The Queens Way of Comforting and Healing Our Epidermis

There have been many a nights, when the boys were little, and the sun kissed their skin a little too deeply; the days when I was not diligent enough with the sunscreen. To be honest, I think I subconsciously “forgot” about the sunscreen sometimes, because I could never reconcile in my mind whether or not sunscreen is actually safe; or if the Vitamin D that the sunscreen blocked, was more beneficial than the cancer risks the sunscreen presented.

At sunset, I would breathe a silent steady sigh of relief, because the quandary of the lesser of two evils was finally put to rest. No one ever got burned by the moon.

But in truth, the real peace came from a little bottle of orange oil that I slathered on the boys faces at night before they went to bed.  The bottle came from the “chemists” at the little aromatherapy shop where I collect my essential oils. After my small bout with basal skin cancer, I asked the “chemists” to make me an aromatherapy blend to heal my skin. She pulled out a tall bottle with an bright orange oil inside, and said, “In France, they used wild carrot seed essential oil to treat the skin of burn victims. It heals the skin, leaves no scars, and is a powerful antioxidant.”

Carrot Seed essential oil promotes cellular regeneration.  According to the Aromatherapy Bible, “For aging of the skin, wrinkles and a bad colour, mix 10 ml (2 tsp) almond oil and 4 drops essential oil of carrot (see also burns). Use twice a year, for one month only each time, applying twice a day, and your skin will regain elasticity and firmness, and will acquire a good color.”

We have kept a steady supply of this oil for over 8 years now. The boys instinctively ask for “organge oil” when they see red spots on their faces.

For me, the oil was atonement for the sins we made all day long; for the havoc the sun wrecked on those precious, young cells. Many nights, I fell asleep dreaming about that orange oil doing its work to heal their skin… a magic eraser.

It’s difficult for me to describe how the wheels started to turn in my head; but as I learned about the skin-healing benefits of beets, turmeric and even fermented rice, I started using the fermented forms of those foods (because the vitamins are far more accessible) as DIY skin healing masks — kind of what we did as teenagers when we raided the fridge of the cucumbers, honey and yogurt to do our beauty treatments.

And then, the lightbulbs really started going off, when I found that there are new skin care lines made up entirely of probiotic/ferments.  The enzymes in the fermented products add an extra layer of skin healing, cleansing and exfoliating.

But nobody was using the specific “skin healing vegetables” in their skin-cleansing ferments.  This seems so obvious to me. Doesn’t it seem so obvious to you too?

So, even through the beets and tumeric and fermented rice, were part of my ongoing skin healing ferments, I had yet to conquer the skin healing bastion: wild carrot seed.

Wild carrot seed essential oil was made using the whole plant, sans the root, I discovered in my research. I was planning on just fermenting the carrot seeds that show up in the grocery store at garden planing time — until a little more research reveal what wild carrot really is: Queen Anne’s Lace.  Who knew?

Underneath those white cap blossoms is a long golden-colored edible tuberous root. But I had no time or interest to yank the root out of the ground: I was interested in what was going on top: and how the flower heads turn to seed.

So, in-between red clover excursions, I filled a few bags with Queen Anne’s lace heads, just as they were going to seed.

Yes, I know fermenting the seeds is not the same as extracting the oil: but I’m guessing that fermenting the whole seed might be a bit more potent than just the oil.

In the process now… of fermenting the Queen of the Lace.

Yeah: I’m a chemist at heart: between the rose water, and everything else, you’d come to the same conclusion.