This one begins… as most stories do… with a mother.
As a child, I wasn't well. Nothing the doctors did seemed to help. So my mother dropped everything and started to search for another solution. That’s how she began a 10 year formal education in herbal medicine and traditional Chinese medicine. I got better and she helped other people get better too.
As a kid, I spent all my summer holidays in Spain with my family. I explored the mountains, swam in the sea and ran through the village streets when the sun went down… And the mosquitos followed me along too. Coming home, covered with bites, my mum used her knowledge to make a spray to keep the biters away.
Many years later, when I had my first child, me and my family moved to Spain to live permanently. The mosquitos were just like back then, and they really loved our juicy little baby! You know how it is with your first child, you’re so careful! You examine everything you put in or on your kid! And so of course, we didn’t want to put any nasty stuff on his skin and none of the natural repellents seemed to be effective… Then one day my mind went back to my mother’s spray.
She developed the foundation for this potion and over the last 5 years, we’ve improved on it. We read the latest research about which plant oils are most effective as mosquito repellents. And we wanted it to do much more than just keep insects away. We made it powerful and beneficial for your skin, healing, calming, cooling and alcohol-free. We tinkered with the smell and now it changes over time, from bright citrusy notes at the beginning, to heavier, woodier ones later, that linger on. And not just considering how it smells but also how those smells could positively affect mood and well-being.
Using a mosquito repellent can be a necessary thing to do sometimes, but who actually enjoys doing it? We wanted to make something that you’d feel good using, that would put a smile on your face, that you’d want to put on whether there are mosquitos around or not.
Then friends kept asking what that smell was? They tried it and loved it too and so we kept making extra bottles for them. Then we thought, why not share it with more people?
In Japan, the twanging of a bow is a sound that is thought to have resonance with ghosts. The ritual plucking of a bowstring is known as 'Meigen' and is believed to be an auditory deterrent against malevolent spirits. In past times, during childbirth, someone could be given this task to perform nearby as the child enters into this world...