Journal
The Journal is where Botanicals & Co explores the wider plant world beyond the Library’s reference monographs: aromatherapy and essential oils, herbalism, the botanical kitchen, skincare and formulation, living well with plants, the stewardship of the species we use, and the science and scholarship behind them.
We talk constantly about moisturising, nourishing, soothing and protecting our skin, yet all of those ideas depend upon an extraordinarily thin structure at its surface. Understanding the skin barrier changes the way we think about skincare.
Read the articleRestorative yoga looks deceptively simple, a bolster, a few blankets and perhaps half a dozen postures. Yet behind that stillness lies an interesting idea: that yoga does not always have to ask the body to work harder.
Read the articleRose oil is one of perfumery’s most celebrated natural materials, yet the beauty of the finished ingredient can obscure the extraordinary agricultural and industrial system required to produce it. From hand-picked flowers and exceptionally low essential-oil yields to distillation energy and changing harvest seasons, understanding rose properly means looking beyond the bottle.
Read the articleVitamin E appears on countless skincare labels, but the ingredient hiding behind those two familiar words is not always the same. Tocopherol and tocopheryl acetate both belong to the vitamin E story, yet differences in their chemistry affect their stability, antioxidant behaviour and role within a cosmetic formulation.
Read the articleLavender may be one of the world’s most recognisable botanical ingredients, but it is also one of the most misunderstood. From skincare and aromatherapy to perfumery and household…
Read the articleIn July I begin the Foundations of Aromatherapy certification with The School of Aromatic Studies, run by Jade Shutes. This is the second formal qualification I have signed…
Read the articleAt fifty I have finally let rose into my skincare cabinet properly. I had been resisting it for years, partly on principle (the marketing around rose is some…
Read the articleFor my fiftieth birthday I have bought myself something I did not expect to buy: a Callanetics instructor training course. I have practised the method for thirty seven…
Read the articleAt fifty, skin behaves differently. Oestrogen falls, collagen production slows, the lipid barrier becomes less reliable, and the small mistakes that did not matter at thirty start to…
Read the articleOne of the questions I’ve been asked most often since talking about Botanicals & Co is why the very first qualification I’m taking is in aromatherapy. After all,…
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