Lifestyle Archives - Ravenscourt Apothecary

Category: Lifestyle

May

A Second Life For Family Heirloom

Ruth’s email came out of the blue: her mom had passed away at Christmas, she wrote, and she found three of her 1950s powder compacts. A friend had shown her a feature about my natural scents in LansScape Magazine, and she decided to contact me.
We met up in a tea room in Exeter, where she showed me the beautiful vintage compacts she brought with her. I laid out my array of botanical fragrances and let Ruth decide which one she liked best. It turned out that Ruth’s mom, Rosetta, was an avid tea-drinker, and Rooibos – or Red Bush Tea – was her favorite. Inhaling the fragrance, she said that it brought back memories of brewing it for her mom to enjoy. However, and I think it came as a little surprise for both of us, Ruth liked the Earl Grey Tea fragrance even better, and chose it to be the scent to have her vintage compact filled with.
A week later, when she received it back, shiny and filled with solid fragrance, she thanked me and mentioned that Rosetta would have been very pleased to see her things up-cycled in such an original way. I was simply moved by being allowed to give a piece of family history a second life, and felt grateful.

Ruth’s compact

Jul

summer in the city

I drove past this rose bush on the way to North Devon coast, and was grateful to have a camera on me.

These long summer days are soaked in sunlight. I’ve harvested my Roman chamomile first time this year, and it’s now fully dried, stored away in a mason jar, to be opened later in the year. So many other herbs are also ripe for the picking: the air is sweet and fragrant above my patch of peppermint. I’ll dry it for tea and to use in soap and skincare for Ravenscourt Apothecary one of these days, soon. It delights me to be able to store some of that summer lavishness.

I find it that creativity comes effortlessly during this golden season. A couple of new, gentle soaps were added to our line recently: Gunpowder Green Teasoap, gentle Oats & Rosehips face scrub, and Purity cleanser. You have the choice of choosing the scent – lavender, clary sage or tingly tee tree – and it makes your skin so, so soft. More new products are coming up: that elusive white floral perfume, Annabel Lee, will launch in August, and we’re working on our first completely organic facial serum, to be launched around the same time.

I’m taking a little break and going to be away from the studio on July 26th. Orders placed through the main shop and Etsy will be processed when I return on August 9th. I cannot say how much I appreciate being able to do what I do, and share my passion for simple, botanical goodness – so thank you all so much for your patience. Your orders will be on their way to you as soon as possible.

To sweeten the deal while I am away, here’s a few good things:

– this white stone paper weight with carved botanicals
– this instagram made me go the mountains (maybe a trip to Scotland later this year?)

Jun

Father’s Day Gifts

Happy Father’s Day! To all the fantastic dads out there, Ravenscourt Apothecary wanted to share something special just for you today: a brand new Shaving Bar soap, made with Rhassoul Clay for a robust lather and a great glide. Available starting next week.

And if your dad happens to be an avid reader, literary colognes make a great gift!

Shaving Bar soap

Literary Colognes

Dec

Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland

Holiday season is in full swing, and I hope that everybody is finding their piece of magic during this dark and cozy time of the year. Last week, my husband and I unexpectedly found ourselves at the traditional Bavarian Christmas Market in the middle of London. I am not a huge fan of Christmas, but even I found my breath taken away: the open fire stalls, the fairy lights and the lanterns, the heart-shaped Lebkuchens and the filigree hand-cut wooden ornaments, and even more fairy lights. No red and green garishness, no snowmen or Santa Claus, just the quiet old Europe fairy tale that makes you turn within and listen.

While this is a busy time of the year for people, everything else in nature tends to hibernate and conserve energy for the new spring that has yet to come. This year, I decided to stay in tune with natural rhythms as much as possible, which also affected my choices of gifts for my family and loved ones. I was never one to participate in the crazy and unsustainable over-consumption that seems to be the motto of the holiday season in the western world. But this year, I deliberately chose my presents to be either dedicated charitable donations, or handmade gifts I personally created.

I’m wishing you a wonderful and peaceful holiday season, filled with love and light.

Dec

Tea & Soap: A Happy Marriage

This is a story about two of my loves – tea and soap – and their happy marriage.

The story starts back in the summer of 2011, when I – then living in the United States – went on vacation to Florida, where I’d never been before. I was staying with a friend who invited me over, and her husband picked me up at the airport. Coming from Washington, DC, which is yucky and humid in the summer, my first thought was that “they probably steep their breeze in their pine forests here” – it smelled so woodsy. My stay was great, I enjoyed the white sand and the bath temperature ocean water – my experience with the ocean is mostly limited to Southern California cold streams, so Florida was quite a contrast.

When I only had about a couple days left, I decided to go see this beautiful Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota. When I say a museum, you are probably picturing a gray building with paintings and artifacts – but this was different. It was a whole grandiose park with the statue of David and fountains and a big pink-walled http://www.honeytraveler.com/pharmacy/ gallery and a dazzling mansion right on the waterfront of Sarasota Bay. You could spend all day there. There was also a large Italian style rose garden there, and they sold Rooibos tea with the rose petals collected from that garden in the gift shop. I brought a large tin of it with me back to DC.

Fast forward 2 years ahead, and here I am, relocated to Europe and living in London, doing photography, writing and making soap and perfumes. When going through my stash of teas recently, I discovered I still had some of that Rooibos tea! So I decided to make a batch of soap with a strong brew of that Florida Rooibos. Every time I look at the result (which you can see in the picture) I think of where it came from and how little things in our life can manifest themselves later on – sometimes transformed into something else completely, but still reminiscent of our personal journey.

For more pictures and the ingredients list see my Rooibos Tea in the shop section of my website.

Oct

On Botanical Fragrances (And Why You Should Consider Them)

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It finally happened. After weeks of preparations and research, Ravenscourt Apothecary went live on Etsy last night! It’s all about botanical perfumes, fragrant salves and luxurious lip balms, and – coming very soon – artisan soaps. Not only do they smell amazing, they are also 100% natural. But isn’t everything these days? And why should you care about that? Simple: botanical fragrances are so, so much better for you. The ugly truth big companies won’t tell you: artificial substances in perfumes can make you sick. They cause allergies, asthma, migraines and disrupt your hormones. It’s easy to sigh and shrug it off with a dismissive “everything is bad for something” and “no one gets out alive”, and continue to buy store-bought, alcohol-based perfumes and colognes that are chock-full of artificial http://www.mindanews.com/buy-paxil/ ingredients. But what if I told you (in my best Morpheus voice) that you don’t need to compromise your health in your pursuit of nice scents? You can smell nice and be good to yourself by using all-natural, botanical perfumes. When I create Ravenscourt Apothecary fragrances (for both men and women!), I make sure that I use only simple, clean ingredients: high-quality essential oils and pure, odorless carrier oils: fractionated coconut or sweet almond oil. That’s it! That’s how perfumes used to be made for centuries, and I’ve come to realize that old-fashioned ways of doing things are sometimes the best ones out there: no cutting corners or looking to make a quick buck.

Instead, think honest, solid, tried and trusted ways. You can see for yourself: www.etsy.com/shop/RavensctApothecary

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Oct

Victorian Perfume Buttons

I just recently learned about these. I am a sucker for anything quirky in history, particularly the Victorian era, so it tickles me pink to tell you about them. So back in the 19th century, fragrances were mostly oil-based. Personally, I am a fan of oil perfumes in modern times as well – they don’t have that nasty alcohol smell to them and are incredibly long-lasting. However, noble dames of the Victorian era were not pleased with one aspect of such fragrances: they could stain your clothes, and wouldn’t that be a bummer. So the solution was found, cute as a button:

Such buttons had a cloth base, such as velvet or flannel, something that would absorb and hold fragrances, and were ornamented with metal patterns, often floral.

Scent buttons were manufactured in the United States in the 1800s. They were also massively popular in European countries, particularly France and England. During the Civil War in America, ladies would send their loved ones off to war and give them their perfume buttons as romantic tokens or their affection. Some soldiers died with these in their pockets, while others lived to tell numerous stories about how it kept them going, how it kept them sane.

Today these antique perfume buttons are used in jewelry making: they make lovely bracelets and necklaces:

Hi, I’m Tanya

I create all natural perfume, vegan soap and simple, nourishing skincare. Ravenscourt Apothecary was created in 2013 in London shortly after I relocated to Europe from the United States. New in the UK, I was at a crossroads and craving a creative outlet. My heart was set on serving the world one bar of vegan soap and bottle of perfume at a time.

Today, I live in Devon, England with my husband Harry and our cat. When I’m not thinking of new natural fragrances, I can be found practicing yoga, baking sourdough bread or photographing my furry son (who is called Bergamot after my best-loved perfume note!)

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A Second Life For Family Heirloom

summer in the city

Father’s Day Gifts

Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland

Tea & Soap: A Happy Marriage

On Botanical Fragrances (And Why You Should Consider Them)

Victorian Perfume Buttons

Hi, I’m Tanya

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