Where it all began...

 

Our founder, Mila, grew up living beside ancient woodland filled with oaks, hornbeams, silver birch, ash, sweet chestnut and hazel trees. The woods were her favourite, special place she could be herself and practise the calming Japanese art of forest bathing, shinrin-yoku, years before she knew this was a thing. 

 

She was the kind of kid who would invite her friends over for sleepovers to make bath potions, and once she set up a shop in her garden encouraging bemused family members to buy her foraged mud pies. On special occasions, she would surprise her loved ones with gifts of homemade lip glosses, candles and bath bombs. 

 

Even though this creative spirit and connection to nature had always been with her, it wasn't until a few summers ago that the apothecary journey began to reveal itself to her. 

 

 

 

The weed that changed everything

 

One summer's day, as a way to escape from the stresses of her life, she was doing what she did every day, going for a walk in the woods and meadows behind her home. Except this day was different.

 

She began to notice a plant growing out of the dry, cracked earth and realised she had been seeing it everywhere. Out of curiosity, she bent down and picked one of the plant's flowers, and suddenly had a strong urge to crush it and bring it up to her nose to sniff it.

 

When she did, her nose was filled with the aroma of sweet pineapples. Completely intrigued with how anything in the wild spaces of England could smell like a pineapple, she thought about it all the way home.

 

On a whim, she decided to look the plant up later that evening and found out that it was a common weed and medicinal herb called pineapple weed.

 

Delving deeper, she read that pineapple weed was a folk remedy drunk as a tea to help ease stress and anxiety. This came as quite a surprise, since she was suffering with chronic stress and anxiety at the time.

 

And so, the next day, Mila brewed her first wild herbal tea since the time she had made nettle tea as a child with her cousins.

 

 

 

Realising the land can heal us

 

As soon as Mila found out about the medicinal properties of pineapple weed, she understood that discovering this plant was more than just a coincidence. She was hurting and the land had been trying to show her how it could help her heal, and this time she had finally taken notice.

 

Mila began to find all of the medicinal plants that grow in our meadows — camomile, plantain, comfrey, yarrow, elderflower, rose, hawthorn and more. She became enamoured with folk herbalism and foraging, devouring all the literature she could on these topics.

 

Once she was confident with her identification skills, she started to make simple herbal remedies for her family and friends to try, like yarrow and plantain balms, rose sugar scrubs, camomile bath salts and more.

 

 

 

Harnessing the healing power of nature

 

Our founder saw how effective her homemade remedies were for herself and her family, and so, after much research and testing, decided to formulate her own range of skincare and herbal drinks so that others could experience them too.

 

Mila had always suffered with dry, flaky, itchy and often oily skin, and emotionally, with anxiety and stress. She combined scientific research with her knowledge and love of medicinal plants to create effective natural products that nourish the skin as well as the mind.

 

These products are an antidote for our fast-paced, stressful lives, our skin that's affected by pollution and other stressors, and our overworked, frazzled minds.

 

Although Mila takes inspiration from plants found on her travels around the world, her heart always comes back to the English meadow, where Hedgerow Nectar and Wildflower Radiance Mask were born.