It’s ‘peak foraging’ time for skincare ingredients. Our hedgerows are offering up new gifts every day. Here’s my top ten list of things to look out for right now in our fields and hedgerows.
And, if you have garden, perhaps you have some of my top ten garden herbs to gather in July.
Marshmallow
This is the cheering marshmallow plant. Its gelataneous roots were originally used to make marshmallow sweets. Marshmallow is a fantastic skin plant: softening, rejuvenating and good for sensitive skin.
There’s a recipe below for a carrot and marshmallow facemask – dare you to try it!
Marshmallow also features twice in Field Fresh Skincare Marshmallow Dream Cream – the leaves are used in the infusion and the root macerated to make Marshmallow root oil – doubly softening.
Lime flower
The lime tree (Tilia cordata) grows all over Europe. Relatively inconspicuous the rest of the year, despite its size, limes – otherwise known as lindens – come into their own in July when their flowers open, sweet fragrance fills the air and bees buzz in among their branches.
The honey made from lime pollen is especially good, do try some if you get a chance. You may be surprised to find it has a slightly minty flavour, absolutely delicious.
A simple way to try tasting limeflower is by steeping a few sprigs in boiling water to make a tea. In France this is a traditional bedtime drink, enjoyed from childhood onward. It’s probable that the calming effects of limeflower tea have helped the health of French hearts more than the famed red wine.
The season for limeflowers is just a few short weeks, so do head out and find your local trees while you can. How to gather: Collect the flowers and the bracts, they’re best when just open and the stamens are full of pollen. Here’s a video showing you how:
Limeflower is skin-conditioning, helping soothe skin and smooth out tiny wrinkles. It also fades freckles and improves circulation
FACE THE DAY CREAM starts with a lavender and limeflower infusion
An infusion of lavender and limeflower is the starting point for making Face the Day Cream. It’s a heavenly combination – sweet, calming and yet zingy enough to wake you up and keep you alert. Those magical moments of summer can inspire you each morning.
Face the Day Cream contains camelina, rapeseed, borage and carrot seed oils. It’s the carrot that gives it a glorious golden colour and revitalises skin, improving complexion and tone.
The essential oils in Face the Day Cream will set you up for the day:
– lavender is emotionally harmonising and stabilising
– lemon is fresh, sweet and cleansing and helps focus concentration
– frankincense reduces anxiety and helps slow breathing for a calm start.
This month you can get Face the Day cream for just £9.50 – that’s half price – by buying through the website. What better way to spend ten minutes than making your own skincare from fresh ingredients? The pot of cream you make will last for about three months.
Just add the Code: limeflower
DAISY – GIVE US YOUR ANSWER, DO
When you’re out and about, don’t overlook the much-trodden-upon daisy. It opens its flowers when the sun shines.
In Roman times army surgeons organized slaves to collect daisies. The juice was extracted to soak bandages for treating sword and spear wounds. Daisy’s charming innocence may make your heart sing, but it can also ease the pain of bruises, swellings and burns.
You can add the leaves to your bath for general pain relief, or put some direct onto tired muscles. It’s sometimes called ‘poor man’s arnica’.
THANK YOU FOR VOTING
THANK YOU so much to all of you who’ve voted for Field Fresh Skincare in the Janey Loves Awards. I’ve been invited to attend the ceremony on 10th July so will bring news of it soon.
Here’s the write up we gave to our star product:
Lovers of Marshmallow Dream Cream claim it gives the best night’s sleep ever. Maybe that’s because of the heavenly combination of frankincense, lavender and bergamot essential oils to calm and de-stress; maybe it’s because they know the plant oils, including softening marshmallow root, and hyaluronic acid are effortlessly enhancing their skin as they sleep; or maybe it’s because they can SLEEP EASY knowing exactly what they’ve put on their skin – because THEY MADE IT, from all natural ingredients.
Field Fresh Skincare’s ‘Marshmallow Dream Cream’ One Pot Kit contains everything you need to make a single pot of cream in just ten minutes (no waste, no fuss). All ingredients – from the hand-stitched pocket of herbs to the heart of beeswax – have been carefully measured and prepared so all you have to do is heat and stir. Skincare mastery in minutes – and the aromas are fantastic. Of course the kit includes the pot and a label you can personalise for a finished product to be proud of.
Field Fresh Skincare focuses on ingredients from the hedgerows, gardens and fields around us, connecting us with our immediate environment: the world we, and our skin, have affinity with. We believe in the freshest skincare, that’s why we make it easy for you to Blend It Yourself quickly and simply. Marshmallow Dream Cream is one of a range of eight different Blend It Yourself skincare kits currently available from Field Fresh Skincare.
MAKE YOUR OWN SKINCARE
Face masks are the most searched for skincare term on Google at present – they’re a great pick me up. Here’s one to make fresh. The carrot and its vitamin A will clear away blemishes; the marshmallow will soothe.
CARROT AND MARSHMALLOW FACE MASK
Grate one large carrot and pound two marshmallow leaves. Mix these together with a beaten egg yolk and just enough double cream to make a firm slush.
Use your fingers to apply to your face, lie back and relax for 10 to 15 minutes. Wash off with warm water, pat dry and then follow by moisturising – Face the Day Cream with its carrot oil is ideal.
‘For though the chamomile,
the more it is trodden on, the faster it grows,
yet youth, the more it is wasted, the sooner it wears’
Henry IV, Part I, Act II, Scene 4
