The process
From dried botanical to amber jar
Our botanicals are slowly infused in olive or avocado oil for 4 to 6 weeks, allowing time to draw out the character of each plant before blending into rich, skin-loving salves.
5 steps, four to six weeks apart
How a jar is made, step by step
Selecting and drying
Botanicals arrive whole and are dried fully before they go anywhere near oil. Any moisture left in a leaf or flower will shorten the life of the finished oil, so this unglamorous step decides whether the next six weeks are worth taking.
Resins such as frankincense and myrrh are broken down by hand into small pieces so the oil can work into them.
The long infusion
The dried botanicals are submerged in olive oil or avocado oil and sealed in glass. The jars go into a cool, dark cupboard and stay there for four to six weeks. They are turned by hand every few days.
We do not use heat to speed this up. A warm infusion is finished in hours and tastes of the shortcut: thinner in colour and flatter in aroma. The slow version simply cannot be replicated on a schedule.
Straining and settling
When the infusion is ready, the oil is poured through cloth and pressed gently, then left to settle so any fine sediment falls out. What remains is deeply coloured and carries the character of the plant clearly.
This is the point at which a batch is judged. If an oil is not right, it does not become a salve.
Blending and pouring
Infused oils are warmed together with wax and vitamin E until just fluid, blended to the texture we want, and poured into brown glass jars while still liquid. They set as they cool, which is why the surface of a fresh jar is perfectly smooth.
Each jar is capped once set, labelled with its batch mark by hand, and set aside to rest before it ships.
Why the wait shows
A slow-infused oil is darker, richer in aroma, and noticeably more luxurious in texture than the same oil rushed with heat. It is the difference you notice in the first application: the balm melts against fingertips rather than sitting on them, and skin is left feeling supple, moisturized, and cared for.
What it becomes
Weeks of patience, two ounces at a time
Each salve on the shelf came through every step above, in the quantity that one infusion allowed.