There is perhaps no flower more recognizable the world over than Rose. Revered for its quintessential beauty for millennia (its petals adorned palace wall illustrations as early as 2,000 B.C.), Rose is ubiquitous yet complex. A tea of its petals tastes bitter and sweet. Bouquets are bestowed to beloveds and beside gravesites. Midwife alike to new love and unbearable grief, Rose tends thresholds of endings and beginnings.

Flora Luna’s Rose essence, made with Cecile Brunner “sweetheart” roses in West Sonoma County, California, is a meditation on beauty. As the popular idiom implies, imbibing life’s pleasures requires slowing down. We must stop to smell the roses. To perceive the splendor surrounding us and receive its nourishment, we must slow to the pace of sensation. In doing so, we become increasingly vulnerable to life’s touch – its pleasures and pains.

It is our willingness to honor life’s thorns that allows us to receive its beauty in full bloom.

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.” -Helen Keller

It is said that we behold beauty not through the eyes, but with the heart. That this organ of perception is home to our inner wisdom. That Rose has long been used across cultures as a tonic for the heart as well as the womb is perhaps no coincidence. Beauty is born from wisdom – the recognition and protection of life’s gifts. Creating new life demands the courage (cour, Latin for heart) to let go of what we have known and allow the heart’s knowing to guide us.

// This is an essence for navigating thresholds of loss and mourning. For those who feel a lack of self-love and compassion. For those who have forgotten how to hear the heart’s wisdom. And, for those who want to remember the touch of beauty. //

DIRECTIONS: Ingest 3-5 drops, up to 5 x a day. Drop under the tongue or add to tea or water. This essence can also be used topically and applied directly on the body (typically at the pulse points), added to a bath or on a pillowcase.

INGREDIENTS: Filtered Water, Artisanal Mezcal (27%), Raw Wildflower Honey, Essence of Rose.