Skincare From the Supermarket

This is a small batch of dried blackberries infusing. I’ve been working with different dried fruits (without additives) to see how they behave in different types of infusions. It’s not only interesting, but educational and inspirational work. The ‘leftovers’ even get used for different experimental uses (think exfoliants and the likes).

Most of these ingredients are sourced from my local supermarket or health food stores. This has more or less transformed my ‘normal’ grocery shopping into an ongoing expedition for new ingredients to try.

There is no such thing as just popping out to pick up something for dinner any more (much to the consternation of my husband when he accompanies me). Luckily, he enjoys the fruits of my labor (pun entirely intended).

Glycerite Season is Here

That title is a bit misleading. In my book, glycerite season is pretty much year round, but when the warmer seasons approach, there is definitely a bigger selection of fresh materials to work with.

Pictured is a batch of lavender glycerite from last year. Just looking at this color makes me all excited about the coming lavender harvest.

Why?

Because my lovely friend who grows organic everything gifted me with a bucketful of fresh lavender last year, and she has promised me a fresh batch this year.

If you’re curious about making your own glycerites, I’ve written a book about it that you can get right here.

Quality for Quality

Excellence can be achieved with few simple ingredients, but there’s a catch. The few simple ingredients have to be prime quality.

Knowing your ingredients is the first step.

What Calendula Adds to a Balm

Here’s another ‘wordification’ from my Instagram feed: Soothiness

Calendula Officinalis has an amazing natural built-in power of soothiness that it happily imparts when infused into an oil and is added to a balm.

It has demonstrated this many times to me over the years, but science is also starting to catch up and has an increasing amount of documentation of the many traditional medicinal uses of calendula.

Want to learn more about what calendula has to offer? I’ve written about it on the main blog:

Extracting the Medicinal Powers of Calendula

Calendula, the Healing Flower

Suffering From Tincturitis and Making Up Words

Above: the definition of Tincturitis: a condition I have ‘suffered’ from for quite a while and which continues to increase with no end in sight. (The pictured tincture is with fresh, wildcrafted cleavers).

My Instagram account has a few more posts with these ‘wordifications’.

Wordifications? That’s my term for making up words. This is another affliction I have had for years and something I have only relatively recently come to terms with. Making up words happens a lot while I am working (many botanical ingredients seem to want to chat and some can even be quite vocal about providing input and inspiration).

I have sometimes wondered if this kind of thing is more commonly found in people who speak more than one language. I will sometimes get ‘stuck’ between languages and suddenly a brand new term will present itself out of the blue.

If you are a word-maker-upper too, I’d love to hear what your thoughts are on the matter!

Find more wordification fun on my Instagram account.

A Quiet Cleanser

If you have been following me and my work for a while, you are probably already aware of my love of minimalism. My approach to almost every formula is to pare back as far as possible without sacrificing function.

Sometimes it takes more effort than one might imagine to create the perfect ‘less-is-more’ formula, but that’s what makes it such interesting work.

Above is an example of a very ‘quiet’ and simple cleanser that does an effective job without causing a fuss. Developed for sensitive skin, tested, and approved.