Answers about herbal oils, salves and botanical skincare

No — not on the scrape itself. Comfrey preparations are for unbroken skin only, and comfrey should not be applied to open wounds. Once the skin has closed, a comfrey or plantain salve can be used on the dry, tight skin around it. Speak with your child's physician first.

An infused oil is whole plant material steeped in a carrier oil for weeks; the result is mostly carrier oil carrying the plant's fat-soluble compounds, and it can be applied undiluted. An essential oil is steam-distilled and hundreds of times more concentrated — it must always be diluted. Our oils are infusions, not essential oils.

Because we don't heat it to speed things up. The jar sits in the dark and is turned by hand for six weeks so the oil can slowly take up the plant's fat-soluble compounds, pigment and aroma. Heat would pull an infusion together in hours instead of weeks, but it changes what comes across from the plant — the six weeks is a quality choice, not a default.

Because each batch really is small, and each one starts with a fresh six-week infusion — there's no warehouse of backstock to draw from. When a product sells out, we're not restocking from a shelf, we're starting the next batch. Leaving your email on a "Between batches" product gets you a note the morning it's bottled, nothing else.

Olive oil for the body and for genuinely dry skin: it is heavier and more occlusive. Jojoba for the face and for sensitive or oily skin, because its structure is closest to human sebum. We infuse calendula into both for exactly this reason.

St. John's Wort can increase the skin's sensitivity to sunlight. Applied topically the effect is modest, but it is real — so limit sun exposure on treated areas, and prefer evening application in summer.

They're footnotes, not typos: * marks an ingredient we source organic, and ** marks one we wildcraft ourselves — hand-harvested from the wild rather than grown or bought in. Every ingredient list on a product page spells out which footnote applies to which plant.

Less than feels right at first — 2 to 3 drops or pumps is plenty for the whole face. Warm it between your palms, then press it in rather than rubbing. If your skin still feels tight after a minute, add one more drop rather than starting with a large amount.

Yes — infused oils layer well since they're all whole-plant extractions in a compatible carrier oil, not concentrated actives that can clash. A common pairing is a body-oriented oil like comfrey or St. John's Wort with a lighter facial oil like self-heal or rose. Patch-test any new combination the same way you would a single oil.

That's exactly what it's for — a finished bottle is really just the raw material with the hard part (the six-week infusion) already done for you. A few ideas beyond using it straight: melt one with beeswax for a salve, whip it into shea or cocoa butter for a body butter, stir a few drops into a bath, or work a couple of drops into your regular unscented cream or lotion to carry more of the plant's nutrients into a product you already use daily. Our Herbal Salve Making Kit is a good, low-risk way to learn the ratios by hand before you start freehanding your own blends.

They're two different extractions layered together. "Lavender flowers" (or "buds") means the dried plant was infused directly into the base oil — a slow, whole-plant extraction. "Lavender oil" in the same list means we also added a touch of the essential oil, distilled separately, for a stronger scent or effect. Using both gives a richer result than either alone.

Only a trace, and it's not there as a solvent or preservative. We use the alcohol-intermediary method taught by Master Herbalist Kami McBride: a touch of spirits awakens the dried herbs and breaks down the plant's cell walls before the oil infusion, so more of the plant's compounds make it into the final oil. It shows up on the ingredient list because it's technically present, not because it changes how the product feels or smells on skin.