Our Story

It Started in New Mexico

Provisions by Kat began long before it had a name.

In 2014, while living in New Mexico, my husband, Sal, and I were struggling to conceive. During that time, I discovered essential oils and became increasingly interested in the ingredients in the products we were using every day.

So I started making my own.

Body butters, bath products and simple botanical preparations began replacing products I had previously purchased. I loved learning about the ingredients, figuring out how to combine them and, most importantly, making things we genuinely enjoyed using.

Before we moved back to New York City in January 2015, I made body butter for friends in New Mexico as gifts.

I didn’t know it then, but those little jars were the beginning of Provisions by Kat.

Becoming Provisions by Kat

After returning to New York in 2015, we went through IVF and welcomed our son Sal in July 2016. I continued learning, making products for our family and teaching DIY essential-oil classes.

Through those classes, I met Laura and Sue, who became friends and would eventually play an important role in PBK’s beginning. When they opened Hudson Co-Op, a neighborhood holiday pop-up featuring local makers, I brought along the products I’d been making.

And people bought them.

What had started as something I made for myself, my family and friends suddenly looked like it could become something more.

In February 2018, Sal and I decided to turn it into a business. On April 1, I set up my first official Provisions by Kat booth at Grand Bazaar NYC.

PBK was officially underway.

Growing Into a Formulator

As PBK grew, so did my interest in formulation.

The product line expanded, skincare became a larger part of the brand, and in 2021 PBK went through the packaging and visual transformation that became the foundation of the brand you see today.

From March 2022 through July 2024, PBK became my full-time work. And during that period, I decided I wanted to take something I’d already been doing for years and study it formally.

On my birthday in 2023, I enrolled with Formula Botanica.

I went on to earn my Diploma in Organic Skincare Formulation, with distinctions in both Formulation Skills and Cosmetic Compliance.

The education strengthened the way I approach formulation and gave structure and science to years of hands-on experience.

PBK Today

My favorite part of PBK is still developing the products.

And as my own skin has changed, I’ve become even more interested in researching botanical ingredients and creating formulas to support what skin needs at different stages of life.

I don’t start a new product by simply gathering ingredients that sound good together. I start with a purpose.

What do I want this product to do? What ingredients make sense for that goal? At what levels should they be used? How will they function together?

I do the research first and build the formulation from there, incorporating botanical actives and essential oils where they make sense and support the purpose of the product. There is always some testing and refining—that’s formulation—but every ingredient should have a reason for being there.

I love that process as much today as I did when I was standing in my kitchen in New Mexico making those first jars of body butter.

Still Provisions by Kat

What began in New Mexico with a few homemade body products has grown through motherhood, friendship, markets, education and years of making and learning.

PBK has changed as I’ve changed. My skin has changed. My knowledge has grown. My formulas have evolved.

But the reason I make them hasn’t changed very much.

I want to create thoughtfully formulated botanical skincare and body products that earn a place in your everyday routine—the same way those first homemade products earned a place in mine.

FINAL PHOTO: Current you + PBK. This is where I’d use one of your strongest current brand/market photographs.