Beauty Chat With Ilana Kadonoff Of Sweets From The Earth
We love our local community of holistic health and beauty enthusiasts, and want to spread the love! We sat down with Ilana, the President, baker, and creator for Sweets From the Earth (we are huge fans of their sinfully delicious vegan, nut-free, and gluten-free treats!), to chat about beauty, health, and everything in between.
What impact does your work have on our shared local community and our world?
The production of plant-based food is far less taxing on the environment than raising animals for food, not to mention how cruelly animals are treated in the dairy and egg industries. We’ve proudly baked millions of vegan treats over the past twelve years, and are helping to reduce this environmental impact and animal suffering every time someone chooses one of our baked goods over an animal ingredient-laden one!
How do you personally define beauty?
Happiness! A genuine smile makes anybody beautiful.
What is one of your daily morning or night time rituals?
Every night I walk my dog with a mug full of Yogi Restful Sleep tea. Not sure it helps me sleep, but it sure is delicious!
What is your favourite/must have beauty product?
I’m addicted to the whole sensitive skin care line from Pure + simple.
The message you want to shout from the rooftop is…
You’d never catch me shouting anything from a rooftop! I have some pretty strong beliefs about what’s right for me, and about how I choose to live my life, but I’ve never been one to push my beliefs on others. I’m more of a “live and let live” kind of person.
About Ilana Kadonoff:
The year was 1977, and a freshly-slaughtered rabbit becoming that evening’s dinner instantly turned me into a vegetarian at the age of seven. My parents humoured me at first, thinking it was a phase, but I stuck with it, and eventually had to learn to fend for myself in the kitchen. This early exposure to the kitchen led to a love of cooking and baking, and after a short career in health care, I decided to pursue my true passion at pastry school. I worked in traditional pastry kitchens for a few years until transitioning to a vegan lifestyle in 2002. Not wanting to work with animal ingredients, but not wanting to leave the kitchen and finding no vegan bakeries to work for, I decided to create a line of vegan desserts, and Sweets From the Earth was born. SFTE currently makes delicious vegan desserts in two kosher facilities – one nut-free and the other gluten-free, and our products are now available across Canada. Twelve years later, I still get to spend my days doing something I love, making a product that’s rooted in kindness to animals and the planet, and I feel so grateful for, and motivated by, all the support we’ve received over the years.
I’m personally a big fan Pure + simple, and I feel we share many of the same values. We both place importance on top quality, natural ingredients which are equally important whether they’re going in you or on you! Pure + simple is an incredible company, run by a wonderful, caring family and I’m honoured to be part of their community!
