Where have all the flowers gone?

Those who know me also know that I fight for flowers to the point that I leave flowers unharvested for the bees to collect nectar from and cross pollinate.

That I campaign against the overuse of floral essential oils in skincare not only because it just seems so easy to just pour a few aromatic drops into a cheap carrier oil and voila there's natural skincare, or because essential oils are a one dimensional expression of the plant and way to concentrated and powerful for our skin (and body) to handle. But also because floral essential oils simply use a disproportional amount of flowers to satisfy the world's obsession with aromatics.

While I believe essential oils do have their very restrained place in skincare, I much prefer botanical extracts, especially the sun-infused kind I am hand making to sing in my composition.

Like essential oils, extracts can be made from all plant parts, roots, flowers, leaves, bark, seeds, pods etc, but I use only the tiniest fraction of botanical matter compared to the, say, 1,600,000 rose blossoms needed to make 1 litre of rose essential oil. 

Yes, there is an industry out there depending on this, but the alarming world wide decrease of bees, rain and soil fertility tells me we do not look after the earth well enough to sustain operations of such mind blowing enormity.

It doesn't seem like such a big deal to use a drop here and there, but, as with everything, the cumulative effect is what counts.

The essential oils I use in our compositions come from small sustainable distilleries, are made from plants that are looked after by people who share our ethos. They are dosed in minute quantities in my formulations to imbue my compositions with the ethereal spirit essence of the plant, and, together with the sun-infused extract of the same plant, to create a whole spectrum of flower, herb or tree.

Article by the Lepaar Journal