In 2019 I moved to Harris and began exploring - I walked all over the island, from the sandy west to the rocky east looking for plants that grew in profusion, marking them on the map so I could find them again. This painstaking work is at the heart of what I do because it prevents the possibility of creating something that would require too much of any one plant. Especially on an island with such a fragile ecology, over-harvesting to feed growth is a disaster. It is critically important to factor growth into the initial product development and to work out what reasonable growth is and then stick to that.
I think perhaps having a real love of, and respect for plants helps to keep us on the right track. It's easy to think of them as just being an ingredient, as something that can be taken at will, irrespective of the effect on the wider environment both land and marine. I look at the way that wild garlic is plundered on the mainland and it makes me so cross. It affects the whole ecosystem of the woods.
Up here we are blessed with plentiful amounts of the plants that we use and where we have needed a little more, we have grown it on the croft or in the greenhouse, augmenting wild supplies.
Once I'd worked out what I had, I could begin to work out how to use it. This is the thrilling part, when products begin to come together, it always feels like going on a journey to reveal the story, to find the magic. There is nothing better than standing in front of a table full of plants and deciding which go together and why. Which therapeutics work harmoniously, which plants enhance the action of another. It is about building a profile to meet a need and then working out which process will yield the best results.
Some products feel instantly right, some need a lot of tinkering to get the texture and action really good. The Cleansing Mask was one of those beauties that just worked from the very beginning. I loved everything about it and still do.
I made the Cleansing Multi Mask as a product for skin prone to redness and rosacea, to soothe, support and improve skin tone, texture and to dial down redness. It is utterly beautiful in scent and texture. It glides onto the skin, light as a feather and it smells divine. It can be used as a Mask or a Cleanser.
To make it I explored land and sea realising that combining both would create a really powerfully good product. I also thought about our other activities and especially my obsession with coffee roasting because caffeine, with its vasoconstricting properties is really good at calming redness. I chose beans that had an extra long fermentation in the preparation to give it extra vitality and then Stevie roasted it lightly so it retained as much of its therapeutics as possible. The joy of allowing different parts of what we do feed into each other is one of the very best aspects of our work.
I didn't want it to dry on the skin, I wanted it to work with the skin gently rather than dessicate it so I made it creamy, added in Propolis from the hives of some rather lovely Highland honey bees. Propolis is an amazing ingredient, it's produced by honey bees to fill the cracks in the hives and to kill pathogens, it is strongly anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory . The bees make it from beeswax and resins collected from tree buds and flowers, essential oils and pollen. It's ideal for skin that is red and reactive offering protection from infection and a wonderfully calming action.
And then we added the Sea. I'm not quite sure what took me to the sea but it felt so right for this product. I didn't want seaweed, I wanted sea water with all its minerals. Where we live on Harris, the open sea here is amazing, we see dolphins and whales, endless sea birds and the shore line is scattered with sparkling pebbles and sea shells. For every batch of the Cleansing Mask, Caroline ventures out to collect the sea water, summer and winter. Then we sterilise it and use it immediately. Every time I use the Mask I think of the energy of the sea here, that incredible turquoise colour captured in our little pots.
I also added in the first flush of our Blackcurrant leaves for their incredible skin brightening effects. In late March the Blackcurrant leaves start to appear on our bushes in the greenhouse and if you brush past them the scent is so evocative, warm, fruity and earthy.
Our most recent product is the Wild Gorse & Pollen Exfoliating Grains. I made this because some of our customers asked for something with a little scrub to add to the Multi Mask for those times when your skin needs a little extra polish. The Oats soothe, the Gorse improves skin texture and the Pollen has a multitude of benefits and provides that slightly exfoliating texture.
Together they are the Surf & Turf of our Harris Edition - the one enhancing the action of the other. Simply sprinkle a little of the Grains onto a spoonful of the Mask and apply. You can very gently massage it into the skin or simply rely on the action of removing it to give your skin a little exfoliation.
For the whole of April, for every Cleansing Multi Mask you buy we'll pop in a free full size Wild Gorse & Pollen Exfoliating Grains. No need for a code, we'll spot your order and look forward to hearing how you get on.