Green Beauty is Dead - Long Live Herbalist Skincare

I was reading a piece by another skincare maker, Laurel, who is based in the US. I have always felt a great affinity for her work, it is very much like my own but on a much, much bigger scale. Where we have stayed deliberately small so we can grow most of our own key ingredients and wild harvest with immense care some others, Laurel partners farms all around her state - I'm not sure of the exact arrangements she makes, but I imagine these are contracted growers who produce what she needs in the volumes she requires. It is a good way of scaling, if the contract growers are well looked after, it maintains the integrity of the business.  In comparison for our partner farm, for a few extras, we have Sue up the road growing Sage and a few other herbs for us in her little polycrub!

Laurel describes her company as Herbalist Skincare which I like a lot. In recent years I've written a lot about the hijacking of green beauty by big pharma, the gradual slide into meaningless drivel, the social media lifestyle-content-led images that bear no relationship to the product. The literal hijacking of the language of green beauty which is repurposed into greenwashing on an epic scale. This has led to new equally hollow category descriptions - clean beauty and now plant-based beauty.

For me, this has led to a loss of kindred spirits, the feeling that those with integrity in the world of skincare are an ever diminishing group, many having been forced out by a changing market that rewards the bigger players who have benefitted from the bamboozling of the general public with their pseudo green rhetoric.

So reading that description by Laurel made me so joyful because the simple term 'Herbalist Skincare' gives reference to something that big pharma can't touch, that greenwashing can't reach because skincare based on ancient methods and therapeutic plant knowledge can't be reproduced in a careless way. It requires an immense amount of knowledge, skill, time and the use of plants in a gentle considered way to get the very best results. It is therapeutic and supportive in intention, ingredient, method and making.

Most skincare brands still don't understand that it is the whole plant that yields the benefit, using only the 'actives' removes the ability of the plant to balance and regulate. In our work we draw on the knowledge that has passed down through the generations, it is ancient and incredibly effective but more than that it is healing and vital. That's why our products whether they be skincare, teas, tinctures or even Wild Eve make you feel so different. They act on every part of the body and mind through texture, scent or taste. They are complete.

Modern products, far from being the leaders are constantly catching up to the knowledge that traditional apothecarys, herbalists, wise women and plant workers have known for generations. 2000 years ago Galen made a cream from Rose Water, Beeswax and Olive oil - those 3 ingredients are incredible for the skin. It needed to be used promptly because there's no preservative but that cream in one form or another was used for centuries. Simple, but with the right quality of ingredients it is a powerful blend. 

Compare that with a typical modern face cream, L'Oreal Reviatalift Day Cream contains : Aqua/Water, Cyclohexasiloxane, Glycerin, Paraffinum Liquidum/Mineral Oil, Myristyl Myristate, Butyrospermum Parkii Butter/Shea Butter, Stearic Acid, Palmitic Acid, PEG-100 Stearate, Cera Alba / Beeswax, Glyceryl Stearate, PEG-20 Stearate, Stearyl Alcohol, Glycine Soja Protein/Soybean Protein, Triethanolamine, Isohexadecane, Salicyloyl Phytosphingosine, Drometrizole Trisiloxane, Phenyl Ethyl Alcohol, Disodium EDTA, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Acetyl Trifluoromethylphenyl Valylglycine, Faex Extract/Yeast Extract, Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate, Polysorbate 80, Acrylamide/Sodium Acryloyldimethyltaurate Copolymer, Acrylonitrile/Methyl Methacrylate/Vinylidene Chloride Copolymer, Cetyl Alcohol, Retinyl Palmitate, Methylparaben, Sodium Dehydroacetate, Chlorhexidine Digluconate, Chlorphenesin, Ethylparaben, Linalool, Geraniol, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Amyl Cinnamal, Limonene, Citronellol, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Hexyl Cinnamal, Benzyl Alcohol, Benzyl Benzoate, Benzyl Salicylate, Parfum/Fragrance, Phenoxyethanol

In their own words, they claim that L'Oreal's cream is "... enriched with Advanced Pro-Retinol for visible anti-wrinkle action and Fibrelastyl known for its extra-firming which helps to fight the signs of ageing and gives you younger and smoother looking skin." (AGH!)

Let's break down Galen's Cream and assume that he had access to fresh, good quality ingredients. Rose Water is a distillate made in exactly the same way that I distil our Roses in Harris, it's actually exactly the same style of Still used at the time of Galen, he would recognise it. A really good Rose Hydrosol soothes redness, it is anti-inflammatory, it is anti-bacterial so it protects from breakouts and it repairs the skin's barrier. It is a humectant so it draws moisture to the skin and it is hydrating so it helps to make it plumper. It contains B vitamins, polysaccharides, lipids, Vitamin E and Palmitic acid which locks moisture into the skin by preventing trans epidermal water loss. It also strengthens connective tissue leaving the skin firm. It is cooling but it also stimulates the movement through the lymphatic system so it helps to release and clear the skin, which is especially good for Rosacea. Rose hydrosol also has an effect on our HPA axis helping to reduce chronic stress. It is an incredible ingredient but we overlook it because it's so familiar and because commercially produced Rose Water is a  badly made by -product whereas what we make in Harris is the product and beautifully made.

Olive oil is the base of Galen's creams and all of ours too, it has to be fresh (it is a fruit oil) and minimally processed and unfiltered. We source ours in the Peloponnese from a small group of farmers, Galen sourced his just across the Aegean  - it is full of peppery polyphenols which protect against sun damage and repair the skin barrier, help to preserve and stimulate collagen and elastin production maintaining skin structure, it neutralises free radicals and reduces inflammation. Good, fresh Olive oil is a powerhouse of an ingredient.

Beeswax is amazing, we put it in all our balms because it forms a healing protective barrier for the skin maintaining hydration and offering protection from environmental skin stressors. It's naturally anti-inflammatory and the vitamin A it contains helps to support skin regeneration. It's also a brilliant emollient so it softens the skin beautifully.

Comparing the two, Galen versus L'Oreal, there's no competition in terms of efficacy and gentleness. The ingredients in Galen's cream seem simple but what they offer in combination is really fantastic. Environmentally the 3 ingredients are low tech to produce and have such a tiny environmental impact. For your wellbeing, there's nothing potentially toxic, nothing artificial, nothing harsh but at the same time it is a wonderfully powerful product.

There is a danger that in looking for the magic bullet of skincare that we fail to see the benefit of what is literally growing in front of us. The familiar is dismissed in favour of the exotic, the more ingredients the better, the higher the tech the better it must be. No! This is a fiction. 

Our products draw on the knowledge of herbalists and homeopaths going back thousands of years. What looks simple shouldn't be confused for ineffective. Far from it, the formulations we make are both traditional and innovative. We bring together plants and low tech production methods that create incredibly vital, high performing products. 

So from now on, I'm going to ditch the hashtags #green beauty, #clean beauty, #plant based skincare because they are all so corrupted and instead own what I do #herbalistskincare for people and planet.