The Five Minutes Orchid + Ash Wants You to Keep

Founder and CEO Kristina Baranowski on bakery burnout, the case for a three-step skincare routine, and what luxury looks like when you finally have a minute to yourself.

Some days, Kristina Baranowski would slip into the tiny office at her bakery and nap on the floor. She had poured five years into the business, and she still loved it. She was also so exhausted that a nap was sometimes the only way she could get through the workday.

Eventually, she had to ask herself what kind of life all that work was building.

“I realized I still wanted a life centered around creating,” Baranowski tells The Beauty Brief. “I just didn't want to sacrifice my health, my relationships, or myself to do it.”

That question sits at the heart of Orchid + Ash, the brand she now leads as founder and CEO. It shows up in a three-product skincare routine designed to feel easy to come back to. It’s also there in a candle you light while making dinner, a body oil you reach for after a shower, or a fragrance you put on simply because you want to smell it again.

A founder who likes the part where you make it again

Baranowski’s path took her from finance to owning a bakery to developing skincare. The through line, as she sees it, is the satisfaction of making something that had previously existed only in her head. She especially likes the part where you make it again.

“The medium has changed over the years, but the creative process never has,” she says.

Orchid + Ash itself has been through a few iterations. It began in 2020 as an online marketplace for women-owned, sustainable brands Baranowski admired. The orchid was a nod to femininity and beauty. The ash tree represented strength and resilience. When she moved from curating other people’s products to making her own, she considered changing the name. By then, it had grown with her and the community she’d built around it. She kept it.

That instinct to keep making things also explains why a single category was never going to hold her attention. Ask Baranowski about the logic behind a brand that spans skincare, body care, fragrance, and candles, and she’ll tell you about the pleasure of turning ordinary moments into little rituals.

She’ll also tell you, with equal enthusiasm, “You should see my future product launch spreadsheet …”

Three products, down to the smallest details

During product development, Baranowski kept hearing a version of the same problem. People felt overwhelmed by skincare. They were unsure where to start, what to use, or what the ingredients in a $200 serum were supposed to do.

“We're already stressed enough,” she says. “We don't need our skincare routine to be stressful, too.”

Her answer was The Daily Ritual, a three-product system. Its formulation brief paired ingredients that had caught her attention in wellness, such as magnesium and CoQ10, with familiar skincare actives like peptides, ceramides, and niacinamide. She and her chemist revisited the details that would determine how the routine felt in someone’s hands. How quickly did a product absorb? How did it layer with the next? Did the scent add to the experience?

For Baranowski, those details matter because they’re part of what makes someone want to use a product again tomorrow. She talks about consistency with the realism of someone raising a toddler while running a business. Some nights, the routine you can actually get through is the one you’ll keep. If you find yourself looking forward to it, even better.

A candle while you clean the kitchen

Baranowski is reluctant to call Orchid + Ash luxurious. She wants it to feel like something you can enjoy on an ordinary day. Her own definition of luxury has shifted in that direction, too.

“It's having five uninterrupted minutes to do your skincare before bed,” she says. “It's lighting a candle while you clean the kitchen.”

There’s something telling about that kitchen detail. The dishes still need doing. You might be wiping down the counter or packing up leftovers. And then you catch the scent of a candle you lit because you like it, and for a minute, the evening feels a little more like yours.

When we asked how she hopes someone feels five minutes after using Orchid + Ash, Baranowski kept it simple. “Relaxed, inspired…like they finally did something good for themselves.”