What I Make It From

Personal Philosophy:  We live in a beautiful world that has been contaminated in many ways.  From the genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that are now in most commercial foods, to the parabens we shampoo into our scalp and slather on our bodies, we are adding avoidable daily doses of carcinogenic contaminates to our bodies that are regularly exposed to carcinogens we have little or no control over in our air, water, and soil. 

It can be upsetting.  So I’ve decided to do my personal best to keep my body and environment as healthy as possible with the resources at my disposal.  I keep an organic kitchen, have switched to “green” cleaning products, and look for “paraben free” labels on my shampoos and soaps.

There are good organic and wild crafted skin care products on the market; I’ve tried many of them.  Two aspects of my life came together inspiring me to create my own skin care products:  Studying with local herbalist Darcy Williamson, and starting a bee colony with friends.  I was intrigued with the idea of creating skin care products, each containing a local healing herb and a honeybee commodity.  Research, reading, and experimentation yielded the formulations I provide today and I look forward to coming up with new creations! 

A Brief Note on Packaging:  Striving to keep things as simple and clean as possible, I use clear glass containers that are restful to look at, easy to recycle, and gentler on our landfills if they don’t make it to recycling.  If it is convenient to return spent containers to me, I will happily give a .50 cent refund on each returned jar.

Honeybee Products:

Beeswax:  Unbleached beeswax is the emulsifier I use in my creams and lip balms.  I like the slight golden color and honey scent it lends to my products.  Beeswax is often used in cosmetics because it is naturally emollient, soothing, and softening thereby helping your skin retain moisture.  Beeswax also contains vitamin A, which is essential to human cell development.  As a “biologically active” ingredient, beeswax retains its anti-bacterial properties and is a natural antiseptic.

Honey:  Known for its healing powers for centuries, honey was used as late as World War II as an antibacterial/antimicrobial agent.  Honey contains an enzyme that produces hydrogen peroxide – the main reason for its antibacterial properties.  Honey is hygroscopic, which means that when it is exposed to the air, it absorbs moisture from the air thereby helping your skin stay hydrated and preventing scarring.  Honey’s antioxidant properties help eliminate free radicals and destructive chemical agents in the body making it a good anti-cancer food, and a good sunscreen.  It is being used more frequently in sunscreen products now.  I use it in my lip balms!

Propolis:  Propolis is dark brown and granular in structure.  Honeybees produce it as a barrier to hive invaders and also use it to coat damaging agents within the hive.  Propolis is sometimes referred to as “nature’s penicillin” as it is antibiotic, antifungal, antiviral, and antioxidizing.  It’s a power house of protection with a clove-like, earthy scent that I use in my lip balms.  Used alongside honey, propolis makes a great sunscreen and lip protector!

Royal Jelly:  Ahhhh…  royal jelly!  Even the name is enticing.  This wondrous substance is magically created by honeybees for a single purpose:  feeding to one selected larva with the intent of creating a new Queen.  Royal jelly is a cell regenerator that acts to enhance longevity and our ability to handle stress.  In skin products, it is an anti-wrinkling agent that also improves elasticity, revitalizing and firming sensitive areas around the eye, mouth, and neck.  I use it in my night cream and find it works well on cracked dry cuticles too.

The Oils:

Coconut Oil:  Used in all my creams, coconut oil is mild and good for inflamed, irritated, and sensitive skin.  Coconut oil has a low melting point which helps creams and lotions made with it absorb more rapidly and completely into the skin.

Sunflower Oil:  High in vitamins A (antioxidant), D (reduces inflammation), and E (antioxidant good for healing bruises and scars), lecithin (protects cells from oxidation and helps create a protective shield), and oleic acid (an omega-9 fatty acid commonly used to replace animal fats), sunflower oil is especially good for dry, weathered, and damaged skin.  Orange-gold in color with a matching bright scent, I use it in Gardener’s Healing Hand Cream along with Lomatium dissectum, described in the “Herb” section.  This cream works well on chapped skin, skin cracks, sunburn, razor burn, wind burn, and rashes (eczema, psoriasis).  Outdoor enthusiasts of every kind will enjoy its benefits!  Also works well for crafters and carpenters – anyone who works with drying materials and could use a little extra help on their hands and feet.

Grapeseed Oil:  Hypoallergenic and excellent for sensitive skin.  Grapeseed oil makes a good base for skin that does not absorb oil well.  It won’t leave a greasy feeling on your skin.  Pale green in color and lightly scented, I use it in my Everyday Hand Cream along with Elderflower for a cream good enough to use from head to toe.  I keep a big jar by my shower and use it after towel drying for soft, smooth skin.

Olive Oil:  My favorite cooking oil because of its stability in high heat and high nutritive value, olive oil is excellent in creams for the same reasons.  Deep golden greenish brown in color with a deep olive scent to match, this oil is a rich conditioner as well.  I use it in my night cream thereby adding conditioning to the anti-aging properties of royal jelly.

Sweet Almond Oil:  Well known for its ability to soften, sooth, and recondition skin, I add this rich emollient to my night cream.  Light gold in color with the barest of scents, it is a complimentary enhancement to the already lush combination of olive oil, royal jelly, and hound’s tongue.

The Herbs:

Taken in tincture form, Lomatium is good for treating colds, flu, and pneumonia.  It has been known to elevate white cell counts in critically ill people. Used in salves, Lomatium makes a fragrant ointment for softening skin and disinfecting cuts and wounds.  I couldn’t wait to use this herb in a cream.  Gardener’s Healing Hand Cream was my first product and remains my favorite.  As an avid outdoors person, I frequently feel the need for an extra skin-healing boost.  From scratched legs to sunburn, I don’t hesitate to use it everywhere and often.  

In appearance, Lomatium dissectum has a feathery, parsley-like top that can get up to four feet tall.  Growing in rocky, sunny, habitats, Lomatium springs from a deep tap root gnarled and shiny in appearance.  This lovely root weeps a fragrant yellow resin when cut or nicked, so I try to harvest it with care.  It is this same resin that makes such a luxurious cream!  

Elderflower:  Elderflower has long been used in cosmetics by Europeans - known purveyors of excellent skin products - for its skin softening and blemish (freckles, sunspots, pimples) fading capabilities.  Given its prevalence in central Idaho and outstanding qualities, it made sense for me to incorporate it into one of my creams.  

Elderflower is used in my Everyday Hand Cream along with grapeseed oil.  The combination of hypoallergenic oil with a blemish fading herb makes this cream a natural for sensitive skin.  I use it as its name suggests:  Everyday.     

Elderflower may be seen waving its long slender branches (up to twelve or fifteen feet!) along roadsides and in meadows.  The off-white flowers grow in elongated, clustered sprays that remind me of ocean foam.  These tiny, fragrant and star-shaped flowers turn into deep purple juicy seeds during the growing season.  I have made jelly from these fruits and friends have made syrup.  It’s quite good!  

Hound’s Tongue:  So called because of the leaf’s shape, softness and thickness, Hound’s tongue is an amazing conditioner and cell regenerator and is also well known for its healing powers.  It has been said that English race horses that break their legs are treated with poultices of Hound’s tongue and return to racing!  Imagine what it will do for lines around our eyes, mouths and neck.  

Combined with olive oil, almond oil, and royal jelly, this night cream is a winner.  I like to use it on rough cuticles as well.  

A member of the Borage family, Hound’s tongue likes to grow in well-drained soils in full sun.  It is a soft, hairy plant that can get up to three feet tall and has lovely reddish-purple blooms in summer.  I use the root and some of the leaves, so harvesting is best for me in early spring and fall when all the “good stuff” is down in the root.  

Sage:  I love the smell of sage after a rainstorm and it is intoxicating when the fragrance fills my car … emanating from the five gallon buckets full I’ve gathered on the sage flats.  Rocky Mountain Native American tribes use sage in spiritual healing practices.  Essence of sage is said to assist a person in making major life transitions by enabling one to release old, no longer needed patterns and values.  

As a healing herb, sage is antiseptic and antifungal, making it excellent for healing skin cracks, rashes, and soothing dry skin.  These same properties allow me to avoid using preservatives in my creams by using sage infused oils or sage hydrosol in my formulations.  

Sage loves to grow in high elevation desert climates.  It is most often a small, cute, roundish silvery-leafed shrub but can also get quite tall – up to seven feet!  A tough plant with an extensive root system that behaves almost like an evergreen, I can harvest the leaves year around.  

Cottonwood Bud:  Cottonwood buds are beautiful in appearance and in fragrance.  These chartreuse and burgundy colored, long pointed buds are so compelling in their fragrance that they have been used in commercial soaps and perfumes. 

Cottonwood trees like to grow along or near a water source.  They have smooth, deltoid, dark green leaves that are lighter on the underside which gives the tree a pretty, fluttering look during summer breezes.  Cottonwood buds form in early winter and may be harvested until spring making for chilly but rewarding work.  

Rose:  “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” – or would it?  I’m not so sure.  The scent of a rose is soothing and calming and is used in aromatherapy for people who are grieving or need an emotional boost. Not only is the rose a good emotional healer, it yields physical benefits as well.  

The rose is naturally cleansing and gently astringent while also hydrating.  It is a well known skin smoother and sooths inflamed skin.  Adding rose hydrosol to alcohol-free witch hazel makes my Hydrating Rose Toner/body spray a sweet choice for all skin types.   

Wild rose may be seen showing off its lovely pale to bright pink frilly flowers along many central Idaho roadsides, lining stream banks, and at the edges of meadows.  The wild roses’ small and single layer petal construction make it challenging to collect and is best accomplished before the heat of the day is at its zenith.  

Witch Hazel:  Witch hazel is a yellow flowering tree.  The clear, gently astringent liquid “Witch hazel” is distilled from the leaves, twigs and bark of the tree.  Its uses are many – it eases the pain of sunburn, windburn, insect bites, poison ivy, blisters, and sore and sprained muscles. As a cleanser, it is great for quick skin freshening, removing make-up, or using in your nightly cleansing routine after washing your face to gently tighten pores.  I blend it with hydrosols to make gently cleansing toners and refreshing body sprays.  

Borax:  Before I started my business, I thought of borax as a cleaning agent made of some kind of white mystery powder.  I was surprised to learn that borax has many uses and is a naturally occurring mineral created by the repeated evaporation of seasonal lakes.  Large deposits are found in California , the American southwest, Chile , and Tibet .  In the cosmetic industry, borax is the best emulsifier for use in beeswax based products and is also a preservative. It is not necessary to use it as creams and lotions will eventually emulsify without it.  I found, however, that adding a tiny bit of borax greatly increased the absorption rate of my creams.