Life Lately (09;2026)
A little peek behind the scenes directly from the founder’s desk.
Not everything we work on makes it to social media. Some things are still ideas scribbled somewhere, some are being tested quietly in the shop, and others are projects we’ve been working on for months before anyone ever sees them.
So I thought I’d start sharing more of those things here.
If you’ve somehow found your way into this little corner of our website, consider this your monthly peek behind the curtain :)
September was BUSY.
There were birthdays, new products, new ideas, manufacturing conversations, a new community concept and a whole new direction beginning to take shape for Sacra Carterii.
Here’s life lately.
Birthday Month
September is my birthday month, mine falls on the 1st and so it usually also feels like my second NEW YEAR where I get to revisit my goals and reset for for the next cycle, it’s like a do over of some sort. There’s something about receiving flowers that just makes your day, these came first thing in the morning and have definitely set the tone for the day. Thank you Mike :)
I did second guess whether I was going to do anything for my birthday this year because my cousin, who I usually celebrate with, was back home.
But one thing about me is that I’ve spent a lot of the last eight years on my own. Dining, road trips, living alone... somewhere along the way I became very comfortable with my own company.
So today was no different.
I treated myself to a birthday lunch :)
This year I also happened to come across a mastermind day where we were encouraged to set BIG goals for our businesses.
The kind that make you wonder whether you’ve completely lost the plot 😂
But I wrote mine down anyway.
It has become a personal challenge for this next year of my life and, if all goes well, you’ll probably see pieces of it unfolding here.
I’ll share more as we progress.
This one has been a long time coming.
On the 8th of September, we finally launched our Botanical Powders.
The idea behind them came from something I kept coming back to while building MYLITTLEWHITESPACE: self-care doesn’t always need another complicated formulation or twelve-step routine.
Months of sourcing ingredients, playing with combinations, changing ratios, testing texture, colour, scent and how everything actually felt on the skin.
This is the part of launching a product that rarely gets photographed.
There are spreadsheets. Suppliers who disappear. Ingredients that suddenly change price. Samples everywhere. Labels that need adjusting by 2mm 😂
And then eventually there’s a jar sitting on the shelf and it looks as if it simply appeared there. It definitely did not.
But seeing the powders finally sitting inside the shop made all those tiny decisions worth it.
Some of the oldest beauty practices were incredibly simple. Plants, roots, clays, grains and flowers ground into powders and mixed fresh when you needed them.
So we started there. And we’re only getting started with this category.
Introducing Friday Bath Club
I’ve always wanted MYLITTLEWHITESPACE to be more than somewhere you come to buy something.
When I first imagined the shop, I imagined people gathering too.
Talking. Making things. Learning something new. Having tea. Meeting another woman they might never otherwise have crossed paths with.
Just carefree time.
So somewhere between all our other projects this month, Friday Bath Club started taking shape.
The idea is still growing, but I see it becoming our space for workshops, bathing traditions, botanical experiences, conversations and gatherings around the slower parts of life.
Not another networking event where everyone has to introduce themselves and explain what they do 😂
More like: come as you are. Make something. Learn something.
Meet people.
Stay awhile.
We’ve already started experimenting with smaller botanical experiences in the shop, and I’m excited to see where this one goes.
You’re hearing about it here quite early, by the way.
This is still very much being built.
September Home Reset
I read somewhere about “bougie things you can do for your home without spending money” and obviously I took this assignment very seriously 😂
A few suggestions were:
Giving your home a name. I’m calling mine Villa Rafaella.
Giving different rooms, spaces or corners their own names. This little corner is now the sunroom.
Creating a house playlist. Having a signature scent.
And apparently even creating a familial crest.
Honestly... why not?
I finally had time this month to get the wallpaper added to “the sitting room.” I brought another white sofa downstairs and added a mirror opposite the wall so it reflects the pattern back into the room.
Tiny changes, but the whole space feels different.
A monthly home reset is something I’ve always done.
Not only cleaning, but moving things, removing things, refreshing corners and making the house feel alive again.
I think our environment affects us much more than we realise.
A home that supports your comfort, creativity and sense of wellbeing changes the way you move through the rest of your life.
Home should be where you can retreat into comfort and safety.
Local Manufacturing Partnerships
A less glamorous but VERY important part of September was manufacturing.
As we start thinking beyond individual products and towards hospitality, gifting, spas and larger retail opportunities, suddenly the conversations become very different.
How do we make this at scale? Who can fill it? Who can package it? What happens when you need hundreds or thousands instead of ten?
What looks beautiful but is still practical?
What minimum quantities do manufacturers need?
There is a whole world between having an idea for a product and actually putting that product into somebody’s hands.
So this month included factory conversations, packaging discussions, samples, quantities, costing and figuring out which parts of our production we want to keep small and artisan, and which parts will eventually need manufacturing partners.
Some industry insight? Gaaaaahhhhh… I will share more on a different blog because it’s eye opening why cosmetic and beauty products are produced the way they produced.
This is probably one of the biggest shifts happening quietly behind MYLITTLEWHITESPACE right now.
We’re learning how to build things that can grow without losing the reason we wanted to make them in the first place.
Sacra Carterii Website Upgrade
We have somehow outgrown the original Sacra Carterii website before Sacra Carterii even properly reached the market 😂
Sacra started with frankincense.
But somewhere along the way we realised we weren’t simply building a frankincense product.
There is a much bigger world forming around it.
Bathing. Body care. Rest. Hospitality. Gifting. Ingredients from the landscapes around us. The kind of quiet, considered experience that can move from someone’s bathroom at home into a spa, hotel or retreat.
And once we understood that, the original website suddenly didn’t feel like the brand anymore. So back to the drawing board we went.
For the direction we envision, every brand touchpoint needs to eventually speak the same language.
The packaging. Photography. Website. Words. Products. Even the way something feels when you open the box.
So this month we began rebuilding Sacra Carterii online while continuing to build the actual products behind it.
Making a website comes with far more planning than anyone sees.
Creative direction. References. Copy. Fonts. Colours. Photography. Layout changes. More layout changes. “Can we move this slightly to the left?” 😂
And most importantly, finding people who understand what the brand is trying to become.
I can’t wait for the new site to launch in October.
And then, really, the work begins.
What September Felt Like
Looking back, September feels less like a month where we finished things and more like a month where a lot of pieces started clicking into place. MYLITTLEWHITESPACE is changing. Sacra Carterii is becoming clearer.
We’re thinking much bigger about where our products can live, who they can serve and what kind of company we actually want to build.
At the same time, I’m becoming more protective of the things I don't want us to lose while growing.
The curiosity. The slowness.
The community.
Making things because they genuinely make everyday life feel a little better.
October already has several things moving behind the scenes, some of which I probably shouldn't talk about yet 😂
But that’s what these Life Lately posts are for.
So if you’re one of the people who actually comes onto our website, reads the blog and follows along beyond what makes it onto Instagram...
you’ll probably always know a little bit more.
See you in October.
Shyrell x