Nap in the Meadow Face Serum

The Story

Here is an ultra-lightweight aloe-based serum that looks spearmint-y and smells of a spring meadow to some, and of just-picked strawberries to others. It is a dew-consistency almost-liquid that is close to oil-free, but effectively hydrates and improves the appearance of all types of skin. And it makes your toner or mist optional. We recommend using this serum as the first moisturizing step, before a facial oil or oil-based serum.

Benefits

Nap in the Meadow delivers a broad range of benefits in a single product: deep hydration, strong anti-inflammatory action, anti-oxidants, anti-aging benefits, refreshing effects, and even some acne reducing, tissue repairing, and sunburn and sun damage repair. The ingredients include:

Turmeric CO2 supercritical extract: Ava chose this turmeric form because it provides incredible antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits, yet is nonirritating.

Yarrow oil: This deep blue oil from Bulgaria is distilled from white yarrow flowers and is one of the top anti-inflammatory essential oils, along with German blue chamomile and helichrysum. We used all of these oils in Nap in the Meadow, as each contributes slightly different effects. Yarrow oil is nondrying, yet it helps heal acne and balance excessively oily skin, and it soothes inflammatory skin disorders such as psoriasis and eczema.

German blue chamomile oil: German chamomile flowers are white and yellow but their distilled oil is a dark blue. It is one of Ava's very top ingredients for decreasing skin inflammation (apparent as unhealthy redness) and pain (extremely helpful with painful acne breakouts).

Helichrysum (Italian everlasting): Helichrysum oils are very expensive and are the number-one essential oils for revitalizing skin tissue in an utterly soothing manner (helichrysum is so mild, it can be used undilluted on burns). We source our organic helichrysum from Bosnia. It is extremely beneficial for wrinkles, sagging of the skin, other signs of skin aging, scar healing, and sunburn.

Two different lavender species from France: Lavender oil is one of the top active skin care ingredients, and it is used here to revitalize skin and address persistent dryness more than for the fragrance. For this formula, we chose wild lavender from France, hand-gathered and distilled by an artisan distiller. Its fragrance is very delicate and complex. Our second lavender is also from France and it contributes a sweeter and more floral aroma, without any sharpness.

Rose geranium and geranium bourbon: High-quality, unadulterated geranium oils with beautiful scents are hard to source. Ava's finds are exquisite: floral yet delicate, never heavy, in terms of fragrance. Geranium is one of the top essential oils for dry and mature skin.

Elderberry extract: An incredible dose of antioxidants to delay skin aging and reverse UV damage.

Galbanum: This essential oil is made from galbanum resin, an ancient wound-healing agent for slow-to-heal skin conditions and also used as an anti-inflammatory agent. Included here to aid skin tissue repair and scar healing and prevention.

Copaiba balsam resin: Another healing resin, this one from Brazil, used here to contribute acne-healing properties.

Aloe: Most of us love aloe in place of water in facial care products, and this cold-press whole-leaf aloe is pure, fresh, and thickened just a touch by natural xanthan gum. It provides skin tissue repair, relief from sunburn, inflammation reduction, faster healing of any irritation, and highly and quickly absorbable moisture.

The preservative: We used a very progressive, all-natural preservative from our most trusted preservative manufacturer in the US, specially formulated for sensitive skin, that has been scientifically proven to increase skin moisturization over the long term, which is a huge deal considering that so many previous-generation natural preservatives were a tad drying.

The following meadow wildflower essences, all made by Ava following the procedure outlined by Edward Bach, were included: white yarrow (for protection), silvery lupine (for strength, and longevity; youth preserving), wild rose (for youth, beauty, and skin firmness), and pink phlox (to preserve one's gentle qualities and innocence).

Flower Essences as Ingredients

For the many of you who have been asking for more information about the flower essences included in our products: flower essences are an energy medicine made in a very specific way in order for the energy of the flower to become captured and stored in water (preserved with a small amount of highest-quality gluten-free brandy). Ava read most of the available books on this topic and eventually trained to become a flower and gem essence practitioner (one type of herbalist) because she became so passionate about the effectiveness of this healing modality.

While flower and gem essences are often used as herbal supplements and also as aura mists (see our sister web site, pnwessences.com), more and more herbalists suggest adding them to natural skin care products to enrich them with a new layer of physical-healing and spiritual-healing benefits. What is unique about Nap in the Meadow is that not just any flower essences were used (not essences purchased from other herbalists), but flower essences handmade by Ava personally in our local Pacific Northwest meadows, from flowers growing in the wild in the spring only. Because we made the essences, we had access to the strongest potencies (the mother potency). Purchased essences are weaker (stock) potencies that are not ideal for topical use. For Nap in the Meadow, Ava chose essences based on their historic uses for enhancing beauty (such as the delicate pale pink rose), but also selected essences that are symbols of spring and wild meadows (the delicate pink phlox and white yarrow). If you are new to flower essences and want to test whether you feel their effects, check with yourself to see whether after applying Nap in the Meadow you have a sense of being enveloped and more protected from environmental factors such as pollution. If so, you are feeling the effects of yarrow flower essence. If you feel stronger, more resilient, more "together," that is the effect of the silvery lupine.

This pretty blue aloe serum is lightweight yet deeply hydrating. I keep it in the fridge and love to use it in the morning...it's the perfect pick-me-up for my skin, leaving it cool and refreshed!

- Rhonda

Skin Types

For all skin types, especially dry and dehydrated, mature, acne, combination, oily, and skin with eczema, rosacea, and psoriasis. If you have allergies or skin sensitivities but are able to tolerate products with nonirritant essential oils as active ingredients, you should be able to tolerate this product well.

Ingredients

Cold-press whole-leaf Aloe barbadensis leaf juice*, Sambucus nigra (elderberry) fruit extract, Curcuma longa (turmeric) root Supercritical CO2 Select extract*, caprylyl capryl glucoside (naturally derived), Lavandula angustifolia (lavender) oil (* and †), Achillea millefolium (yarrow) oil*, Helichrysum italicum (Italian everlasting) oil*, Marticaria recutita (German blue chamomile) oil*, potassium sorbate (natural food-grade preservative), organic Pelargonium graveolens (geranium bourbon) oil, Pelargonium roseum (geranium rose) oil*, Copaifera officinalis (copaiba balsam) resin†, Ferula galbaniflua (galbanum) oil*, xanthan gum, ascorbic acid (vit. C), Rosa woodsii (Wood’s rose) flower essence†, Phlox longifolia (pink phlox) flower essence†, Achillea millefolium (white yarrow) flower essence†, Lupinus argenteus (silvery lupine) flower essence†.

*Certified organic. †Responsibly wildcrafted.

Aloe certified by the International Aloe Science Council (IASC) for purity and content.

Certified cruelty free, vegan, handcrafted, small batch. Gluten free.

Directions

Shake often to remix. Apply the serum generously onto freshly washed face. Most skin types will benefit from following immediately with a moisturizer, oil, or balm. (For sensitive skin types, though, we recommend applying aloe serums like this one over an oil or emollient moisturizer.) If using a slower-absorbing product as the next step, such as a thick oil-based serum or balm, it often works best to wait a moment until Nap in the Meadow is absorbed.

Store away from direct light exposure. Ideally REFRIGERATE to protect freshness and enhance the cooling, refreshing, and depuffing properties.

If redness or sensitivity appears when you first use Nap in the Meadow, allow your skin to adjust to the product gradually, by using only a thin layer once a day for the first 7–14 days.

Full sizes 50 ml (1.7 fl oz) or 30 ml (1 fl oz); travel/sample size 5 ml (0.17 fl oz). Note that the color of the product will range from minty green to pale turquoise blue.

Due to the very high cost of our ingredients and the labor-intensive (highly time consuming) small-batch production process, we are unable to accept returns of opened or unopened products at this time. But most products have a sample size option for purchase, so we encourage you to buy a sample first to ensure that the product suits your skin's needs and that you enjoy the texture, fragrance, and healing properties.