Dirty Matchas & Small Batch Skin Care: Meet NOWHERE
Meet the Founders of NOWHERE: A Local Brand Rooted in Simple Rituals and Canadian Landscapes
If you joined us for our studio series at KOU in Mount Pleasant, you’ve likely met Brit & Carlyn Gill. The sister and co-founder duo of KOU & Nowhere. Also regularly found at our community long tables in the bistro chatting brand, product development & activating their community. We sat down with the sisters to chat all things Nowhere - their locally produced line you can now find on our TurF shop shelves (peep the SAGA collection). We dove into how years of being the go-to “list makers” in their community, for finding the best spots to visit and holy grail serums to try, led to the birth of a consciously crafted skincare and lifestyle brand.
RITUALS
Carlyn and Brit can be seen burpee-ing through Ange’s Sunday morning meta and catching up over ricotta mushroom toast, dirty matchas (yes, Brit does indeed add espresso to her matcha…) and diving deep into growing their line of intuitive everyday skin essentials that just so happen to look ridiculously beautiful on your counter.
The Birth of NOWHERE
NOWHERE came to be almost accidentally. Brit, with a background in Nutritional Science at UBC and an obsession with researching the “best of everything,” had long been the go-to source for skincare, travel, and lifestyle recommendations. Eventually, those lists turned into a brand — one that blends intuition with intention and has had the TurF team glowing.
While Brit acts as the visionary and curator, Carlyn is all about the execution — bringing shape to Nowhere. Their collection is high-performance and deeply rooted in holistic care and we can’t get enough.
WHAT YOU’LL FIND IN THE SHOP: SAGA, A Love Letter to the North
The SAGA line is an homage to the North — infused with Nordic principles, using only ingredients from the northern hemisphere. Sourcing local, wild ingredients like seaweed and tree extracts. The sisters co-created the line alongside a formulator who manufactures the SAGA & KETU product lines right on Bowen Island. While the rest is done at KOU, the 'NOWHERE HQ'.
The products are designed to work in synergy and are interchangeable with existing products you may already reach for adding to their waste not want not philosophy.
SAGA is a cool-toned collection that wakes you up for your AM use and strips the day off of you in the PM. Cool, calming, and restorative, it’s designed as a step by step ritual.
Conscious from Start to Finish
Every product is batched in-house, using no fillers or synthetics, and avoids secondary packaging to reduce waste. Brit joked “we might be too sustainable” but wouldn’t do it any other way.
Down to the jars they use, which extend shelf life and encourage reuse - the life cycle of these products goes far past your morning routine. You’ll find Brit rinsing out the jars and repurposing them as vitamin containers and travel-friendly minis, sustainability is at the forefront of the brand.
ACTUAL CLEAN BEAUTY
“We wanted skincare that truly performs without sacrificing integrity,” says Carlyn. The girls dive into how “There’s no real regulatory system for ‘clean beauty,’ so we made our own standard.” - making it simple to see what you’re putting on your face and in your gym bag.
The sisters wanted to simplify the process of finding your dream, holy grail lineup without consumers feeling like they need a degree to know if the products are safe. “We do the research so you don’t have to.”
Sustainability isn’t a marketing angle—it’s a given. No secondary packaging, they employ peel-off labels, travel minis, and UV-protective jars that preserve product life 2–3x longer.
Nowhere is the culmination of lived experiences, deep research, and has obvious roots in Canadian landscapes and we love having it on our shop shelves and bathroom counter.
ADDING NOWHERE TO YOUR ROUTINE
