The Process of Making Grateful Face

One of the things I'm most grateful for as the founder of Goodbye is that I get to formulateour products. Many companies start as a marketing idea and then get a lab to provide base formulations so that they can add their own version of a hero product. Think rose hip oil, chia seed, jojoba etc, as if one oil could be the answer to all of your skin care needs.

We've come at it from the other way- it started with a love of the oils and plants, and they are ALL heroes, by the way. Then we had to learn about running a business.

Since I made this one from home, for the packaging and label, I made do with the stuff I already had, so no groovy graphics or label, just great ingredients in a lovely glass dropper bottle. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to ever purchase this kind of product commercially because the ingredients are quite expensive.

Grateful Face is a fusion of sublime essential oils and my most recent crushes of red raspberry seed oil and meadow foam.

My personal brief was to make a supreme antioxidant oil that I loved using every day.

I gave myself the freedom to make it to please me, without regard for cost, and as such, included a little known oil helichrysum, and the ever profound protection of frankincense, both of them very precious oils. When you can price your oil by the drop, you know to be very careful! The lavender is angustifolia and from France- a softer, more rounded lavender.

The serum is intensely restorative and protective to a range of skin ages and types as well as supportive to the spirit. The smell is very light, a memory of an evening where you can't quite place what the fragrance is, and wish you could catch it again. You can use it morning, evening, anytime. It will give your skin and spirit a lift.

The formulation begins with half each of my two current favs in base or fixed oils- Raspberry Seed oil and Meadowfoam both for their great skin feel, gentle smell and antioxidant support properties.

The first essential oil chosen was Helichrysum, also known as Immortelle. The name Helichrysum comes from the Greek wordshelios(sun) andchrysos (gold- deep yellow flowers) It is highly regenerative, promoting healthy skin cell growth. It smooths skin tone and texture and is best known for its antioxidant protective effect. It can be used to help resolve skin irritations including too much sun or wind.

Helichrysum is also supportive on the emotional level, helping to address difficult emotions. It creates a safe, rich environment that encourages peace.

I spent some time with Helichrysum, considering its smell and effects, and began to build the other oils around it. I blend for physical effect, emotional effect and likability (or accessibility its also called) of the end smell and feel. There are many different ways to blend, and more scientific approaches than I take. Aromatherapy has a large element of chemical component understanding. Perfumery has the knowledge of smell spoken of as notes. I think if the oils as having personalities or particular characteristics and I work to create a synergy.

Helichrysum is not sweet, so it needed something to round it.

So enters Lavender, the sweet adaptogen. It calms the hyper and picks up the low, or soothes anxiety, depending on the need. How does it know? This oil is also skin specialist, calming and supporting many skin types. It is called the queen of medicinal plants.

From there the formula needed grounding and protective properties, enter Manuka and Frankincense. With Geranium for sweetness (not very much!) and its unique skin regenerative properties. And finally Petigrain- the complex citrus that's not a skin sensitiser with sunshine- adding the bit of familiarity and optimism.

Making a product is like writing a poem, or book or a song. It's a process, that starts from an idea, and you don't really know how it's going to take shape. Sometimes it takes days, sometimes it unfolds in 10 minutes of rummaging around 'the box'. I try to write everything down that I make, in case it's so good, I want to actually remember how that was made.

Grateful Face Antioxidant Serum

• 25ml Raspberry Seed Oil (rubus ideaus)
• 25ml Meadowfoam Seed Oil (limnanthes alba)- pressed, not solvent extracted
• 6 drops Immortelle (Helichrysum angustifolia)
• 6 drops Lavender (Lavandula Augustifolia)
• 2 drops Manuka (leptospermum scoparium)
• 2 drops Petitgrain Bigarde (Citrus aurantium ssp amara)
• 1 drop Geranium (graveolens)
• 1 drop Frankincense (boswellia serrata)