Wild Lemon Balm & Beeswax Lip Balm

 

We work in a very beautiful part of the world, right beside the River Boyne and surrounded by amazing flora and fauna and some beautiful Irish wilderness. If we could only bottle the views!

If you've followed us for a while, you'll know we love to forage. We have some super fragrant Lemon Balm growing along the River Boyne right beside our factory. So, the other day Shane went off the beaten track to pick some of that full fragrant flourish.

The old French technique for extracting essential oils from delicate flowers and leaves is called enfleurage. For delicate flowers that didn't give their fragrance easily, perfumers would spread a layer of vegetable fat on panes of glass, lay the flower petals on top and cover with more glass smeared with vegetable fat building layer after layer of these glass panes.

The flower petals were removed each day and fresh ones went in. This lasts 5 days, all the while the vegetable fat is busy absorbing the fragrance. This beautifully scented vegetable fat is called a pomade. This is how the likes of Jasmine and Rose used to surrender their sumptuous scent.

We decided to replicate this process, in a slightly modern way. We used Jojoba Oil to absorb the essential oils from the Lemon Balm and swapped the leaves out every day for 5 days. Then we got some local beeswax, filtered for cosmetic grade, combined it with the Lemon Balm infused Jojoba Oil to make it semi firm.

Side note: Jojoba Oil is actually a wax not a liquid oil and is widely loved for its amazing moisturising abilities. It comes from the seeds of a desert shrub, it's a lovely golden colour with no fragrance of its own.

We added a few drops of Lemon Myrtle essential oil giving an uplifting and fresh lemon top note. For the heart we added a drop or two of tangerine essential oil giving a slight touch of sweetness on the lips followed by a hint of cardamom for a very subtle tease of sweet spice at the base of the fragrance.

We made 200 tins and we are giving one free with the next 200 orders over €50, from today. If you receive one with your order, we really hope you love it - Let us know what you think! 

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Donagh Quigley
Founder