Our Social Media Manager Taava recently escaped the city and returned to her family's beloved Mökki (Finnish summer house) for a week of rest, sauna and reconnecting with nature.

This is her personal journal, reflecting on how slowing down, embracing Finnish rituals and caring for her skin helped her feel restored from the inside out.

A Week at my Mökki:

My Journal from a Finnish summer house

Day _1

I pulled up to Mökki, our Finnish summer house, and my whole body immediately relaxed. I’ve spent my summers here since I was one year old. This is where I took my first steps. This is where I first learned what it’s like to live slowly and in deep connection with nature.

It’s the same gravel driveway, the same tall, old, wise pine trees, the same small lake that's just for us, sparkling under the setting sun. I could already smell the smoke from the sauna we were about to warm up.

I’ve come back for a visit after months of living on the other side of the world, in a big city where days are mostly consumed by work, stress, city noise, pollution—that constant low-level tension that starts to feel normal.

That fast-paced rhythm quickly sucked me in, and for a long time, my skin showed it. It mirrored exactly how I felt: tired, dull and reactive to everything.

Discovering Forest Spa Finland was like this place, our dear Mökki, calling me and saying, "I’m here for you, wherever you are."Tonight, I swapped dry airplane air for sauna warmth. I started my ritual with Nordic Dream Rejuvenating Cleanser, which smells like the trees outside and rinses away everything I’d brought with me from Toronto.

My favourite ingredient in this cleanser is the Re-Connecting Nature® extract from the forest floor. It feels like the forest is cleansing my stress away. It helps keep my skin's microbiome balanced, and my skin feels calmer, softer and replenished after every use.

After an hour of sauna rounds and refreshing dips in the lake, I reached for the one product I never skip: Nordic Adaptogen Serum.

When my face is red from the heat, a few drops bring it back to a soft, healthy glow. Not only is it a must-have after sauna, but over time the adaptogens in it, like cloudberry and rhodiola, have helped my skin cope so much better with everything that literally hits my face in the modern world.

My skin is so much less reactive than it used to be.

Day_ 2

I woke up without an alarm to the same loons singing on the lake that I fell asleep listening to after last night's sauna.

Mornings always start with coffee, chaga and sitting on the porch. Coffee because I’m Finnish, chaga from the Nordic Adaptogen Supplements.

After a few weeks of taking them regularly, they don't just make my skin look healthier, brighter and stronger—they also give me steadier energy (thanks, rhodiola), help my mood feel more balanced, deepen my sleep and even seem to support my gut.

Chaga has become one of my favourite mushrooms, and I got overly excited spotting one on my walk today. The porch is where the show was. A mama bird flew back and forth to a bird box on the nearby pine tree, feeding her babies.

Morning coffee hits differently when the loudest thing around you is a baby bird yelling "give me worms!" in bird language.

After a quick morning lake dip, I did my simple morning routine.
I started with Nordic Light Revitalising Cleanser. If the lake dip is a full-body wake-up, this is the face version. It makes my skin feel fresh and awake, and I love knowing that the nettle and sweetgrass in it grow beneath the same pure forest air that I’m breathing in.

Then I pressed in my Nordic Adaptogen Serum again—every morning and evening, always—and finished with Nordic Light Protective Moisturiser SPF20.

It protects my skin from the strong summer sun while I’m out paddling on the lake and keeps it comfortably hydrated. The bilberry seed oil helps strengthen my skin, while all around me fresh wild bilberries grow across the forest floor at our Mökki.

Day_ 3

By day three, I felt the stress slowly leaving my body, and my skin looked and felt rejuvenated.Today followed the same simple rhythm: morning coffee on the porch, three capsules of adaptogens, quiet (apart from the birds), lake dips, forest walks, family time and sauna.

Today I wanted to elevate my sauna ritual the way we did when I was a kid: with birch twigs .

For us, it was always a Midsummer tradition. My dad would head deeper into the forest and come back carrying a huge bundle of birch branches, from which we made vihta for the sauna. It was my favourite thing ever. The smell, the gentle patting on our backs, the laughter with my sisters. Having birch in the sauna again today felt incredibly nostalgic.

Nordic Water Activator is basically that memory in a little pouch. It's filled with birch leaves and heather that help deeply purify my skin, replenish moisture, soothe any flare-ups that stress has caused and support my skin's natural healing.

The scent instantly takes my mind back to that quiet, steady place only the forest and sauna seem to know how to create. What a feeling to end the day.

Day _4-6

By days four, five and six, time started to blur in the best possible way. No deadlines, emails or messages in sight. Only trees, mushrooms and sauna steam.

And the best part? It doesn't actually take much to feel balanced. Mökki life is simple, slow and built around small but meaningful rituals that care for my nervous system just as much as my skin.

For some, the repetitive rhythm might sound boring. But maybe the boredom you feel is actually the peace you've been looking for.

By days four, five and six, time started to blur in the best possible way. No deadlines, emails or messages in sight. Only trees, mushrooms and sauna steam.

And the best part? It doesn't actually take much to feel balanced. Mökki life is simple, slow and built around small but meaningful rituals that care for my nervous system just as much as my skin.

For some, the repetitive rhythm might sound boring. But maybe the boredom you feel is actually the peace you've been looking for.

Day _7

It was my last full day at the summer house.

I sat on the porch with my coffee, watching the sun rise behind the pine trees, listening to the loons that had been coming and going on our lake all week, and I thought about the two lives I live: one that's big-city and high-speed, and this one—slow, grounded and deeply connected to nature.

The contrast is real, but this week has reminded me that my skin—and my whole system—craves Mökki. It doesn't want quick fixes, 12-step routines, new trends or one more "miracle" product. It wants consistency. It wants slow, intentional rituals. It wants the warmth of the sauna, fresh forest air, simple ingredients that support me over time, and care that protects against stress from the inside out.

As the sun set over the lake, I took my final evening sauna, and I realised I’m not really leaving this behind. I’m taking it back with me in every small, forest-rooted ritual, wherever I am. Because when daily life feels like it just takes, takes and takes until you look and feel exhausted, the forest does the opposite.

It doesn't take anything. It doesn't ask anything.

It simply gives.