Wild Rose Photo Credit: Deborah Burke for Lakon Herbals The Wild Rose used in our Skin Care oil grows abundantly here in Vermont. This Rose seems to be a cross between the Official Apothecary's Rose and Rose Trigintipetala. On the average, we harvest 60 pounds of fresh flowers for our White Pond Lily and Wild Rose Skin Care Oil. Roses are harvested in the early part of the day before the heat of the sun evaporates the volatile oils.

White Pond Lily and Wild Rose is one of our first skin care formulas developed in 1987. We recommend it as an afterbath or general skin care oil. It is mild, lightly fragrant and nourishing. White Pond Lily and Wild Rose was named not so much for the White Pond Lily as for the Wild Apothecary Rose that grows abundantly in New England, and the Rosa Rugosa most abundant in the coastal areas. In the early days of this formula we were diving for pond lily root in the local ponds and lake edges in Vermont. A challenging and somewhat satisfying activity, although a bit mucky at times. Clearly the root of the pond lily was somewhat of a rarity among folk healers, most likely because it's very difficult to harvest and drys to about one tenth of it's weight when fresh. After a great deal of experiment we shifted our focus to the emollient rich flower, basically unknown to most herbalists. We developed a special technique for extracting the rare, aloe vera like gel from the flower. It is this component that goes into the this blend, in small quantity as the extraction process is time consuming and the yield is relatively low. The other ingredients are known for their emollient and nourishing properities, also wild harvested or cultivated by us - Borage flowers and tops, the seeds of which are high in gamma linolenic acid, Marsh Mallow root,leaf and flower,
and Calendula flowers.

All of these botanicals found their way into early skin care products both in Native American Culture and Early Folk Medicine, due to their youth enhancing effect on the skin.

Ingredients: Olive Oil, White Pond Lily (Nymphaea odorata), Rose, Rose hips, Mallow (Althea off.), Borage, Calendula, essential oils Lavender, Sandalwood, Rose Geranium and Lemongrass.