Gone are the days when organic meant sticky creams that did not smell great and left a film on your skin. The aim of organic products these days is to treat you with a luxurious offering that nourishes the skin and in some cases uplifts the soul with amazing aromatherapeutic scents.
The spark of Barefoot Botanicals started twenty years ago at the school gates. Homeopath Hilery Dorrian created a fabulous headlice treatment with a bottle of vodka as the base. Her partner Jonathan Stallick who she met at homeopathic college says "some of the finest ideas come out of a bottle of vodka!"
The kitchen table industry grew and grew… "We progressed from nit tinctures in jam jars to selling a core range of 100% natural therapeutic cosmetics," says Hilery.
The Barefoot couple who took their name from the barefoot doctors who used to roam China as folk healers, have always focused on the therapeutic use of products. Creating beautiful smelling products that actually heal with the restorative power of plants.
"Our products are hard-working. A lot of natural product brands are very simple, but we want to use cutting-edge therapeutic ingredients - co-enzyme Q10, MSM, argan oil and vitamins," says Jonathan. It's the evolution of skincare - superfoods for your skin.
Barefoot Botanical Ingredients
They source ingredients from around the globe. Rose Mosqueta oil is the foundation stone of their amazing, anti-ageing Rosa Fina range. Rose Mosqueta oil comes from rosehips growing in the cool atmosphere of the Chilean Andes. This oil is collagen-boosting and is high in essential fatty acids vital for the health of cell membranes and the skin's barrier function. Rose Mosqueta oil has been used traditionally for scarring as it is a rich, natural source of tretinoin, a form of vitamin A known to stimulate collagen, rebuild skin tissue, reduce wrinkles and improve clarity of sun-damaged skin.
So it's not just valuable for anti-ageing, but has been proven with surgical scarring. Trials have been held showing reduced scarring in women who have had masectomies. After three months the colour and size of the scar clearly diminished. In fact, some plastic surgeons in London send their patients off to buy Rosa Fina Secret Essence face oil as it has the highest concentration of Rose Mosqueta oil.
For me, the Secret Essence face oil goes deeper than a beauty treatment. I really find that when I apply the oil to my skin it lifts my spirits. It smells amazing and it is like I am making an intention to honour and look after myself.
Naturally I see the results on my face, around my eyes etc, but the affect it has on my mood is equally as valuable. The Divine Aura spritz has the same impact. When you are out and about, feeling tired or stressed, it's an amazing pick-me-up. As I have done a lot of traveling and haven't been as sun-sensible as I ought to have been, I have really noticed the effects of the sun on my face over recent years.
Back to the kitchen table, Hilery and Jonathan's other range started as a treatment for eczema. They found that there was nothing natural on the market as an alternative to steroid creams, "so we made our own!"
"A lot of '100% natural' products still include silicones and we really wanted to avoid this route," Hilery adds.
Despite the fact that people are becoming more conscious of what they put into their bodies - that there has been an organic food revolution - "people do not seem to worry about what they slap on their skin," says Jonathan.
Importance Of Ingredients
"Skincare products go into the bloodstream within two minutes. We are not 100% organic but we try to use organic wherever possible, in fact most of our plant oils, essential oils and herbal extracts are organic. We try to be as ethical as possible, sometimes we find organic sources, sometimes sustainable, and often wild-crafted. The argan oil we use in our Rosa Fina hand cream for example comes from a community of Berber women in Morocco, so we also try to follow fair-trade practices too. We really want to go further with this."
"We are proud that our products are 100% plant origins and contain no petrochemicals, GMOs, synthetic perfumes or colourings. All our products are cruelty-free and available for vegans. Our core mission has always been to source the most effectively therapeutic plants in the world and to formulate them in the most ethical way possible."
"We're working hard to forge new fair-trade links and to reduce our carbon footprint by sourcing recyclable and recycled materials. Both of these pose complex challenges as many environmental experts consider recycled paper and board to be less environmentally friendly that regular stock because of the chemicals required to bleach and process the paper. We feel it's more important to use renewable sources of paper which comes from responsibly managed forests."
Collagen-boosting calendula oil, sea buckthorn with omega-7 fatty acids, comfrey to prevent chapped skin, dead sea salts to purify, argan oils from Berger women, acmella olearacea known as nature's Botox - we can rebalance ourselves with the benefits of traditional wisdom and homeopathy and the discovery of cosmaceuticals and superfoods.
Barefoot Botanicals are just one of many companies pioneering a new way to look after your skin whilst focusing on ethical and environmental issues.
Find out more at http://www.barefoot-botanicals.com/