Urban Alchemy Lab

Urban Alchemy Lab sells small-batch botanical skincare: cleansers, the Celestial Silver Mists, serums, cremes and The Golden Seal facial oil. The store already ran on a premium Shopify theme, but it felt crowded. Stevie had just launched three reformulated mists and a new oil. She wanted a clean, luxury-looking store, built mobile first, that felt personal to her.

The brief covered the homepage, header, footer, product page and internal pages, plus resizing images to fit each section. It asked us to use the theme's own sections and settings so the team could manage the store without extra custom work. She shared references including Aesop, Osea and May Lindstrom.

The old layout had too much content and too little space. Images did not fit their sections, so the brand's packaging looked cramped instead of premium.

The header used an icon logo instead of the full logo, and it sat tall on the page. On mobile that pushed the products further down the screen.

Every product had its own template. Any layout change meant editing each one, which made the store hard to keep consistent as new products launched.

Shopping was over-categorized. The mists appeared under different names in different menus, and the footer used another set of terms. Clients who tested the site said they did not know where to start.

Brand language had drifted too. The site said "Powered by Plant Intelligence" instead of "Powered by Botanical Intelligence" and used Anti-Aging, a term Stevie avoids. Blog posts showed a name nobody knows her by. There was also no place for estheticians and spas who wanted to carry the line.

• 01 Homepage, header and footer on theme sections We started with the homepage, built on the theme's own sections so every image and line of copy can be edited in the Theme Customizer. We placed the brand's new hero, 50:50 banner and lifestyle images and resized them to fit. We also made a video version of the hero for later. The header now uses the full logo, a mega menu and a lower height. The footer carries "The Plants Have Always Known." and the signup became "From the Lab".
• 02 One product template using metafields The store had a separate template for each product. We replaced them with one clean product template. Content that changes from product to product is pulled from product metafields, which the team edits in Shopify Admin under Products. We tested it first on Super Nova Elixir before using it across the range. A new launch like The Golden Seal now only needs its metafields filled in.
• 03 About, Contact and FAQ in her words Stevie writes her own copy and asked for it to be used exactly. The About page got her bio and a timeline. The Contact page got a new Silver Mist hero, a "We'd love to hear from you" section and a "Send message" button. We rebuilt the FAQ question by question with her answers on ingredients, sensitive skin, small batches and international distribution. We also set blog posts to show Stevie Batyuk as the author.
• 04 For Professionals page and stockist finder Stevie opened her first professional account during the project, so we built a For Professionals page linked from the header and footer. It has sections to find Urban Alchemy Lab nearby, apply to become a partner, ask about international distribution and a Professional Login marked coming soon. A Spas and Stockists page lists Heights Skincare and HD Complexions with a map for each address. We kept it text based so it can grow to many stockists.
• 05 The Essentials kit and three shop menus Clients testing the site still found it overwhelming. We cut the shop menu to All Products, Shop by Skin Need and Curated Collections. All Products shows every product on one page in order of use, with no Load More. Skin needs include Firmness + Vitality and Sensitive + Reactive. The Essentials kit groups Age of Grace Cleanser, Super Nova Elixir, Advanced Repair Creme and The Golden Seal at 10% off, with its own homepage section.
• 06 Ask an Alchemist, then launch fixes We set up Easy Appointment Booking App for Ask an Alchemist, a complimentary 10-minute consultation with a licensed holistic esthetician. The main homepage button now reads Shop All Products. On mobile we fixed the word Frankincense spilling out of its section, simplified the menu and changed Anti-Aging to Graceful Aging. We added the updated horizontal logo so "Powered by Botanical Intelligence" reads clearer, then prepared the store for launch on Sep 15, 2026.