Practical, considered and beautiful enough to be a pleasure to use.
Thoughtful Ingredients. Purposeful Formulations.
There is no single formula behind Nurturing Skin. Some products begin with tallow and herbs infused into oils; others use a plant-based cream base that allows me to work with my herbal tinctures. Australian Bush Flower Essences add another dimension to most of the range, with individual essences chosen specifically for each formulation.
What connects them all is the way I approach them: deciding first what I want the product to do, then choosing the ingredients and formulation that make sense for that purpose.
What Goes Into Nurturing Skin
Nurturing Skin draws on traditionally rendered tallow, botanical infusions, carefully selected plant oils, herbs and Australian Bush Flower Essences. Some products are tallow-based. Others are entirely plant-based.
Which ingredients I reach for depends entirely on what I want a product to do — never on habit, and never on what skincare "usually" contains.
Tallow — Where It Began
I had been rendering tallow long before Nurturing Skin existed. Each week, beef trimmings from my butcher were slowly rendered, strained and stored in jars — usually far more than I could use.
By then, I was already making botanical creams and balms. When I found myself wondering what to do with all that beautiful tallow rather than waste it, using it in some formulations seemed a natural progression.
Tallow lends itself particularly well to dried herbs infused into oils. Those infused oils incorporate beautifully into a rich, nourishing tallow-based balm.
When I want to formulate with my herbal tinctures, however, I'm working with water-based extracts. For those, a water-loving cream base is the more natural choice — and it also gives me the opportunity to create entirely plant-based products.
So tallow isn't something I try to put into everything. The ingredients I want to work with — and what I want the finished product to do — determine the formulation.
The formulation comes first.
Botanicals — Infused and Extracted
Botanicals — Infused and Extracted
Before I studied naturopathy, I had very little experience with herbal medicine. My earlier background was in microbiology, biochemistry and kinesiology. It was during my university training as a naturopath that I began to understand just how much herbs could do — and how much knowledge was needed to use them properly.
For Nurturing Skin, I use herbs in different ways depending on the formulation I'm making.
Dried herbs such as calendula, chamomile, sage, lavender and lemon balm can be slowly infused into oils, bringing those botanicals into an oil-based balm.
At other times, I want to work with herbal tinctures — concentrated liquid extracts I already use extensively in my naturopathic practice. These extracts generally contain alcohol and water, so they are better suited to an appropriately formulated cream than to an entirely oil-based balm.
The method changes according to the herb, the extract, and what I want the finished product to do. It also matters how much of each herb is actually in the formulation — a long ingredient list on a label doesn't tell you whether any single herb is present in a meaningful concentration.
Australian Bush Flower Essences
Australian Bush Flower Essences
Australian Bush Flower Essences have been part of my naturopathic work for many years, so including them in some Nurturing Skin formulations was deliberate.
Skin doesn't exist separately from the rest of us. Stress, emotion and mood can influence some skin conditions, and I've never felt that looking only at the physical skin tells the whole story.
Australian Bush Flower Essences have long been part of my broader naturopathic approach. I choose individual essences or combinations according to the character and intention behind each formulation, rather than using the same ones in everything.
For me, it is another way of looking at the person, not simply the skin.
Knowing the Herbs
Knowing which herbs to use is only part of herbal medicine. Understanding their actions, appropriate concentrations, contraindications and interactions is just as important.
Herbs and essential oils have real actions — depending on the plant, its preparation and how it's used, some have traditionally been valued for their soothing, cooling, calming, anti-inflammatory or antimicrobial properties. They can also have contraindications and interactions that need to be considered.
But understanding an individual herb is not the same as understanding how it will behave in a finished formulation. The method of extraction, the concentration used and the other ingredients all matter. Combined thoughtfully, ingredients may complement one another. Included at concentrations too low to serve their intended purpose, they may contribute little beyond decoration.
Cost is another consideration, but it doesn't determine which ingredients I choose. If I believe a particular herb, oil or extract has an important role in a formulation, I would rather include it at an appropriate concentration, even if it costs more. I understand that commercial products often need to be formulated to meet a particular price point, but that's not where I begin. I begin with what I want the product to do, then choose the ingredients I believe are best suited to that purpose.
That's part of why I formulate everything myself. It's also why I can't promise you a particular result — everyone's skin is different, and I know from my own reactive, sensitive skin how individual that difference can be.
What I can offer is a formulation developed with an understanding of what each ingredient is intended to do, why it's included, and how much is appropriate for that particular product.
Made in Small Batches
EveryNurturing Skin product is made by me in small batches. I formulate, measure, mix, pour and fill the products myself, rather than sending a formula away to be manufactured elsewhere.
Working in small quantities allows me to stay close to every stage of the process — from preparing botanical infusions and choosing ingredients to filling and packaging the finished product.
Nurturing Skin has grown out of my working naturopathic practice, and in many ways it still looks like it. My herbs, formulations, bottles, jars, labels and finished products all share the same working space.
Nothing is handed off to a manufacturer. I know what has gone into every batch because I made it myself.
What I Leave Out Matters Too
What I Leave Out Matters Too
Nurturing Skin isn't about adding ingredients because they're fashionable, expected, or commonly found in skincare. I'd rather use fewer ingredients and understand exactly why each one is there.
Where possible, I avoid unnecessary synthetic fragrances, colours and other additives — not because synthetic automatically means bad, or natural automatically means good, but because I look at what an ingredient actually contributes, whether it's necessary, and whether I'm comfortable using it.
Some Nurturing Skin products contain tallow or beeswax; others are entirely plant-based. What matters is choosing ingredients that make sense for that particular product, not forcing every formulation into the same mould.
If an ingredient doesn't need to be there, I would rather leave it out.
Packaging With a Purpose
I think about the packaging as well as what goes inside it. Where it's practical, I prefer glass, cardboard and paper-based packaging, and try to reduce unnecessary plastic.
That's why you'll see amber glass jars and bottles alongside cardboard tubes, paper labels and simple boxes across Nurturing Skin. Not every product can be packaged the same way — the container still has to protect the formulation and work properly for the person using it.
I don't claim my packaging is perfect or waste-free. I simply try to make the more thoughtful choice where I reasonably can.
Take the kraft cardboard push-up tubes I use for my lip balms, for example. A conventional plastic tube might be easier to operate, but I didn't want to introduce unnecessary plastic simply to make the mechanism smoother. The cardboard tube requires a slightly different approach, but it still does the job — and for me, that's a worthwhile compromise.
And packaging still has to be enjoyable. I wanted Nurturing Skin to feel botanical, warm and a little special — whether you're buying something for yourself or giving it to someone else.
