From Hiroshima to the Cotswolds.

Where it began

The idea for the balms was partly inspired by something my mum used to do in Japan.

As a small side business, she sold a skin balm made from an older formula that had been passed on to her, with yellow vaseline as one of the ingredients. Many of her customers, particularly older people, liked the rich protective layer it left on the skin and came back to it again and again.

That stayed in my mind when I began thinking about something I could create between Japan and Britain.

I wanted to make a balm that felt nourishing and protective on the skin, while also bringing something of Japan into a product made here in the Cotswolds.

Rather than reproducing the old formula, I chose a different direction and developed my own balm using carefully selected natural-origin ingredients: organic jojoba oil, olive-derived squalane, refined shea butter, white beeswax and natural vitamin E.

The result is a rich balm base made entirely from natural-origin ingredients, with no petroleum jelly or mineral oil.

One oil, one place

The connection with Japan was part of the idea from the beginning.

I wanted the scented balms to carry the character of individual plants and places in Japan, rather than simply adding generic fragrance blends to the same base.

That led to Setouchi lemon from Hiroshima, yuzu from Ehime, hakka mint from Hokkaido, hinoki cypress, and the northern forest oils of Todo fir and Akaezo spruce.

Each scented balm uses a single essential oil. Their scents can be gentler and more nuanced than conventional perfume blends, allowing the character of the individual plant to remain recognisable.

Original is the unscented version of the balm, for people who prefer no essential oil or added fragrance.

Looking for oils in Hokkaido

When I travelled to Hokkaido in May, I took the chance to explore.

In spring I love the smell of flowers in the Cotswolds and across England, especially lilac and apple blossom. I was surprised to find so much lilac in Sapporo, and how familiar its scent felt.

I later learned that lilac originally came from Europe and was brought to Sapporo from the United States in the nineteenth century. It flourished in Hokkaido and eventually became Sapporo’s city tree.

I liked that small connection between places. It reminded me of the journey in the other direction too: Japanese plants, including flowering cherries, have found a home in British gardens for generations.

Lilac, cherry blossom and apple blossom are not practical sources for the kind of essential oils I was looking for. But in Hokkaido I did find the scents of Todo fir and Akaezo spruce, distilled on a small scale from forests around Shimokawa.

What drew me to those two oils was the care behind them: how the forests are managed and the attention paid to the surrounding ecology. The oils are produced in very small quantities from fresh needles and branches available through forestry work rather than trees being cut simply for essential-oil production.

That close connection between the tree, the forest and the finished oil is part of what makes those two balms special to me.

Made here, by hand

Although the essential oils come from Japan, every balm is made here in the Cotswolds.

I make them myself in small batches.*

The current collection is made with 100% natural-origin ingredients, including organic jojoba oil, olive-derived squalane, refined shea butter, white beeswax and natural vitamin E.

Working in small batches keeps me close to the materials themselves — their texture, scent and the natural variation that comes with botanical ingredients.

*The current balm collection has been professionally safety assessed under a Cosmetic Product Safety Report (CPSR), and each variant is notified to the UK Office for Product Safety and Standards before being offered for sale in Great Britain.

Two places, one collection

Wisteria Hill Botanicals brings together two parts of my life.

Japan gives the collection many of its plants, scents and stories. The Cotswolds is where I now live, where the balms were developed, and where every tin is made by hand.

In the future I hope to create a Cotswolds collection inspired by scents from here. Perhaps those products will find their way to people in Japan too — another small connection travelling in the opposite direction.