From T-Shirts to Wellness Boutique: The Story Behind Best Life Apparel
Some stores are built from business plans. This one was built from a decision to keep going.
Best Life Apparel began in 2019, born from one of life's most disorienting moments — a divorce, four children, and a future that needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. Rather than look back, founder Nova Christine looked forward. She picked up a heat press, chose words that meant something, and began making apparel that reflected the mindset she was determined to live by. The name said everything: best life. Not a perfect life. Not an easy one. The best one — the one you choose, on purpose, even when it's hard.
By 2021, Best Life Apparel had grown beyond anyone's early expectations. Nova was distributing hand-pressed shirts to boutiques and yoga studios across North America, building a wholesale network that stretched from her studio in Alberta to storefronts she had never visited. The brand had found its people — women who wanted to wear their values, who believed that what you put on your body is a reflection of what you believe about yourself.
But something was shifting. The apparel market was crowding, and Nova knew she was capable of more. In 2026, she made another bold decision — the kind that has always defined this brand. Best Life Apparel would evolve. Not away from its roots, but deeper into them. The store would become a curated wellness boutique: a home for products Nova believed in, made by makers she trusted, offered to a community that had come to trust her in return.
The shirts are still here. They always will be. But now they share space with healing crystals, herbal teas, essential oils, sculptural candles, activewear, luxury home decor, and handmade jewelry — each one chosen with the same intention that pressed the very first shirt. Every product created by small businesses and big dreamers. Just like her.
The Apparel That Started It All
Every piece in our Best Life Apparel collection is still hand-pressed in-house using an industrial grade press and premium heat-transfer vinyl — built to last wash after wash, made to order, never outsourced. These are not mass-produced shirts. They are statements, pressed one at a time by the same hands that built this brand.
If you are new here, the shirts are where the story begins. Browse our inspirational shirts with sayings, our spiritual apparel, and our shirts with sayings collection — and know that every word on every piece was chosen because it meant something to the woman who made it.
Too Much Heart to Stay in One Lane
The apparel was always the foundation. But a foundation is just the beginning of what you build on top of it. As the brand grew, so did the vision — and it became clear that the women who wore these shirts were living whole lives that deserved to be supported in whole ways. A well-lived life is not just what you wear. It is how you move, what you breathe in, what you steep in the morning, what sits on your shelf, what you put on your body, and what you reach for when you need to come back to yourself. So the boutique expanded. Intentionally. Carefully. One product at a time — each one chosen not for the brand behind it, but for what it adds to the life in front of you.
Movement, Elevated
A well-lived life moves. It gets on the mat, takes the trail, shows up for the hard class, and still finds a way to feel beautiful doing it. That is why activewear earned its place here — not as an afterthought, but as an extension of the same values the shirts were built on. When Nova went looking for the right pieces to carry, she was asking one question: does this actually serve the woman living this life?
She found the answer in Bare Activewear — founded in 2019, the same year as Best Life Apparel, by Calgary-based founders Jessica and Lauren. Built from a maternity leave side hustle into two full retail locations, Bare was designed from the start around real bodies and real life. Jessica leads product development with a focus on comfort and wearability. Lauren built the brand from the ground up with the same grit this community understands intimately.
You will find their sports bras, yoga pants, tanks, and dresses in our Bare Activewear collection — pieces designed to move with you, whether that is on the mat, on the trail, or simply through the beautiful chaos of an ordinary day.
Crystal Wisdom
Somewhere along the way, Nova started reaching for crystals — not as decoration, but as tools. For grounding on hard days. For intention-setting at the start of new ones. For the quiet ritual of holding something solid when everything else feels uncertain. If you have ever felt that pull, you already understand why this category belongs here.
808 Co. was the source she trusted to bring it to you. Their collection spans nearly 100 products — from rose quartz hearts and labradorite spheres to chakra crystal sets, selenite charging plates, and smudge kits for energetic clearing. Whether you are new to crystals or deepening an existing practice, there is an entry point here for every intention.
Browse the full 808 Co. collection or explore our broader mindfulness collection for the tools that support a grounded, intentional life.
Aromatherapy from the Source
Scent is one of the fastest ways back to yourself. A single breath of the right oil can shift your nervous system, anchor a morning routine, or signal to your body that it is time to slow down. This is not wellness trend territory — it is ancient, practical, and deeply personal. It belonged in this boutique from the beginning.
Bursera, founded in Vancouver, BC, built their entire identity around purity — every oil 100% pure, organic where possible, sourced with full transparency from plant to bottle. From the deeply calming Organic Lavender to the grounding Palo Santo, the focus-sharpening Peppermint, and the thoughtfully formulated Calm and Focus blends — their range makes it easy to build a practice that is both effective and beautiful. Their diffusers, diffusing stones, and gemstone rollers complete the ritual.
Explore the full Bursera collection or browse our essential oils collection for the complete aromatherapy range.
Ancient Plant Wisdom
There is something quietly radical about making tea on purpose. Not grabbing a bag from a box, but choosing a botanical, steeping it slowly, and sitting with it. It is one of the smallest acts of self-care — and one of the most consistent ones. Nova wanted that ritual represented here, and she wanted it done properly.
Rayhana Organics approaches tea with the reverence it deserves — whole-dried botanicals, loose-leaf blends, and herbal teas sourced for purity and potency. From hibiscus flowers and chamomile to linden flower, mallow, and rose petals — each one a whole-plant botanical at its most potent. Browse the full teas collection and find the blend that meets you where you are.
Living Space Intention
The well-lived life does not stop at the body. It extends into the space around you — the room you wake up in, the corner where you sit quietly, the shelf that holds the things that matter. Nova began to ask what it would look like to curate that space with the same care she brought to everything else. The answer became one of the most expansive parts of this boutique.
A candle is a small thing. But the right candle — in the right shape, in the right vessel, with the right scent — can change the entire feeling of a room. Estelle Studio makes candles that understand this. Their sculptural soy wax designs are as much art objects as they are functional pieces — vessels that earn a permanent place on your shelf long after the wick has burned down. From the Twisted Rope to the Large Peony to the Lotus Jar, each one is a study in the beauty of slow, intentional making.
But a home built with intention goes beyond the candle. It lives in the details — a jesmonite trinket tray that holds your rings at the end of the day, a meditation cushion that marks the corner of the room as yours, mulberry silk pillowcases and organic bamboo bedding that make rest feel like a ritual. Browse the full home decor collection for everything we've chosen to bring into this space.
Handcrafted from Around the World
A well-lived life is also adorned. Not in excess — but in pieces that mean something. Jewelry that carries a story, that was made by someone's hands, that connects you to a place or a tradition or a moment of beauty that exists far beyond a factory floor. This is why handcrafted jewelry became one of the most personal additions to this boutique.
Some pieces find you. Suzie Blue Canada is one of those — a family-run business importing handcrafted jewelry and clothing directly from Bali, Indonesia, born from a love of fashion, travel, and the extraordinary artisanship of Balinese makers. Jo Arbuthnot travels to Bali twice a year to collaborate directly with the artisans she works with — designing pieces that simply cannot be found anywhere else, many made entirely by hand right down to the base components. With 168 pieces in our collection — from bold Bali jewelry to hand-dyed kimonos and Bali pants in colors that stop you mid-scroll — Suzie Blue brings a vibrancy and depth that is impossible to replicate.
And then there is Guru For Life — a Canadian brand with an Indian soul and over two decades of commitment to ethical production. Working with artisan partners in Rajasthan, India, Guru crafts each piece using upcycled vintage Indian saris and end-of-roll fabrics rescued from landfill. Their jewelry carries both history and heart — from wooden and puka shell malas to hamsa hand beaded necklaces, buddha chain necklaces, and handcrafted wrap bracelets that layer beautifully and wear like a talisman. Browse the full jewelry collection for everything we carry from around the world.
What Comes Next
By 2030, we hope to bring Best Life Apparel into a physical space — a brick and mortar boutique where you can hold the crystals, smell the candles, feel the activewear, and meet the brand in person. Until then, this store is our home, and every product in it has been chosen with the same intention that pressed the very first shirt in 2019.
We are not a big box store. We are not a marketplace. We are a curated collection of things we believe in, offered by a independently owned businesses who built something real from a dream — because that's what living your best life is all about.
Explore our whole catalog to understand why every product in this boutique has earned its place.