A little bit about Herbal Body Oils

Humans have always sought to nourish the body through the gateway organ of the skin. Ancient herbcraft utilized the combo of natural fats infused with herbs to create moisturizers that deeply hydrate the skin as well as calm the nervous system. Moisturizers we use today like oils, salves and lotions can be traced back to ancient times. They serve a purpose of nourishing and protecting the body, but a deeper connection with the plants themselves as well.  

When I first found body oils I was extremely intrigued. I wasn’t even sure what they all entailed but knew I was intuitively drawn to them. I was never one to have a habit of using lotion and didn’t particularly like the way lotion felt on my skin. Applying lotion just wasn’t something I had as a major part of my self-care routine, so it was surprising to me that I was intrigued by moisturizing with oils. From there began a personal self-care practice with oils, experimenting with making my own and eventually developing a deeper interest in honing the craft of making beautiful & potent oils.

Since we get a lot of questions about our oils at markets and from curious customers I wanted to provide some more information on what body oils are, why they are used, a little bit of personal history with the oils and a breakdown on some of the main blends we make and sell.

Flowers of St. John's Wort that we infuse into olive oil. We are lucky to be able to sustainably wildcraft this beautiful plant being here in our bioregion. We have been establishing our own plants on the farm as well. We lovingly refer to St. John's Wort as "Bleeding Sun" because of its affinity for the solar and the dark purple/red liquid from the flowers. The common name St. John's Wort refers to the traditional time of harvesting at midsummer which coincides with St. John's Feast Day. Here up North, we usually harvest it later in mid-July.

Our handcrafted herbal body oils always start with high quality batches of organic olive oil from family-owned Northern California farms. Body oils can be made with other types of oils but we choose olive oil for ours because of the richness in scent, the soft texture and access to American grown and processed oil. All of the herbs and flowers we use are harvested fresh from our farm or otherwise sustainably wildcrafted by us here in Minnesota.

A common question we get asked is what to do with herbal body oils. They are meant to be topically used on the skin as a moisturizer and are quite easy to use. There is no right or wrong way to do it! Just use your intuition and follow what feels good. I recommend oiling from head to toe and working your way down the body. Gently massage in and let the skin drink up the oil.

You'll notice that a little bit of oil goes a long way, so start small and pour more as needed. If you are new to oils you can essentially think about them as a replacement for lotion, moving along the whole body to moisturize evenly. Body oils can be used anywhere on the body and at any time of day, but I typically like to do a full body oil at night. Some people that don't like feeling oily may enjoy applying oils before a shower or bath, but you can certainly use them after bathing as well. If you feel too oily you can wipe some of the excess with an old towel. I enjoy using them in the evening before or after a bath to wind down, but it is also nice to use them throughout the day as needed to calm the nervous system or to soothe the skin.

Keep a bottle on hand for use in a pinch! If you are short on time or don't feel like oiling the whole body, doing the hands, ears, neck and feet is a quick alternative. This is nice in the morning to keep a protective layer on the skin during the day or at night to quickly fall asleep. The oil can also be used to moisturize the face. It can take some getting used to for you and your skin, but don't be super concerned about it clogging your pores. It is absorbed by the skin readily, and in my experience actually prevents acne as there is less dry skin to clog the pores. If you aren't used to putting oil directly on facial skin, you can certainly start slow with small amounts after cleansing to begin.

A beautiful "amphoriskos" or oil container from the ancient Mediterranean 6th-5th century BCE. Scented oils were often used to anoint and were used in place of alcohol-based perfumes like we know of today. In the Mediterranean they were often made of olive oil.

Body oils are preferable over water-based lotions for their super nourishing properties because of the skin's ability to absorb natural fats on a deeper level than with water-based moisturizers. The oil works into the outermost layer of the skin, the epidermis. The epidermis is the protective layer and the gateway in. Its permeability lets things in and out of the body, with a lipid matrix that particularly works to keep moisture from escaping. Water contact on the skin from swimming, bathing, the weather, etc. is actually what dehydrates that outer layer of our skin the most whereas natural fats helped protect that skin layer and lock in hydration. Natural oil has protective properties, both physically and on an energetic level for the skin and medicine of the infused herbs only heightens the experience. Body oils not only replenish the skin and body on a physical level, but help deeply calm the nervous system.

Bright and potent petals of wild prairie rose that are harvested in early Summer. We save the petals for their sweet scent and wait for the plants to form their hips in the fall. After our first frost we harvest the vitamin C rich rose hips in earnest to craft our Rose Revival blend, which is a luxurious combo of a full season of rose medicine.

Body oils are a great introduction into the world of herbalism. When first learning about herbalism, it often seems like a complicated science that is much too daunting to even know where to begin. When I was getting to know the plants (and these feelings still come up), I felt like I didn’t know what I was doing and that I must not be doing it right. There is so much endless information to know about the plants and medicine making. Each plant has its own personality and affinities, and it can seem impossible to learn it all. It can be easy to be stuck in a phase of reading about herbalism and plants but not feeling like you can fully grasp it, or that you must know everything in order to begin. Part of my plant journey has been to unpack this feeling of not being able to grasp all the knowledge and not let that prevent me from taking action beyond reading about the herbs. With herbal body oils it was a straightforward way to practice herbcraft and invite herbs into my life. I didn’t have to worry about ingesting the wrong thing or if I was doing it right, because it was as simple as putting the oil on my skin. Creating topical treatments like body oils was the perfect gateway into herbalism.

I have now come to realize that herbalism truly is an embodied practice; like most things, we can’t really know them until we have done them ourselves, over time, and learn to know how it feels. You learn by doing, seeing, touching, tasting, smelling, and feeling. Through sitting with the plants, trying a little bit of this and that, trusting your intuition, it becomes obvious that is a highly creative process. Making oils, and herbalism in general is truly an art. What I love about an artistic process is the intuitive act of gathering and listening to materials, gaining knowledge as you practice, and that there is no correct way of creating. It is a process of curiosity, asking questions, listening and creative experimentation.

The first time I used an oil I couldn’t believe how different the sensation was compared to traditional water-based or petroleum products we used as kids that felt boggy and sticky on the skin. The oil gently glides on the skin's surface and is instantly absorbed, not in the same way lotion seems to just disappear; oil feels as if it is being deeply taken in by the skin. The process of oiling is calming, both because of the nature of slowing down and sitting with your body but also the interaction of the plants and natural fat with the skin. The nervous system slows down and the brain begins to quiet, creating a perfect moment for a mindfulness practice at any time of day. 

After enjoying body oils so much, I wanted to get good at making my own! I had a lot of trial and error when beginning. Herbal body oils can be as simple as plants sitting in oil, but the better I got at the process I noticed how different the potency of oils changes based on different methods. I ended up pursuing a course on herbal body oils by the well-respected herbalist Kami McBride, which I highly recommend to anyone interested in making their own oils.

A sweet engraving of a chamomile plant, Matricaria chamomilla (Chamaemelum leucanthemum), done in 1542 by Leonhart Fuchs- from his book "De historia stirpium commentarii insignes" translated as "Notable Commentaries on the History of Plants". Chamomile is known to calm, soothe, and settle. We use sweet chamomile in our Calm Care oil blend alongside Calendula. Chamomile harvests are one of our favorite workdays on the farm because the scent is heavenly.

Another concern that often comes up with herbal body oils is the general fear around using a "greasy" oil on the body. I too had some of this fear when I was first introduced to fat-based moisturizers. Growing up and as a teenager, I was repetitively taught to avoid greasy and oily products on the skin out of fear of oil clogging the pores. There is also a general distaste of fat in our culture, specifically with our food, but the distrust of fat seeps into all other aspects of our life. Our feelings around fat in food and the notion that fat makes you fat, and it serves no nutritional purpose is deeply rooted in our disconnect from natural, nourishing food systems and is evidence of the severing we have had from basic, ancient self-care knowledge. This general fear of fat has hidden just how deeply nourishing on a cellular level fats are for the human body.

As mentioned earlier, the reality with topical oil is that it is so readily absorbed by the skin that the hydrating action actually prevents the build up of dead skin cells that cause acne. Our bodies our meant to interact with fats and the use of fats and herbs is as old as humans have been in existence.

Bleeding Sun oil in the process of being filtered to separate the oil from the plant matter. Some of our oils are made with freshly harvested plants and others are made with dried plants. St. John's Wort is done fresh and we let it sit for three whole months!

Body oils are an invitation for touch and a pathway to ourselves and to others. They invite us to interact with our own body and skin, getting to know ourselves on a deeper level, guided by touch. Through the practice, there is an opportunity to work deeper into the emotional layers of ourselves. This practice opens our minds and hearts in a grounded way, rooted in the physical sensation of the nourishing oil. The act of touch in combination with plant medicine is a relationship with ourselves but also connects us to our ancestors and the rest of the world web. The practice can help us gather and connect with others. It is calming and highly enjoyable to use body oils with sisters, friends, your partner, etc. and share the act of self-care together.

The power of this practice was shown to me unexpectedly through the lens of death. My grandpa was placed in hospice in late autumn. He had been determined to keep on living; he was always the type of person to be quietly steadfast. Even in the process of dying he longed to be his normal self, to not fold into the dying process. Naturally, this became harder in the last few days before death. Those layers, as much as he wanted to hold them up, started to fall apart. In the face of death there is a fear that is, at its core, a longing for connection. A longing for a deep sense of community and being cared for. When we aren't used to practicing this in our daily life, it feels impossible to express this in death. Sometimes, it feels like there is almost a bubble around a person who is dying. Death creates its own little world and definition of time. Often the other people in the room, who aren't in that timeframe and headspace of death, don't quite know how they can enter in or if they should. But within a dying person, you can deeply sense the desire to have people confront this uncertainty and fear. To break the wall of the bubble, to be close, to acknowledge the act of dying that is happening.

When my grandpa was dying I felt the wall of that bubble around death. It was so thick it seemed there was no way to enter. There is a layer that feels impossible to pass, one must leave the normal day-to-day and enter the same psychic space that a dying person finds themselves in. A different sense of time, a different reality, a clarity that can't be ignored. All I wanted was to be with my grandpa and both share these emotions, to recognize death together and break through the stickiness rather than stepping around it.

I had an herbal oil on hand and had been thinking about offering some to my grandpa. I was hesitant at first, as I wasn't sure if this would make him uncomfortable. In regular life I didn't have a relationship with my grandpa where it would have been a normal thing to massage his hands. But when death is near there is no time to worry about a practice of connection being weird or awkward. I knew there was no choice but to break through the layers, and herbal body oil was the tool to step through. I got close with him, and used the oil on his arms, hands, and skin. I could immediately feel how soothing it was for him to have presence through touch. The fear of death is softened by loved one's presence alone, but touch from a loved one allows for a deep release of fear and the forming of an invaluable cross-generational bond. It creates a physical sensation of being held in the face of death. We often hear of skin to skin with newborn babies, but as my grandpa was swaddled in his hospice bed I saw how skin to skin is a life long need. In death we are like our infant selfs, swaddled in soft linens, being cared for by family, wanting nothing more than loving touch. Skin to skin is not just important in birth but throughout life and a necessary part of death.

As I broke through the layers by approaching my grandpa through touch with the oil, I was able to acknowledge him where he was at and join him in his rite of passage. The most beautiful part was how others began to enter through the layers with me. My family members came to join me. Soon a group of us were surrounding him and taking turns offering him soothing touch. The oil was the tool that allowed us to set our fears aside and show up in the way we were truly needed. Through letting go of our own fear of death, we help the fear of death slip away from the one dying. We must agree to surrender to the process of dying, letting ourselves give in to what the great mystery has in store. The herb-infused oil was the vessel that allowed for this surrender.

A panel from The Seven Sacraments Altarpiece (c.1445) painted by Rogier van der Weyden, depicting the sacrament of anointing the sick with holy oil.

The practice of anointing the sick and dying is an ancient tradition that can be seen cross-culturally and throughout time. Growing up Catholic, I was familiar with the tradition of anointing the dying with a holy oil as a rite of passage and a sacrament for death. This tradition appears throughout biblical history, in variation across many other religious beliefs and non-western cultures as well as throughout ancient human societies. Anointing with plant-infused oil, and other natural plant and animal fats, is historically practiced in rites of passage. Oil was used in coronations, consecrations, for spiritual cleansing and protection, and in death. It is a tradition as ancient as human existence. Often, anointing the sick with oils is seen as a practice to be administered only by the ordained, but there is a power in reclaiming the practice. By lovingly sharing oil through touch, a sacred connection is revealed that is powerful to both the giver and the receiver.

The tradition of women bearing oils and herbs has an interesting history in the church as well. The three women who came to christ's tomb are often referred to as Myrrhbearers, meaning women who bear myrrh. They were bringing in herbs like myrhh as oils and salves to anoint Jesus's body with. The most well-known women in the group was Mary Magdalene, who is often depicted holding an ointment jar in iconographic art. The orthodox church still celebrates the Myrrhbearers on the third Sunday following Pascha (Eastern Orthodox Easter).

Painted wood sculpture of the Pietà (Lamentation) from the early 16th century. Mary Magdalene can be seen on the right holding an ointment jar.

Our Rose Revival oil in action! Made with the Prairie Rose, our namesake, this is one of our favorite oil combos.

The practice of using oils is interconnected historically, culturally and spiritually. It is more than a simple act of self-care and something that ties us to our human history. There is a sacredness embedded in the practice that can be felt even in the simplest of oil smudges on the body.

From our farm grown herbs, we love to craft many different combos of oils and are always trying out new creations. We currently offer a few staple blends that we bring along to our markets and sell online. We love offering these oils to those who need them, those who are interested and want to make their own, and for those who are just curious.

Here is a little breakdown of our four main offerings:

Rose Revival: Olive oil infused with a blend of rose petals and rose hips. Rose petals are harvested in early summer and the hips are harvest in the fall. The rose petals have a sweet fragrance and are soothing for the skin. The rose hips are high in vitamin C and are anti-inflammatory. This oil is super luxurious and sensual!

Green Healer: Olive oil infused with comfrey leaves. Comfrey is a true healer! Comfrey is known for its wound healing capabilities as well as anti-inflammatory properties for joint pain & conditions. This is a great oil for massaging into the ankles and wrists and for minor skin injuries. It is a beautiful deep green color!

Calm Care: Olive oil infused with calendula and chamomile. Both chamomile and calendula are known for their calming presence and reducing inflammation. They both deeply sooth and calm the skin and nerves. The two together is a magical duo!

Bleeding Sun: Olive oil infused with St. John's Wort flowering tops. St. John's wort is known for its affinity with the solar. It its antioxidant rich and anti-inflammatory. It relaxes the nervous system and brings warmth to the body. We love using this one throughout the winter to capture some of the sun's warm energy for cold days.

All of our body oils are for topical use only. Although each oil has herbs of different personalities and affinities, they all work great as a relaxing moisturizer, safe to use on the whole body! I hope this was informative and gives a new perspective on oil and herbs. We love to share our handcrafted oils with our community and we're so excited for fresh herb season.