Handcrafted Herbals

Yesterday I visited an apple orchard in Bright, Victoria and was completely captivated by the apple blossoms. 🌸🍎

The trees were covered in delicate white and blush-pink flowers, and the fragrance was absolutely incredible — sweet, fresh and almost honey-like, with a subtle hint of apple.

With bees working their way from blossom to blossom, the whole orchard was alive with colour, scent and movement. It was a beautiful reminder that there is so much happening in a plant long before we ever see the fruit!.

But apple blossom isn't just beautiful — it has some fascinating chemistry too. 🌿
Research into Malus flowers has identified flavonoids and other polyphenolic compounds including quercetin, kaempferol, hyperoside, astragalin and phloridzin.

These compounds are being investigated for their antioxidant activity, and laboratory studies of Malus flowers have demonstrated free-radical scavenging activity and effects on enzymes involved in skin pigmentation.

There is also an interesting traditional-medicine story around apple relatives. Flowers of Malus halliana have been used in Chinese traditional medicine, and researchers have isolated several flavonoid compounds from the flowers and found anticoagulant activity in laboratory testing. That doesn't mean we can automatically apply those medicinal uses to the common apple blossom we see in an orchard, but it does show that the flowers of the Malus genus contain biologically active compounds worth investigating.

As a herbalist, this makes me want to explore the apple blossom much more closely. 🌸 How would its beautiful aromatic compounds and polyphenols differ between a water, alcohol or oil extraction?

Could the delicate flowers have a place in natural skin preparations as an antioxidant botanical? There is still plenty to discover. And for now, I'll happily appreciate them exactly as they are — thousands of tiny blossoms, an incredible fragrance, and the promise of apples to come. 🍎💚

🌿 YOUR MASSAGE JUST GOT A LITTLE MORE HERBAL… 🌿

✨ A local collaboration between Handcrafted Herbals & Glow In Wellness Massage Therapy ✨

We’re excited to bring you a proprietary herbal massage oil blend, handcrafted Handcrafted Herbals and created for use in massage therapy glow in wellness MT

🌱 What makes this blend special?

Our comfrey and mullein are grown locally, harvested, carefully dehydrated and traditionally infused to create a unique botanical massage oil — not an off-the-shelf product or standard massage blend.

🌿 Comfrey is traditionally valued for soothing tired, overworked muscles, joints and connective tissues.

🌿 Mullein is traditionally used for its soothing and anti-inflammatory properties, particularly for muscular aches, discomfort and joint stiffness.

✨ The result is a beautifully smooth massage experience with excellent glide, allowing your therapist to work comfortably across the body while the herbal infusion brings its own unique botanical character to your treatment.

🌱 Grown locally. Harvested. Handcrafted. Made for massage.

We love bringing local small businesses together to create something special for our community — combining Handcrafted Herbals’ passion for herbal preparations with Glow In Wellness Massage Therapy’s expertise in massage therapy.

💆‍♀️ Experience the blend during your next treatment at Glow In Wellness Massage Therapy.

🌿 Handcrafted Herbals & Glow In Wellness Massage Therapy 🌿
Local businesses. Local collaboration. Handcrafted with care.

🌼 Cape Marigold — Arctotheca calendula 🌼

Often dismissed as a lawn w**d, Cape Marigold is a beautiful little groundcover that brings a splash of golden colour wherever it grows. Its flowers are particularly useful in the garden as a source of pollen and nectar, attracting bees and other flower-visiting insects. 🐝🌿

Traditionally, Cape Marigold has been used in some folk herbal practices, particularly externally for minor skin complaints. It has also been valued as an ornamental plant and groundcover.

It’s worth noting that Cape Marigold is not the same plant as Calendula officinalis (pot marigold), the familiar medicinal calendula used in many herbal preparations.

I love finding plants like this carpeting our everyday spaces — a reminder that our “w**ds” can have a role to play too. 🌱💛

✨🐞 These incredible little bugs are Hibiscus Harlequin Bugs (Tectocoris diophthalmus), also known as Cotton Harlequin Bugs.

The metallic electric-blue bodies with brilliant red and orange markings make them look like tiny pieces of jewellery! 💙❤️

They’re actually true bugs rather than beetles, and these are the nymphs — hence the impressive gathering all clustered together on the plant.

They’re commonly found on hibiscus and other members of the mallow family, where they use their piercing mouthparts to feed on plant sap.

I love discovering these little flashes of colour tucked away amongst the greenery — another reminder of just how much incredible life is happening right in the garden! 🌿🐞✨

🌿 Wild Lettuce — Lactuca virosa

The wild lettuce in the garden is putting on quite a show at the moment! 🌱 It’s going to seed, while underneath it, a whole new generation of little plants is already popping up. I love watching this natural cycle — one plant finishing its season while quietly creating the next. It’s a wonderful reminder that the garden is constantly renewing itself.

Wild lettuce (Lactuca virosa) has a long history of traditional herbal use. The milky latex contains compounds including lactucin and lactucopicrin, which have been traditionally valued for their calming and relaxing properties.

Wild lettuce has particularly been associated with supporting relaxation, restful sleep and easing occasional tension and discomfort. 🌿

I always love seeing medicinal plants reseeding themselves naturally rather than having to start everything from scratch. This little patch is clearly very happy where it is! 💚 Have you ever grown wild lettuce — or spotted it growing wild around your garden?

**ds

🦟 Bug Lifeguard 👀

I seem to be constantly saving bugs lately! 😂 This little dragonfly was another pool rescue — I found her struggling in the water and scooped her out, and thankfully she was happy to sit on my hand for a little while and dry off. 💚

I believe she’s a female Blue Skimmer (Orthetrum caledonicum), a beautiful and fairly common dragonfly in our area.

It’s amazing how many little creatures we encounter when we slow down and actually look. 🦋🌿 Between the bees, butterflies, spiders, beetles, dragonflies and everything else I seem to be rescuing, there's always something interesting to see 😁

🌿 Sensitive Skin Cream — back in the making today! 🌿

I originally created this cream for people with sensitive skin and allergies to products with long, complicated ingredient lists — wanting something simple, nourishing and plant-based, designed to hydrate, soothe and support dry, reactive skin.

Over the years, customers have given me wonderful feedback and told me how much they love it for dryness, redness, wind-burn and rosacea-prone skin, as well as sweat rashes and particularly dry, scaly skin.

Everyone's skin is different, but I love hearing how a formulation created for one purpose finds its way into so many people's skincare routines. 🌱

Today I'm making a fresh batch of the original Sensitive Skin Cream, along with my H**p Sensitive Skin Cream — adding h**p oil to the same nourishing herbal base.

No essential oils, no complicated fragrance blend — just whole-plant herbal infusions and carefully selected ingredients made by hand in small batches.

💚🌿 Handcrafted skincare for skin that prefers things simple.

🌿 The Magic of Alcohol Extraction - Strawberry Liquor 🍓❤️

One of the fascinating things about making herbal extractions, whether it's for a tincture or a liquor, is watching the alcohol begin its work almost immediately. 👀🌈

Alcohol is an excellent solvent, meaning it can pull a wide range of compounds from plants — including aromatic oils, flavours, pigments and other plant constituents.

🌿 In many botanicals, you can see the transformation within the first 24 hours, as the alcohol draws out the plant's natural colour and the liquid begins to take on the character of the herb or fruit.

This is one of the reasons I love working with whole plants. 🌿🍊🍓

What starts as a jar of fresh fruit, herbs or botanicals slowly becomes something completely different as the solvent extracts and concentrates their unique qualities.

🌈The colour change is often the first visible sign that the extraction is happening — a little glimpse into the chemistry taking place inside the jar. ✨