The NAHLA Production Lab is awash today in heaps of neroli and jasmine blossoms. Marula oil, fresh in from Africa, and glittering shards of omumbiri, an amber-hued resin, harvested for NAHLA by the Himba tribe of Namibia, waiting for their perfect moment to shine.
Fleuressence African Nectar is a love letter to Namibia, a place so otherworldly that being there took my breath away. And it's an ode to ritual. I know that word is thrown around a lot lately as a trite marketing gimmick. But if you scratch the surface, ritual is really our (re) connection to self - all the versions of who we used to be, who we are today and the person we are becoming. It's also the thread that connects us to each other, the people who came before us and to the people who leave their imprint on this moment.
When I press this silky serum to my skin each day, I think of the community in Namibia that hand harvests our marula - selecting only the ripe, tree-fallen fruit to protect this precious resource. I think of the two, small biodynamic farms who hand harvest jasmine and neroli blossoms, shipping them with care so that they arrive here in Maine just hours after being plucked. I think of the strong women of Namibia who collect the powerfully healing omumbiri resin we infuse into every bottle.
And I think of the team here at NAHLA, who labor over every time-consuming batch, macerating the fresh blossoms and healing resins with virgin marula oil to coax out their delicate aroma and skin renewing benefits in a process that is painstakingly and beautifully our own. It's not easy making skincare this way. But if you saw how our entire team walks around with silly smiles on their faces on Fleuressence days, you'd understand why we consider it bliss in a bottle.
Here's a cute little video of African animals getting drunk on marula fruit because it's hilarious and wonderful. Enjoy!
