Botanical or vegetable oils are made up of dense liquid lipids or fats. Whereas essential oils are ‘volatile’ in nature, all vegetable oils are ‘fixed’: this means that if you spill a little sweet almond oil on your sleeve it will stain your garment, whereas an essential oil which is naturally volatile, will gradually evaporate leaving no mark! Both essential oils and vegetable oils repel water, which makes them very compatible with each other. That is why vegetable oils are commonly used as carriers for essential oils in products like facial serums, massage blends or body oils. Vegetable oils are therefore often called ‘carrier’ or ‘base’ oils in the context of aromatherapy, simply because they are used as the ideal medium for the application of essential oils to the skin.

One of the ‘silver linings’ of the recent months of lockdown has been the fact that nature has had a chance to recover from some of the effects of human activity. Pollution levels in large European cities dropped to the lowest levels recorded for decades; in urban places, bird song could be heard above the usually constant hum of traffic and machinery; and many people began to re-discover the simple pleasures of walking in the countryside, their local woods or in a nearby park. A slower pace of life has also enabled many of us to find the time to plant seeds in our garden or window boxes and to re-connect with nature in all sorts of individual ways.Today, walking, hiking and gardening are the most popular forms of exercise in the UK and these, together with other outdoor activities, have all seen a boom in recent months.

Flower Waters also known as floral waters, are light, aromatic aqua-based fragrances which have been used since antiquity but are now enjoying a massive contemporary revival. Their sheer versatility makes them ideally suited to our modern urban lifestyle where each flower water has a range of specific properties and benefits: for example, a bottle of flower water makes the perfect travel companion since it can be used as a naturally revitalizing skin cleanser / toner, as a light perfume, or simply as a refreshingly cooling spritz for imparting instant moisture to the skin during a long journey.