“He makes the grass to grow on mountains and green herb for the service of man." Psalm 146
In each of our products, I am trying to share the therapeutic power and exquisite fragrances of plants and herbs and all my passionate enthusiasm for their God-given gifts.
I am constantly amazed by their diversity and versatility. Their strength and intelligence. Their astonishing life-force.
Many plants have a phyto-chemistry that is perfectly adapted to provide our organism with a multitude of benefits.
Combined with our body's innate and incredible intelligence, they have the capacity to nourish and nurture, soothe and sustain, rejuvenate and restore us.
They move our emotions, delighting us with stunning, vibrant colors and sublime fragrances.
My path to clinical herbalism
Growing up in Paris, spending all my summers in the French countryside, is where my love for wildflowers and plants started.
I have many memories of my grandmother passing on to me her love for nature, our nightcap of fresh linden and lemon verbena infusion, chamomile, our nettle soup. Following her, collecting wild plants, drying them and bringing them back to Paris for later use.
My mother had a similar love for lavender! There was always a fragrant trail of lavender from the kitchen to the bathrooms and bedrooms. If I close my eyes I can still smell and taste her butter cookies, infused with lavender.
I lived in Provence for a year, amongst the stunning purple fields of lavender, visiting the world-famous perfumeries and meeting incredible people who also had a like mindedness towards nature. Using the gentlest herbs on my children, who were babies at the time and seeing so many positive outcomes.
It was there that my commitment towards wellness started to become a passion. My desire for a deeper understanding of how plants could enhance our health eventually led me to become a clinical herbalist.
I am truly blessed to have obtained a diploma from one of the best herbalist schools in the world, the David Winston Centre for Herbal Studies.
David Winston is an internationally respected lecturer, author, ethnobiologist, herbalist and a founder of the American Herbalists Guild.
The rigorous two-year program and one year of additional graduate studies draw on David’s incredible and unique understanding of Western, Eclectic, Chinese, Ayuverdic and Southeastern American herbal traditions.
His philosophy emphasizes that “Good herbalists treat people, not diseases”. This requires diagnostic skills facilitated through real-life case studies.
Especially important was the extensive materia medica, which is a deep understanding of hundreds of individual plants and their multiple therapeutic properties.
These are essential to treatments and invaluable in my quest to create synergistic, powerful formulas that are beneficial to our customers.
Why skin, why care?
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Hippocrates
While I do enjoy providing consultations by referral only, my first love is skincare and creating beautifully aromatic perfumed oils.
Quite literally, skincare is food for your skin. Each plant is essentially a complex set of bio-active chemical compounds, many of which our bodies are adapted to assimilate beneficially.
They can be absorbed through the skin, inhaled (for example as a fragrance) or orally (as food, supplements, tinctures etc).
We do tend to forget that our skin is the largest organ in our body. Recent estimates suggest we may be made of over 30 trillion cells of which our skin could be up to 16% or nearly 5 trillion!
It is thus vital to care for it with the most love.
Why organic and pure?
In today’s urbanized and industrialised world, supply chains and retail distribution networks create a great separation between nature and us.
Synthetic, man-made compounds in products purport to add value and extend shelf life.
Some studies suggest that women on average use 12 personal care products per day, exposing themselves to 168 chemical ingredients. Men use six, exposing themselves to 85.
It is a fact that many of these have been found to be toxic, harmful to our health, especially as they are also absorbed directly into the blood stream via our skin.
Clearly, a formulation that is completely free of these chemicals has a greater probability of delivering nature’s intended therapeutic gifts.
The core of our philosophy is to create a product that is as pure as possible, with absolutely no added chemicals or artificial ingredients.
To us, “Organic” is not just an adjective or regulatory designation. It is a pledge. A responsibility. A choice to maintain a mindset and methods that will always and only prioritise your well-being.
“Purity” defines our products and purpose. Our ethos and pathos.
We only use certified organic ingredients of the highest possible purity and quality, sourced from the most reputable suppliers around the world or wildcrafted personally from our own land.
We never use any man-made chemicals or artificial ingredients, even if that choice might diminish the shelf life of our products.
Why and where handcrafted?
We aspire to the highest quality, so all our products are handcrafted in small batches with love and pride.
This helps to assure the integrity of our organic ingredients and preparation process. All products are prepared with sensitivity to the optimal temperature range for each ingredient, minimizing any loss of therapeutic power.
Through the wonders of an online relationship, we can ensure that exquisite and pure food for the skin and delightful perfumed oils can travel directly from us to your doorstep as fresh as possible, within hours of creation.
With such an incredibly diverse universe of herbs, we are always learning and aspiring to improve. This is a constant process of theory and practice.
In that regard, nothing can exceed the joy of crafting our products and contact with the plants themselves.
I am blessed to work in a specially designed atelier, located in the magnificent countryside of the Catskill Mountain area in upstate New York, surrounded by the indigenous flowers and herbs of our region which are a rich treasury of inspiration and ingredients.
Immersed in sublime fragrances, I am constantly energized by my vocation to share nature’s gifts in all their purity and power.
The bigger picture
In closing, I would like to comment on three important issues.
Firstly, we are very sensitive to environmental trends and strongly believe we and our customers are making a positive contribution through support of organic suppliers from around the world and the preservation and cultivation of our local ecosystem.
Secondly, we are great admirers of huge advancements in modern medicine and the incredible contribution of our doctors, nurses, pharmacists and support staff to our medical system.
We are not advocates that our organic products are a substitute for necessary allopathic healthcare. We feel strongly that there can be symbiotic interaction between the two.
Ultimately, there are good, better and best products. Our philosophy is that organic, handcrafted and pure skincare is in the latter category.
Thirdly, the world of organic skincare and perfumes is dynamic and diverse. We encourage our customers to educate themselves in this area. They can enhance their long-term well-being through making informed choices.
We have provided some information that we hope you will find of value in the following pages.
We appreciate your trust and look forward to making a positive impact on your wellness.
Bien être BE WELL
Emmanuelle
Read more about plants and herbs here: About Plants.