The method
Six weeks in a jar, away from the light
An infused oil and a scented oil are not the same product. This page explains the difference — and why it matters for your skin.
Infusion, not fragrance
Most products labelled "botanical" are a neutral carrier oil with a few drops of essential oil stirred through. That is a scent decision, made in minutes.
An infusion is a slow extraction. Whole dried plant material sits in oil for weeks while the oil takes up what the plant will give it — the fat-soluble compounds, the pigment, the aroma. The oil changes colour because its composition has changed.
This is why our comfrey oil is opaque and almost black-green, and why a bottle of it cannot be made on demand.
01
Forage and dry
Balsam fir, self-heal, goldenrod and St John's Wort are gathered by hand in the Muskoka region at the point in the season when the plant is at its strongest, then dried slowly. Everything we do not forage is organic. Wild harvesting is done sparingly — never more than a small share of any stand.
02
Prime with alcohol
A small measure of ethanol goes in with the dried herb before the oil. It sanitises the plant material and opens the cell walls so the oil can reach what is inside. This is the alcohol-intermediary method taught by Master Herbalist Kami McBride, and it is the reason these oils are shelf-stable without a synthetic preservative.
03
Macerate six weeks
Organic olive oil for the body, organic jojoba for the face. The jar then sits in the dark for six weeks and is turned, not heated — heat is faster and takes less.
04
Press and blend
The spent herb is pressed by hand. Some of the oil is bottled as it is; the rest is warmed with Canadian beeswax, shea or cocoa butter, clays, honey or hydrosols to become a salve, a balm or a butter.
05
Bottle, date, label
Every jar carries a batch code and a bottling date on its base. Because each batch is genuinely small, products go out of stock — that is what a six-week lead time looks like from the outside.
6
weeks per infusion
Turned in the dark, never heated to speed it up.
1:7
comfrey leaf to oil
Published because a ratio is checkable and a claim is not.
0
synthetic preservatives
No fragrance oils, no colourants, no fillers.