Good Intentions is moving into its own digs.

The locally-owned perfume, candle and skincare brand will open its brick-and-mortar storefront at 119 N. Tejon St., the former home of Brown’s Shoe Fit, in downtown Colorado Springs at 11 a.m. on Saturday.

“As a downtown resident and employee, I wanted a place where people could shop for cosmetics and self-care without leaving the city center,” its owner and operator Kelsee Swenn said in a news release this week from the Downtown Partnership. Swenn is also the partnership’s marketing manager.

“Good Intentions is about creating products with integrity, but also about being a bigger part of the community I love,” she said.

Swenn founded Good Intentions in 2019. It began as a candle line, born out of her desire for fragrances “that felt authentic and clean,” according to the release. Swenn was frustrated with the lack of variety and options free from petroleum-based ingredients, so she crafted her own phthalate-free, non-toxic candles and perfumes with custom fragrance blends. Phthalates are synthetic chemicals that make plastics flexible.

“When I first started learning how to craft fragrance, I became aware of all of the toxic junk that so many of those types of products contain,” she said by email on Wednesday. “I really just don’t see the point in using such low quality, harmful ingredients to make a little extra profit. And that’s actually where the name ‘Good Intentions’ ended up coming from. I wanted to build a different type of company, one that cares about its customers, makes a really excellent product and gives back to its community.” 

Her brand got its start at the Eclectic CO co-op, at its downtown Colorado Springs location. The co-op also has a store in Old Colorado City. Good Intentions products will be available at Eclectic CO downtown through the holidays, and in the new year Swenn will launch a new line of fragrance there, “a sort of sister brand to Good Intentions,” she said.

Swenn added: “Eclectic CO really became the launching pad for my brick-and-mortar journey. Having that physical presence gave me hands-on experience managing a retail space on a smaller scale while also building a local following. The decision to open my own store ended up coming out of a necessity for more space. My creativity was outgrowing the 3-foot space I rent there and it could no longer hold my entire line of fragrances.”

She was able to open the new storefront thanks, in part, to a Retail Incentive Grant from the Downtown Development Authority. The organization recognized Good Intentions “for contributing to a more vibrant street-level mix of shops, supporting entrepreneurship and introducing new resident-serving amenities,” the release said.

Good Intentions is also expanding, now offering a full line of skincare and cosmetics. Products include face wash, moisturizer, sunscreen, eyeshadow, lipstick, blush and more.

Swenn sources her skincare and beauty products primarily from female-owned small businesses in the U.S. and Canada that use only non-toxic ingredients — those that model the same values as Good Intentions, she said.

“I’ve connected with some really incredible women who are so passionate and so proud of the products they make, and I’m super excited to showcase their hard work in the store,” Swenn said.

As well as designing products for her own store, Swenn creates custom fragrance lines for local retailers. Auric Gallery, Rutledge’s, Bread & Butter Market, Carnelian Coffee and Hapke’s Hortum each carry a signature line of Swenn’s fragrances custom-made for their businesses.

Alongside her brick-and-mortar location, Swenn’s products are available for purchase at 45 stores nationwide and through her online store at goodintentionscos.com.