coming back to something more instinctive. It also made me aware of how much of my adult life I had spent living online, mentally somewhere else. I love the internet — I wouldn't be where I am now without it — but what I was really craving was to feel more grounded, and more connected to myself.

The shift came when I started paying attention to my own habits. As much as I loved being in nature, I'm a city dweller, and that wasn't always realistic. I needed smaller moments that could bring me back to myself every day. For me, those were standing (or crying) in the shower, taking a bath, dry brushing in front of my favourite comfort show, applying oil to my skin in front of the mirror. Those were the only times I felt like I was truly taking care of me.

And then, a lightbulb moment: as I moved through each physical body ritual, I was also creating emotional space to work through the day, the week, the month - and ultimately let things go. A gentle, self-taught meditation I'd been practising my whole life without realising it. The kind anyone can practise at their own pace, in their own home. 

That's when body care became the focus. It's grounding, repetitive, quiet, and unlike most things in life it doesn't ask too much of you. And yet we rarely give it much thought — we're so focused on facial skincare and before-and-after results that body care often feels like something to rush through. For me, it was the opposite. And no one was speaking to the late-twenties/mid-thirties girly navigating burnout in this way.

So the challenge became: how do I bottle the feeling of being in nature, of being still in water, of being alone with yourself - and turn it into a brand with longevity? That's when the real fun began...

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Written by
Estée LaLonde

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