The beauty about herbal skincare is the forthrightness of ingredients. Honesty. Simplicity. Right there on the bottle is the listing of ingredients—plants, herbs and oils—that are pronounceable and familiar to most folks. At the commencement of this article, a little ingredient research was required on mainstream beauty aids so I rummaged through the depths of my loo cabinet and lined up no less than seven facial crèmes that have accumulated over several years: La Mer, Neutrogena, Lancôme, Prescriptives, Nivea, Ponds and Burt’s Bees. Of these, only Burt’s Bees listed full ingredients on the bottle. Nivea’s Web site did not offer any complete ingredient information, neither did Neutrogena, La Mer or Lancôme. Prescriptives vaguely stated: “natural plant extracts, rosemary and sage” and Ponds’ Web site offered a glossary and slightly more information on select ingredients like soy, grape seed extract and natural light reflecting minerals but none of these products has a full disclosure. The pricing: Prescriptives Super Flight Crème, $35.00 for 1.7 ounces; Lancôme Vinefit, $37.00 for 1.7 ounces, and La Mer Oil Absorbing Gel, $185.00 for 1.7 ounces. Not inexpensive for products that advertise natural ingredients yet won’t disclose full cream compositions like stearic acid—a common emulsifier that can come from either plant or animal sources. Burt’s Bees is the sole voice of reason in the land of cosmetics: $9.00 for 8 fluid ounces of Carrot Nutritive Body Lotion but also lists: stearic acid (vegetable fat) as an ingredient.

Heirloom Botanicals in Livingston Manor discloses the full ingredients on each bottle or tub of cream: short, sweet and redolent of a summer’s meadow, and stearic acid isn’t on any Heirloom Botanical label whatsoever. (Beeswax is used instead.) Jamie Helper, the creator of Heirloom Botanicals, explains that pricing is very important to her. Most natural, plant based creams and moisturizers tend to be expensive and out of reach—for regular use—for most folks. Jamie’s wish is for people—all sorts of people from every walk of life and income category—to be able to afford to buy her products and not save them for special, once-in-a-while use, but for generous and healthy every day applications. Every single Heirloom Botanical product proudly states: Made in Livingston Manor.

Heirloom Botanicals
Jamie lives in a house tinged with pale pink just outside the Sullivan County town of Livingston Manor. The house has a single gabled turret with an open air sitting area. An ancient apple tree, last season’s apples ornaments capped with snow, majestically fills the space between the house and the gray barn. Giant rhododendron bushes create the property border to the east and a stream delineates the barrier to the west. Even on a late February day, the property exudes quiet country elegance. Inside the house, each room is painted a different vibrant shade: orange, red, yellow, sea green, turquoise and some of the tile work encapsulates mosaics, unexpected treasures of glass, shells and ceramics within white glazed tiles and created by Jamie, a former art major with a photography concentration.

The kitchen where Jamie concocts her product line is upstairs and is infused with the aromatic scent of herbs—rosemary, rose geranium, lavender—even as the snow lies thick and heavy on the land outside. A mother of three, Jamie moved to Livingston Manor two and a half years ago seeking a life for her children outside of Jersey City. “Here they get lost in the backyard for hours and I’m not worried, not biting my nails.” Jamie also wanted the ability to grow a portion of the herbs and flowers she uses and “to be a little bit more self sufficient.” Since college Jamie was “interested in herbal remedies and cures to maintaining good health” but it was having children that really prompted her business venture. “I had to do the very best for them from the beginning.”

The herbs Jamie primarily works with are:

Rose geranium Pelargonium graveolens: a plant within the genus Pelargonium of which 80% are native to Southern Africa and contains aromatic properties that might reduce tension and anxiety.

Jojoba oil is an essential oil derived from the nut of the jojoba shrub (Simmondsia chinensis), native to Mexico, Arizona and California. Interestingly, jojoba oil, of all common vegetable oils, most closely resembles—in chemical composition—that of human sebum and assists in the healing process and makes for an excellent moisturizer.

Calendula Calendula officianalis L. Compositae has been valued for hundred of years for medicinal, cosmetic and culinary purposes and as a reliable oft-blooming stalwart in gardens, the Romans referred to it as “little calendar or little clock”—hence it’s botanical name calendula—a diminutive of the Latin calendae. For centuries calendula flowers and oils infused with calendula were used as gentle effective healing agents for chapped skin, minor cuts and burns, chaffing and cracked skin. Calendula has inherent antibacterial and immunostimulant properties and heals by repairing cell damage.

Chamomile Matricaria recutita “has been shown to accelerate wound healing by reducing tissue inflammation and promoting tissue regeneration…most of the beneficial effects of the herb are derived from its essential oil.” Chamomile is most widely used as tea to help calm and soothe.

Elder flower Sambucus nigra “Since ancient times elder leaves have been used for making ointments for bruises, sprains and wounds…elder flower water was applied to the eyes and the skin for its mildly astringent effects…and in laboratory studies preparations made from the elder tree have demonstrated anti-inflammatory, antiviral actions…”

Rose hips are collected when dried and rose petals from just opened flowers. Rose hips contain vitamin C, E, B and K and flavenoids, sugars, tannins, organic acids and pectin. The petals contain tannins which make them mildly astringent.

Rosemary Rosemarinus officinalis is most noted as a mood and memory enhancer with antioxidant and analgesic properties. “Rosemary is associated in Ancient Greek mythology with Minerva, the goddess of knowledge. Rosemarinic acid found in rosemary and many species of the mint family has antiviral, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.”

Evening Primrose Oenothera Biennis is native to North America and has been used since the 1930s to heal skin inflammation such as eczema. Interesting horticultural fact: the fine, yellow flowers impart delicate fragrance, and usually open between six and seven o’clock in the evening, thus bestowing upon the plant the name of Evening Primrose.

Lavender Jamie prefers and uses French Lavender, Lavandula dentata. It is well known to alleviate tension, stress and insomnia and its essential oil has properties that act as an anti-bacterial, analgesic and antiseptic. The herb is often associated with bathing, cleansing or purification and this tradition harks back to the ancient Romans and Persians who used lavender to scent bath water. Lavender receives its name, both common and botanical, from the Latin verb lavare: to wash. Scientifically, lavender contains linalool and linalyl acetate, compounds that are rapidly absorbed through the skin and “believed to depress the central nervous system, slowing nerve impulses and thereby slightly deadening pain and reducing irritability.” (All herb quotes derived from: Foster Stephen and Johnson, Rebecca. Desk Reference to Nature’s Medicine. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic)

Jamie’s first creation, the Cocoa Butter Bar crafted from cocoa butter, sunflower oil infused with organic herbs of lavender, calendula and rose geranium, olive oil infused with organic rosemary, castor oil, avocado oil, organic coconut oil, organic jojoba oil, wheat germ oil, aloe oil, beeswax and essential oil blend, is still her best selling item. The bar melts on contact with skin, rubs right in leaving behind pure moisture and a light herbal scent and is wonderful as an all-over moisturizer. If used on the face, make sure to “wet your face and only use the leftover moisture from your hands.” The price: $12 for 5.5 ounces. Despite the urgings of some of her friends to raise her prices to match mainstream competitors, Jamie holds fast to her reasonable pricing because one of the core reasons Jamie started Heirloom Botanicals was “to have healthy body care products—food for the skin—accessible to the average person.”

The second most popular Heirloom Botanicals product is the Brown Sugar Body Scrub, a luxurious nine ounces of sugar, sunflower oil, sesame oil, organic jojoba oil, organic rose geranium infused sunflower oil, rice bran oil, aloe oil and essential oil blend. “The sugar scrub gently cleans and exfoliates, leaving skin soft and moisturized. Massage gently over entire body. For best results apply to dry skin and use once per week.” A scrub novice, I smiled the entire time I scooped out the sugar and massaged all over, just like Jamie suggests and then marveled—absolutely cooed—at the softness it imparted to my skin. A wonder. I already look forward to next week. Jamie believes that sugar is better than salt for a scrub. I concur: my cravings are always for sugar in all of its voluptuous forms, hardly ever for salt.

Heirloom Botanicals offers several creams. “I didn’t make a good cream until I arrived here in Livingston Manor. I wanted to make a cream from beeswax, without using an emulsifying wax like stearic acid,” says Jamie. She succeeded. The Lavender Mint Foot Cream is a study in elegant scents—lavender and rosemary with avocado oil, castor oil, organic rosemary infused olive oil, organic herbal infusion, cocoa butter, beeswax, citrus seed extract, essential oil blend and mint that hints, doesn’t overpower, and is wonderfully calming. Heirloom Botanicals Body Creams come in two varieties and strengths: Earth, whose primary scent is sandalwood (which men covet) and Lavender. Jamie uses essential oil of sandalwood which she instructs is “good for the spirit, relaxing. It is also helpful to the immune system.” The sandalwood cream imparts super strong moisture with the following ingredients: jojoba oil, organic herbal infusion (calendula, rosemary, lavender, rose hips, hibiscus,) organic rosemary infused olive oil, organic lavender & rose geranium infused sunflower oil, organic calendula oil, wheat germ oil, cocoa butter, beeswax, borax, GSE, essential oil blend. The Herbal Face Moisturizer, the lightest of all the creams, comes in a two ounce bottle (for $22) and is “suitable for normal to dry skin.” The ingredients include oil blend (organic jojoba, wheat germ, rice bran, evening primrose), herbal infusion (roses, chamomile, calendula, elder flower, rose hips) beeswax, essential oil blend, grapefruit seed extract, borax. “Evening primrose oil is good for mature skin and sensitive skin and jojoba’s light wax is as close in chemical compositions to our own skin.” I’ve used it now for four days and my skin is the softest, most supple and smooth it has ever been despite the climactic ravages of a cold, snowy Catskill Mountaintop winter.

Jamie crafts all of the oil infusions. She uses organic olive oil for rosemary infusions and organic sunflower oil for the roses, chamomile, calendula, elder flower and rose hips. “I warm the infusions all day in a crock pot and strain three times. Infusions are much milder than an essential oil which is highly concentrated and made with special equipment.” Jamie plans to contract with a local grower, Amy Gilliam of Wild Roots in Livingston Manor to grow calendula and lemon balm. Jamie also has wild roses on her property that she hopes to use in her creations but has yet to properly time the flower collection. “Just as the wild roses are in their fullest, most beautiful bloom there always seems to be a rainstorm that knocks all the petals down.”

And the name Heirloom Botanicals? “As an avid gardener and collector of vintage and antique jewelry, I’ve always understood an heirloom to be something treasured because of its timeless relevance and beauty. Time also imparts heirlooms with value and strength through characteristics that have been acquired and nurtured throughout generations. The term relates to my product line in that herbal and non-chemical means of nourishing and beautifying our bodies are rooted in traditions that span centuries. People, namely women, have always sought inspiration from nature when developing beauty rituals and products. As my formulations are fundamentally based on the beneficial properties imparted by these ‘botanicals,’ many of which have been utilized for similar purposes for centuries, the name Heirloom Botanicals just seemed to make sense.” All Heirloom Botanicals products are “tested solely on willing humans.”

For more information and a complete list of Jamie’s entire product line or to place an order, please visit www.heirloombotanicals.com. Jamie will be at Sunflower Health Foods in Liberty on March 7 from 2 pm until 6 pm for product demos and a casual class on how to use food products for beauty purposes. Please call Sunflower Health Foods at 845 292 3535 for more information. On Saturday, April 5, Jamie will take part of the Women’s Conference at Sullivan County Community College. This year’s theme is Green Goddess: Celebration of Being a Woman. For more information, please call 845 434 5750, ext. 4377. Sullivan County Community College is located at 112 College Road, Loch Sheldrake, New York.