Why Botanicals? & FAQs

Why Botanicals?

Plants have played an integral part in healing for all of human history. For millennia, Indigenous peoples developed intimate relationships with plants and plant spirits, who then offered their teachings on how to tend to patterns of disharmony or unwellness within the community. Healing, in the traditional sense, refers to the harmony within the systems of the body, mind, heart/emotions, spirit, and relationships. This system of healing recognizes the dynamic interconnectedness of all things. 

Botanicals refers, in one sense, to harnessing the immense power of plants and plant matter including herbs, flowers, essential oils, essences, and extracts, to create natural, effective, sustainable, and holistic solutions for wellbeing. Plants hold both biologically healing properties that support the physical body, and emotional and spiritual profiles that can aid in our healing, nourishment, growth, transformation, and personal evolution. In this way, we can say that this work is truly holistic. 

In another sense, I also use botanicals here to refer to the ancestral practices and history of plant medicine work, passed down through generations with reverence and often in secret due to centuries of persecution. 

In this way, this work has a rich and deep history not centered around using the benefits of a plant as a means to an end, but rather shifting and decolonizing our perspective with plants to one of deep respect, admiration, and willingness to receive; to creating a relationship to these immensely powerful allies who have been taking care of us for centuries. 

For this reason, with our botanical formulas comes an invitation to open yourself to the nurturing spirit of the plants; to their messages and to their lessons, and thereby to their magic. Each formula is crafted in this way: Rooted in Nature, Radiant in Spirit, and is here to support you in body, mind, heart, and spirit. 

About Botanicals FAQ’s

We often get questions regarding the different types of formulations and how they differ from one another. Below, you can find more information on  the ways that plants are utilized in our formulas. 

What are Infusions?

Herbal infusions are a gentle and ancient way to unlock the medicinal properties of plants. By steeping plant matter like leaves, flowers, roots, and seeds in a menstruum for a directed amount of time. In herbalism, a menstruum is a liquid used to extract plant nutrients and chemical constituents from herbs. Herbs can seep in various menstruums including water, alcohol, glycerin, oils, or vinegars. 

All of our face oils, medicinal oils, and body scrubs contain medicinal herbal infused oils, made by seeping plant matter in organic oils and gently heating them for many hours, so that the medicinal properties are then transferred to the oil and the oil becomes medicinal. In addition, some of our products also contain plant matter itself, which has its own benefits as listed in each product page.  

How are Infusions different from Essential Oils?

The process by which essential oils are created generally differs from infusions. The most common method for extracting essential oils is steam distillation, which involves passing pressurized steam through a plant material in a still. The steam breaks down the plant and releases its aromatic compounds, which are then condensed and collected. Depending on the plant matter used and its natural volatile oil content, it can sometimes take a considerable amount of plant matter to make an essential oil. 

As an example, to make a rose infused oil, we generally use about two handfuls of roses, whereas to make a rose essential oil, it takes around 10,000 pounds of rose petals to produce just one pound of rose essential oil. Similarly, It takes nearly 8,000,000  jasmine blossoms, hand-picked on the day the flowers open, to produce just over 2 pounds of ssential oil. For tart-sweet lemon balm, one of the rarest essential oils, upward of 3 TONS of fresh leaves and flowering tops are distilled to make 1 pound of essential oil. Not surprisingly, rose, jasmine, and lemon balm are three of the most expensive (and most adulterated) essential oils on the market.

While essential oils can be very beneficial, as you can see, some are incredibly resource-intensive to produce. Additionally, some essential oils are created from endangered plant species, often obtained through illegal trade, and supporting this may lead to their extinction.

For these reasons, we only use a handful of essential oils, which are responsibly sourced, not endangered, and come from plants with higher oil volumes, requiring less plant matter, like eucalyptus, peppermint, lemon, and lavender. 

What About Flower Essences?

Flower Essences and formulas are one of the most sustainable, gentle, and powerful botanicals. Flower essences differ from other botanical remedies in that they are vibrational rather than biochemical remedies that work on mental, emotional, and spiritual imbalances and discord. 

They are gentle yet powerful energetic remedies that can teach us a lot about our inner landscape and support our healing journey through helping us arrive at balance. Essences made from flowers awaken dormant qualities of consciousness within us enabling us to live our lives with increased awareness, balance, understanding, and attunement to our greatest potential. 

 Because they do not contain plant matter, Flower remedies do not interfere with any medications and are safe for people of all ages, children, animals, and plants. These essences are created from flower infusions or decoctions in spring water, heated by the sun, and preserved in brandy. All our essences are sold in 1oz dosage amber bottles, and have a shelf-life of about 10 years. 

Flower essences can be taken as a single essence for support over a period of time, or for acute use. They can be taken orally, or topically at the pulse points. Several essences can be mixed to work together intentionally to support a particular issue or goal, as is the case in our Body & Room Mists. For deeper work, folx can order a flower essence consultation, where a practitioner can work with you to determine which essence or essence formula can be supportive for the issue you’d like to work on. In most cases, an essence will be taken for around 4-6 weeks, during which it is reported a shift in the emotional, spiritual, and circumstantial issue has transpired, which can lead to feeling better in one’s body. Some folx report freedom from addictive tendencies, more energy, better sleep, decreased anxiety levels, deeper levels of insight, self-awareness, forgiveness, and happiness.