Natural Plant Ingredients & Skincare Ethos — What's In It & What's Left Out

Flat lay of dried botanicals including chamomile flowers, oat and green leaves on a white background

The ethos

Short lists, honest sources

A lot of "natural" skincare is still full of synthetic emulsifiers, preservatives and fragrance compounds — they're just marketed around rather than declared. Our approach is different: every formula starts with the minimum number of ingredients needed to do the job, and we add nothing for appearance, foam, or shelf life beyond what's required for safety.

All our plant materials are sourced unrefined where possible, meaning they keep the fatty acids, vitamins and botanical compounds that refining strips out. Unrefined shea is yellow-cream and faintly nutty. Unrefined rosehip oil is orange. That's how you know it hasn't been through a bleaching process.

Every formula is 100% vegan. No beeswax, no lanolin, no carmine, no gelatin-derived glycerin. Where we need a wax, we use carnauba or candelilla. Where we need an emollient, we use plant butter or plant oil.

What's inside

The plants we use

Shea Butter

Pressed from the seed of the African shea tree. Rich in oleic and stearic acids, it softens and seals the outer layers of skin very effectively. Raw, unrefined shea keeps the triterpenes — plant compounds that reduce inflammation and help with rough, irritated skin. It's the backbone of our body butters and healing balm.

Jojoba Oil

Technically a liquid wax, not an oil. Its molecular structure is close to that of human sebum, which is why it absorbs well without leaving a greasy film. It's long-lasting, very stable, and non-comedogenic for most people. Good for all skin types, particularly around the eyes and on the lips.

Rosehip Oil

Cold-pressed from the seed of Rosa canina. High in linoleic acid (around 40%) and trans-retinoic acid precursors. The compound your skin converts into a form of vitamin A. Regular use helps with pigmentation, roughness and redness over several weeks. Our rosehip is unrefined and orange-coloured, a sign it hasn't been bleached or deodorised.

Oat (Colloidal Oatmeal)

Finely milled oats have been used on skin for a very long time. The beta-glucan compounds in oat form a light protective layer on the skin surface, reduce itching and calm inflammation. It's a key ingredient in our cleansing balm and the reason the formula is safe for very reactive and eczema-prone skin. The FDA classifies colloidal oatmeal as an approved skin-protectant active ingredient.

Calendula

The bright orange flowers of Calendula officinalis have a long history in botanical medicine. We use a calendula-infused sunflower oil. The flowers are slow-steeped in cold-pressed sunflower oil to extract the flavonoids and triterpenoids. The resulting oil is pale yellow and slightly herbal. It's anti-inflammatory and genuinely soothing for damaged or sensitive skin, and it forms the base of our daily moisturiser and healing balm.

Chamomile Extract

German chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) contains chamazulene and bisabolol, both of which reduce redness and calm irritated skin. The extract we use is water-based, so it can be incorporated into water-phase products like our daily moisturiser. It has a faint blue tinge when concentrated, which fades to clear in the finished formula. Good for skin that flushes easily or reacts to most products.

Coconut Oil

We use fractional coconut oil (the kind that stays liquid at room temperature) in the body range. It's lighter than raw coconut oil and absorbs more easily. Like all coconut oil, it's high in capric and caprylic acid, which have mild antimicrobial properties and help with dry, flaky skin. We don't use it in face products because it can be comedogenic for some people.

Carnauba Wax

Pressed from the leaves of a Brazilian palm tree. It's the hardest plant wax widely available, which makes it useful for lip salves and healing balms that need to stay solid in a pocket or handbag. 100% vegan — a direct replacement for beeswax in our formulas. It takes a higher melting point than beeswax, so we blend it carefully with softer butters to get the right texture.

Natural skincare ingredients including green herbs, oil vials and white botanicals on a clean surface

What's left out

Things you won't find on our labels

As important as what we include is what we leave out. These are the ingredients we don't use and why.

Parabens
Synthetic fragrance
Mineral oil
PEGs
SLS / SLES
Formaldehyde releasers
Silicones
Beeswax
Lanolin
Artificial colour

Parabens are preservatives. We use small batch sizes and natural alternatives so products don't need them. Synthetic fragrance is one of the most common triggers for sensitive skin reactions, and a single fragrance compound can contain dozens of undisclosed chemicals. Our products are either unfragranced or use light botanical infusions. Mineral oil and silicones are occlusive petroleum derivatives that sit on the skin surface rather than interacting with it. They're not harmful, but they're not plant-based and they add no active benefit. SLS and SLES are foaming agents that disrupt the skin barrier — unsuitable for anyone with sensitive or dry skin.

Vegan and cruelty-free

Every product in the range is 100% vegan. No animal-derived ingredients, no by-products. Where a conventional formula would use beeswax or lanolin, we substitute plant waxes. Where most cleansers use glycerin from animal fat, ours comes from vegetable oil processing.

None of our products or ingredients are tested on animals. We don't sell into markets that legally require animal testing. Our supply chain uses ingredient suppliers who observe the same standard.

Cruelty-free means different things to different certification bodies — some allow third-party animal testing, some don't. Our standard is simple: no animal testing at any stage, for any ingredient or any finished product, anywhere in the supply chain. If a certification body were to require testing we wouldn't accept, we wouldn't seek that certification.

Packaging

We use glass jars, metal tins and paper wherever the formula allows. The only plastic in the range is the dropper inserts in our face oil bottles — glass droppers don't seal reliably enough to prevent oxidation in an oil with a high linoleic acid content. Everything else is recyclable or reusable. We don't add tissue paper, plastic film or any other filler to orders.

A note on "natural"

The word natural has no legal definition in UK cosmetics law. It can be applied to a product that contains 95% synthetic ingredients if the manufacturer chooses. We use it to mean: every ingredient comes from a plant or mineral source, is minimally processed, and is identifiable on the label with its INCI name so you can look it up independently. We don't claim it means "safe for everyone" — plant-based doesn't equal hypoallergenic. Rosehip is not suitable for everyone. Shea is a tree nut derivative. We list ingredients fully so you can make your own assessment.

What's in it, and why.