Botanicals to fall in love with

I fell in love with botanical oils quite early on in my aromatherapy journey.

Their composition is completely different to essential oils, which are not so much oils as more complex chemical compounds produced naturally by the plant, tree or flower.

Botanical oils are their more stable, less volatile friends and they make amazing bases for facial oils and serums, body oils, bath products - the list goes on.

Curious by nature, my first question is usually why does something work, followed closely by the question of how does it work. If I’m not persuaded of these two, or can’t see the benefit, I never buy into it. However, I was intrigued at that early stage and once I started learning about the structure of our skin, its real purpose and how it maintains itself, my innate curiosity got the better of me.

I began to delve deeper into the world of botanical ingredients to find out my why and how, and studied the differing chemical composition of various oils, butters and actives, how they interact with our skin, why they are so effective and what that could mean for its condition.

I quickly became hooked.

Because discovering how their chemical makeup so closely matches what our actual skin produces, opened my eyes to their value for us.

I dived deep into the nutrients, vitamins and essential fatty acids that are naturally produced in botanical oils and which plants and fruits contained them, and that when we add them to skins that are often depleted or imbalanced in those nutrients, we can use them to keep skin healthy.

I also learned that our body responds so well to these botanical nutrients as those same compounds are present in our skin too.

As an aromatherapist, this resonated with me so much. The plant kingdom not only provides nutritious, healing, nurturing goodness that our skin and physical body’s recognise, it also provides us with the most beautiful therapeutic scents that our minds and body’s respond to and resonate with too.

I’m not denying that we humans have been able to create some amazing synthetic constituents, to compose some beautiful fragrances from and formulate effective skincare with (although often not always as much as the marketing hype tells us). But for me there is also no denying that our noses, our skin, our body and our minds respond so much better to the natural world.

Which I guess, when we stop to really think about it, makes complete sense. Although we may have become less so over the last few centuries, humans have an innate need to connect with nature and a strong emotional and physical desire to be in it.  We do after all share a certain percentage of our DNA with plant life - so why would we not respond to it. How could we not respond to it!

So, take time to think the next time you come across a ripe avocado, full of vitamin E, a Calendula flower blooming with healing goodness in the sun, or a rosehip sitting on a wild rose bush packed with essential fatty acids.

When you pluck the seeds from the white pith of a juicy pomegranate, containing the rare punicic acid, valued for its anti-inflammatory benefits, or nibble on a macadamia nut, rich in the palmitoleic acid the skin produces itself, but which diminishes with age, take a step back and marvel at what nature can provide us with.

Because it’s not only our physical body health and our mental wellbeing that can benefit from nature’s bounty, but also the nutritious value it can provide in caring for our skin - the largest organ in our body, more naturally throughout our life’s journey.