Find Us Here: Cambridge Naturals in Cambridge, MA

Independently owned and operated natural health stores are invaluable to local communities - especially when they have served those communities for over 40 years! Cambridge Naturals in Cambridge, Massachusetts is a shining example of a community-centric small business with steadfast ethics, service and a passion for natural health.

Founded in 1974 by Michael Kanter and Elizabeth Stagl, Cambridge Naturals is built on a strong ethical foundation that we at Wild Rose admire greatly:

Our mission is to provide the best choices in nutritional supplements for health and wellness, clean body care products and organic foods. We are committed to sourcing products locally, organically, and ethically via fair trade and direct trade channels, and to donating a portion of our profits to social and environmental organizations that impact our community. As part of our vision for a more just, equitable and sustainable world, we strive to partner with businesses owned by women and underserved individuals. We offer a wide assortment of high quality vitamins, herbs, body care, books and yoga supplies, along with a curated selection of organic, fairly traded, local and unique groceries, just for you! - Cambridge Naturals

It is inspiring to see such uncompromising values in a long-standing small business. We are thrilled to be included on the shelves of Cambridge Naturals knowing that we share such a similar vision. Their success proves that alternative business models are not only in demand, but a necessary and viable option for our culture's transition into a more sustainable future.

Cambridge Naturals has been carrying Wild Rose lip balms, salves, aromatherapy sprays and Wild Man beard care since June. Their knowledgeable staff, extensive selection and beautifully organized store provide an ideal environment to pick your new favorite natural body care products. Their staff's love for natural health and wellness shines through in every aspect of their business. Cambridge Naturals even offers curated gift sets available on there website for direct shipment to yourself or a loved one. If you're a Cambridge local, or if you're passing through, be sure to shop at this amazing small business and save on shipping costs, too!

Introducing: Refresh - Stimulating Botanical Skin Care

 

Say 'hello' to the newly expanded Refresh - Stimulating Botanical Skin Care line! Refresh is an aromatherapy-based system that supports glowing, nourished skin for all ages and skin types. Refresh combines stimulating Green Tea and Peppermint plus nutrient-dense organic Jasmine and Carrot for naturally radiant skin. All without chemicals or synthetic materials, this system is 100% plant-based. Refresh's aroma is invigorating and slightly sweet with a deep, earthy-floral Jasmine undertone.

Refresh is recommended for tired, dull skin of all types. The powerful botanicals used in Refresh products may be irritating to some. This product is not recommended for those with very sensitive skin.

We're offering our four-pack gift sampler set - enough for about two months of daily use - for just $19.95! This set is the best way to try out the entire Refresh system before investing in a long-lasting full size bottle of your favorite formulas. The sampler set includes:

Refresh Stimulating Facial Cleanser (1oz amber glass bottle with pump)

Refresh Stimulating Facial Toner (1oz amber glass bottle with sprayer)

Refresh Stimulating Facial Serum (1/4oz amber glass vial with reducer)

Refresh Stimulating Facial Mask (1/4oz clear glass vial with cork)

Pick up a sampler set today and get to know Refresh - the newest addition to the Wild Rose family!

Clearance Sale! Clarity and Attunement Skin Care Sets

 We've got some big changes coming to our skin care line - but first, we're offering deep discounts on our remaining stock of Attunement and Clarity cleansers, toners and serums! Stock is very limited so head on over to our site for 50% off while supplies last.

And don't worry - our much-loved Attunement and Clarity formulas are staying practically the same, but they're getting a major packaging upgrade. Plus, we'll be expanding with a brand new skin care line! Check back soon for all the details.

From the Garden: Our Biointensive Brassica Bed

In our annual veggie garden, we incorporate a variety of permaculture methods to increase yields, reduce pests and maintain healthy soil. One such method is biointensive gardening, where a single garden bed is inhabited by a variety of compatible plants for maximum use of space. It has been our experience that plants grow better in a diverse bed rather than a monocrop, so we plant biointensive beds just about everywhere.

Baby broccoli in the early spring greenhouse

One such bed we call our "brassica bed" because the primary crop is range of brassicas - Kale, Cauliflower and Romanesco Broccoli (known as hippy broccoli on the ranch). We planted our brassicas in staggered rows, so that each plant is approximately 18"-24" from one another on a diagonal line.

Hippy Broccoli - Fall 2014

These brassicas grow upward, with most of their food value harvested from the "canopy" of the garden bed (imagine it's a tiny forest). This leaves plantable area below and just above ground. The gaps in between our brassicas were filled with low-growing lettuce and carrots (beets are technically a better companion, but we eat more carrots). So in the end, we will be harvesting food from the flowering tops of our brassicas (2'-3' above ground), the leaves and whole heads of our lettuce (about 1' above ground) and the roots of our carrots (up to 12" below ground). That's a lot of vertical growing area!

Now, we are admittedly very chaotic with our gardening habits. What little space that is left in beds is filled with scrambling peas, aromatic herbs and a ridiculous amount on Calendula (for use in Wild Rose formulas, of course). We combine biointensive gardening with lasagna gardening (no-till) plus whatever else sounds good and organic. Diversity is key!

Find us Here: Sub Rosa Mercantile in Denver, CO

Photo by Sub Rosa Mercantile

Sub Rosa Mercantile brings together small makers from across the country (and beyond!) to Denver's Sunnyside. One of those small makers is Wild Rose, and we are thrilled to be included on their lovely shelves!

Sub Rosa regularly stocks Wild Man Beard Care for all you rugged Coloradans (or is Coloradoans?)

 This is the kind of store that makes me consider moving just so I could shop there regularly. Luckily, Sub Rosa also has an online store where you can find most of their offerings, including comfy shirts of their badass logo!

Sub Rosa founder, Madeleine Zinn, chillin' with the buffalo via their Instagram.

Sub Rosa was founded in 2014 by Madeleine Zinn, a lady with an eye for contemporary handcrafted and generally awesome goods.

"Sub Rosa Mercantile is a modern take on the “bodeguita” or general store... Eschewing the ease of mass production in favor of small batch, handcrafted products, Sub Rosa Mercantile seeks to help support and promote the creativity of talented individuals."        - Read more from Sub Rosa

Sub Rosa Mercantile is the perfect blend of ethics and artistic taste, making this shop an ideal fit for Wild Rose's goods. Denver residents and visitors, be sure to check out this carefully curated shop!

Product Spotlight: Refresh Stimulating Facial Mask

Summer can be harsh on skin. High temperatures and hot air can really disturb the moisture balance of the face and it can be difficult to control once the cycle starts. If your normally well-behaved skin starts acting out with excessive oil, breakouts and redness during the heat, our Refresh Stimulating Facial Mask may be your key to happy Summer skin.

Refresh is a rejuvenating blend of toxin-drawing French Green clay, stimulating Gunpowder Green Tea and gently exfoliating organic Jasmine Petals. This dynamic base draws out excess dirt and oils, gently exfoliates to remove dry patches and stimulates skin to maintain that healthy Summer glow (sans oily redness).

Refresh is enhanced with organic essential oils of Peppermint, Lemon, Pacific Northwest Lavender and Carrot. This unique blend will invigorate tired skin and fill your bathroom with an energizing therapeutic aroma. Your skin will be left feeling cool, revitalized and ready for Summer fun!

This is a dry powder mask that you mix at home. This eliminates the need for nasty preservatives, allows you to mix the mask to your desired consistency and gives you at least double the product! In a small dish, combine 1 tsp mask with 1 tsp water. This will activate the essential oils, filling the air with a rich, botanical aroma. Apply to face and let dry for 10 minutes. Rinse with warm water, gently rubbing to exfoliate. Use as needed depending on skin type, at least once a week.

Refresh may be irritating to some individuals so it is not recommended for those with very sensitive skin. As with any new product, use on an inconspicuous patch of skin to test for reactions before normal use.

Distilling Essential Oils with Wild Rose

When I first started learning aromatherapy, I dreamed of having my own still so that I could grow and harvest my own plants for essential oils. The most pure essential oils are steam distilled - a process which gently steams that plant material releasing the essential oil, then quickly condenses this steam giving you a generous amount of hydrosol and a very small amount of essential oil. Because of the reactive nature of essential oils, the only safe materials for constructing a still are copper, stainless steel or glass. For many years I have eyed the beautiful, 100% glass Heart Magic Distiller and I am ecstatic to say that I finally acquired one for use at Wild Rose!

Our various mint patches have been a little overwhelming this year. I needed to cut them back to prevent them from taking over, but I was reluctant to waste so much of this awesome plant (you can only dry so much for tea). This made it the perfect year to invest in a still. At Wild Rose we use a lot of Oregon-Grown Peppermint Essential Oil, and while it will be many years before we can supply our own, I thought this would be a good start.

Chocolate Mint slowly taking over the poppies.

My first distilling attempt was Apple Mint, a plant as delicious as it sounds. The sweet apple flavor of this mint cancels out any bitterness commonly found in the plant. It is incredibly refreshing as a tea and I could not wait to use it in the still.

Catnip is next!

Our Apple Mint was in full bloom and in the end I collected about 1/2oz of essential oil from about eight full distillations. Considering I have the smallest still with just a 2 Liter flask for plant material, I was pretty thrilled with the results! The Apple Mint Essential Oil is incredibly potent and much more long-lasting than other mints. It has an amazingly fresh scent that lingers on the skin for hours. I'm excited to incorporate Apple Mint and other artisan essential oils into future perfume blends for Wild Rose!

Save 20% at Wild Rose's Solstice Sale!

Happy Solstice! Celebrate the longest (or shortest) day of the year with 20% off your entire purchase using code SOLSTICE2015 at checkout. Valid through Monday, June 22nd!

Summer Scents: Cove Beard Care

Our four classic Beard Conditioner scents -  The Original, Raven, Tundra and Cove - were formulated with the seasons in mind. As Summer looms, we take a closer look at our favorite warm-weather scent, Cove.

Cove captures the sweet and refreshing flavors of Summer. We start with a base of tart and juicy cold-pressed lime essential oil. We source our oil from certified organic lime growers who then press the lime peels to extract this magnificent, green oil. There is absolutely no heat applied during this process, so the freshness of the lime flavor is left fully intact. Lime is an optimistic and joyful scent, perfect for your Summer adventures.

Lime is an amazing scent all on its own, but it really shines with a complex pairing. A bit of earthy, grounding sage essential oil is included to help balance the bright scent of lime. Sage is a stimulating and thought-provoking scent that harnesses lime's positivity for fruitful mental work.  We finish Cove by adding just a bit of refreshing and cool tea tree. Tea tree is a powerful essential oil used to cleanse and purify the body and mind. Tea tree offers clarity with a fresh undertone, though it is very subtle in the overall blend.

Cove is available in Beard Conditioner, Beard Wash and Beard Cream. We like to pair it with Limeade or Piña Colada Lip Balm for full Summer flavor.

Cove is predominantly sweet lime accompanied by grounding sage and purifying tea tree. The perfect blend for Summer; Cove inspires us to use the optimism of the season wisely.

From the Garden: Late Spring at the Wild Rose Homestead

Spring is in full swing at the Wild Rose Homestead. Here's a few scenes from the farm:

Our Rose bushes are covered in beautiful, bright blooms! We harvest just a portion of  these for our Attunement Balancing Facial Mask and Bloom Muscle Rub. The rest are left for the bees.

Our mixed flower/herb bed of poppies, mint, borage and calendula flourished every year. We also added a young apple tree that will one day offer shade.

We started the last of our veggie seeds including this beautiful Cassiopeia popcorn offered by Siskiyou Seeds. We'll be growing this in a traditional Three Sisters bed with winter squash and beans.

The greenhouse is packed full of veggies, flowers and herbs! We used the last of our excess jar boxes from Wild Rose to start sunflowers and hollyhocks.

An early June harvest of rose petals, calendula, mulberries, strawberries, cherries and red clover! Our array of veggies, fruits and herbs grow together harmoniously, improving the soil to produce more potent herbs for Wild Rose.

Celebrate Off the Map Tattoo's Third Anniversary!

Come celebrate with us tomorrow night at Off the Map Tattoo in downtown Grants Pass! This year marks Off the Map's third year in business in our town. We love the folks at OTM and are so happy to have them in our community. There will be loads of awesome raffle prizes, including two Wild Rose gift cards! The fun starts at 7pm. See you there!

Back in Stock: Full Size WIld Man Gift Sets

Full Size Wild Man Beard Gift Sets are back in stock! Our three most popular Wild Man beard care essentials in large, long-lasting bottles for the dedicated beard enthusiast. Wild Man Beard Conditioner, Beard Wash and Beard Cream are designed to work together for a naturally soft, thick and clean beard. Each highly concentrated product will last the average user 6-9 months or more.

This gift set is offered in four different scents, plus an unscented version. At $67.95, you'll save a few bucks off regular price!

Happy May Day! Save 20% Now!

Happy May Day!! Save 20% off your order using code MAYDAY2015 through May 4th!

From the Garden: March at the Wild Rose Homestead

Spring has arrived in Southern Oregon! Here's a few scenes from around the homestead over the past month.

This is our second full growing season on the property. The fruit tress we planted last year are looking marvelous - like this Asian Pear exploding in flowers! Maybe we'll get the first fruits this year?

We also planted two-year-old asparagus roots last year on the garden edges. We're starting to see some nice, thick stalks pop up, though we wont be eating any this year. We're patiently waiting for the plants to become well established. Next year we should have plenty to harvest.

Looks like these Calendula volunteers are giving us a hand with our goal of growing all of our own Calendula in 2015. When these babies bloom, they will be used to make our Calendula Extract for our Ink Spray Tattoo Aftercare as well as our Attunement and Clarity Cleansers.

We added more fruit trees this year, including this Puget Gold Apricot! We wont get fruit from this tree for several years, but the blossoms are a real treat!

Wild Rose's Four Year Anniversary and Sale!

Wild Rose is celebrating our fourth year in business this weekend! Use code SPRING2015 for 20% off your entire order through the 23rd! Thank you all for supporting our small business through another amazing year!

The momentum of our fourth year in business has allowed us to greatly expand our product lines to meet customer requests. Early in the year we released three new botanical lip tints and four new unique lip balms flavors. Our carefully crafted Bloom Muscle Rub and New Moon Menstrual Massage have also quickly become new favorites among our customers. And finally, last fall we announced the arrival of five Artisanal Bath Salts in beautiful scents and colors.

Our ever popular Wild Man line was improved with trial size sampler packs, a full line of Beard Creams in new scents plus limited edition seasonal Beard Conditioners for our festive fans. We also attended the first ever Southern Oregon Battle of the Beards - what a blast!

This year we were able to continue our tradition of giving back by making donations to Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Wildlife Images, Black Mesa Indigenous Support, Peaceful Uprising and Units'ot'en Camp. We couldn't support the vital work of these amazing groups without our loyal customers. Thank you all for investing in a sustainable future!

Most importantly, we're continuing to settle in at our little homestead. This year we have big plans to grow as many botanicals as possible for Wild Rose. For 2015, we believe we can grow all of our own Calendula and Yarrow. We're also looking to grow a large portion of our own roses and cayenne peppers. The longer we are here, the more we will be able to grow for Wild Rose. This will help us in our long-term goal of sustainability for both homestead and business.

We are ever grateful for the opportunity to provide our botanical skin care line to such an amazing customer base. Thank you all for yet another record-breaking year! Here's to many more good things to come!

Product Spotlight: Passion Romantic Bath Salts

Passion is an enchanting blend designed to promote relaxation and bliss for the body and mind.
The foundation of this soak is Pink Himalayan Salt - the finest, most pure salt available - packed with over 84 minerals and trace elements that are easily absorbed through the skin. A touch of Australian Red Clay boosts the mineral content of this soak for truly radiant and soft skin.

We finish by adding our unique, mood-enhancing aromatic blend, Passion: A softly sweet and floral mix of Mandarin and Bulgarian Rose with the intriguing spice of Cardamom. This organic aroma is sure to seduce the most restless of minds into a state of natural bliss. Ideal for sharing with your better half on Valentine's Day, or for a little self-care spa treat.

Get your Holiday Orders in by December 16th!

Just 10 days left to get your holiday orders in for delivery by Xmas within the US! The sooner the better - This date is subject to change and delivery snafus are a reality this time of year. Express shipping available through the main site - www.wildroseherbs.com

Small Business Saturday is Here! Shop Local for Wild Rose

This Small Business Saturday shop local for Wild Rose // Wild Man products at one of the many independently-owned retail stores that carry our products worldwide! We love our retail clients and encourage customers to shop with them. It saves you money on shipping and puts dollars right into your local economy - everyone wins! The above photo shows a few of our products carried by the beautiful store Foggy Notion in San Francisco. Find a stockist near you!

Black Friday // Cyber Monday Sale at Wild Rose!

Shop our Black Friday // Cyber Monday Sale now through December 1st!

• Save 25% on all 50ml Beard Conditioners
• Save 10% on select gift sets
• Save 15% on all skin care

Hot Cranberry Gingerade to Fight the Cold

Many of us are incredibly busy during the holiday season and it's easy to get rundown, increasing chances of illness. It's important to take breaks, stay hydrated and nourished during times of stress, so I'd like to share with you my secret holiday season weapon: Cranberry Gingerade!

This simple tea is a quick and delicious way to get a powerful dose of Vitamin C, antioxidants and nutritious ginger all while increasing hydration and (in theory) taking a break to drink it! To make Cranberry Gingeade, put your kettle on the stove and prepare the following in a 16oz mason jar:

• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 5-10 fresh or frozen cranberries
• 2-3 thin slices of fresh ginger root, or 1/4-1/2 tsp dry powder
• 1 TBSP honey or sweetener of choice

When your kettle begins to boil, pour hot water over your ingredients in the mason jar up to the first line on the jar's neck. After steeping for a few minutes, the cranberries should float to the top. CAREFULLY mash these with a spoon to pop them open and release their juice. Continue steeping for at least five minutes.

Once steeped, you can either strain your tea through a coffee filter or use a bombilla to drink your tea straight from the jar after it has cooled.

Stay healthy by taking care of yourself this holiday season!