Tidelands House is a fine skincare and archival atelier in the heart of Historic Galt, Cambridge, devoted to the art of slow living and botanical alchemy. Inside its sunlit 19th-century workhouse, founder and herbalist Dominique Del Col crafts small-batch, plant-based formulations that honour the lineage of herbal knowledge, modern botanical science, and the quiet ritual of self-care.
We spoke with Dominique to learn more about how she’s reimagining skincare as a sensory, sustainable, and deeply soulful experience. One that reconnects people to land, craft, and the living spirit of plants.
What is your business called and what does it do?
Tidelands House Fine Skincare & Archival Atelier. At its heart, it’s both a skincare atelier and a gathering place. We have had the great privilege of spending more than a decade refining an ecologically grounded, sensorial philosophy, and archival exploration of floral storytelling shaped by terroir, tactility, and craft. The new Cambridge brick-and-mortar works in harmonious partnership with our Galt and Wellington County studios, bringing together artisanal skincare that transcends the ordinary with conscientious makers and ritual tools that honour land, lineage, and the living tradition of botanical alchemy and devotional self-care.
Every fine skincare formula is made in-house using organic, bioregional plants, distilled, pressed, and blended with care. Alongside our skincare, we carry a curation of pieces that share the same soul: botanical teas, superfatted soaps, monastery candles, found objects and commissioned pottery, and books on feminist poetry, herbalism, and slow living. Everything in the space has been chosen with intention, objects that feel good to hold, to use, to live with, pieces that evoke or create memory.
Our skincare collections are refined, nutritive, and deeply sensory, existing at the intersection of historic herbal methods and modern botanical science. Each formula is built with the precision of traditional perfumery and the nutritional depth of herbal alchemy, creating results that are both tangible and transcendent.
What made you want to do this work?
I’ve always been rooted in tactile exploration, working with natural elements and following curiosity wherever it led. That curiosity deepened into a study of traditional herbalism, the resurrection of historic distillation practices, and the realization that so much of what we now call wellness was built on the lineage of herbal knowledge passed quietly through generations.
I love connecting with people and creating experiences that tell rich, atmospheric stories through flowers and scent. Building spaces that feel like sanctuaries has always been part of that calling, places I would crave to visit myself, time and time again, to nurture a sense of devotional self-care.
Our first shop in Toronto’s Beaches neighbourhood, Rowan Homespun Market, became exactly that: a sunlit community hub where people from all walks of life came to talk, sip tea, gather, and learn. It was a space that celebrated old-world herbcraft and the quiet ways it continues to merge with modern botanical science.
What problem did you want to solve with the business?
When I began formulating in 2012, I saw how disconnected modern green beauty had become from its origins. So much of the industry feels rushed and detached, sterile, synthetic, and overly marketed. I wanted to create something that brought care back to its roots, both literally and metaphorically.
Tidelands House grew out of a desire to slow that pace and to remind people that skincare can be a living expression of connection. Every ingredient we use has a story, an ancestry, and a landscape behind it. I wanted to offer skincare that not only feels beautiful on the skin but also carries an energy of reverence, a way of saying that true luxury is found in time, touch, and intention rather than mass production.
In essence, we’re preserving the artistry of skincare as it once was, crafted slowly, botanically, and with a kind of precision that honours both science and spirit.
Who are your clientele/demographics?
The people who find their way to Tidelands House are seekers of ritual and story. They are drawn to experiences that carry depth, that feel chosen. There is a shared reverence for history, sustainability, and the quiet poetry of materials sourced with care.
Our patrons are looking for skincare that feels nutritive, living, and vibrant, formulations that move beyond surface care into something more sensory and soulful. They value an ethos built on thoughtfulness and slowness, where each creation holds a trace of the land it came from.
They are the kind of people who pause, who lift a vessel and feel its stillness, who crave moments of beauty that transcend the rush of modern life. For them, skincare is less about appearance and more about awareness: a daily ritual of returning to the body, honouring the skin as an extension of the natural world.
Our work speaks to those who find meaning in the old-world rhythm of botanical storytelling, in roots, resins, and petals, and who long for a connection that feels both ancient and immediate. The formulas are for everyone, created with the intention of communion and kinship, an invitation to inhabit beauty as ritual rather than routine.
For many, a visit to the atelier becomes a pilgrimage of sorts, a way to reconnect to something elemental, tactile, and profoundly restorative.
How does your business make money? How does it work?
Everything we create is made in small seasonal runs and offered through our atelier in Cambridge and our online shop. We also work with a handful of like-minded retail partners, holistic aesthetician clinics, spas, and grassroots practitioners who share our values. There is no mass production, no outsourcing, only the steady rhythm of slow, considered craft.
Each formula is created from start to finish within our studio, ensuring every stage, from distillation to blending to bottling, meets the same meticulous standard.
Where in the city can we find your profession?
You’ll find us along the Grand River in Historic Galt, steps from the Gaslight District. The atelier shop is open five days each week to visitors, where you can come in, experience our skincare, and enjoy a complimentary cup of our daily herbal tea elixir. I want people to linger and feel unrushed. There is a sense of calm in the space that invites stillness, the kind that stays with you long after you leave.
We honour the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe, and Neutral peoples, on whose traditional lands we gather, and hold deep respect for the living landscape that continues to sustain us.
Tidelands House Fine Skincare & Archival Atelier
103–20 Grand Ave South, Cambridge, ON N1S 2L4
What is the best question a prospective customer could ask a member of your profession when comparing services? Give the answer as well.
Question: Do you actually make everything yourself?
Answer: Yes. Every extract, distillate, and infusion begins here. We formulate in communion with the land, using floral minerals, bioactive ferments, and regional roots. We work seasonally with botanicals gathered at their peak to ensure the utmost vitality.
Each essence is slowly distilled in traditional copper stills, capturing the living intelligence of the plants. The result is skincare that transcends the ordinary, housed in mindful vessels that reflect our commitment to sustainability and our dedication to nutritive, exceptional complexion care, offered in reverence to the natural world.
Our formulations are the product of years of study and practice, blending the precision of old-world apothecaries with the refinement of modern botanical science.
What is the best part about what you do? What is the worst part?
The best part is watching people soften when they step inside. There is a shift; they breathe differently, they slow down, and you can see something inside them settle. A moment of reconnection.
The hardest part is the time it takes. Every formulation asks for patience through macerations, infusions, and distillations. It is a rhythm that resists urgency, which can be challenging in a fast-paced world. But that slowness is also the very thing that gives the work its integrity.
What is your favourite joke about your own profession?
I always say I just work for the plants. They seem to run the place. I’m just here to keep the copper polished and take notes.
Where can we follow you?
You can find us on Instagram or visit our website to explore our collections, seasonal releases, and journal writings from inside the atelier.
PAY IT FORWARD: What is another local business that you love?
Downtown Cambridge and Historic Galt are abundant communities steeped in heritage architecture, with beautiful shops, cafes, restaurants, and vibrant local events, cinema nights, and culinary delights. We’re steps from the beloved Hamilton Family Theatre, the Cambridge Mill, and the ever-happening Gaslight District.
We’re immensely fortunate to be surrounded by truly soulful, independent businesses, each led by warm and visionary people. It’s a wonderful place to belong, a pocket of heritage and creativity that continues to inspire me daily.
