Create a love letter to yourself with this powerful plant
I met May Lindstrom in New York when she was pregnant with her first child. At that time, Lindstrom was also incubating her beautiful eponymous skincare line, built around the power of beauty rituals. “For me, the point was to be a catalyst to bring us back into rituals,” says Lindstrom. “Our rituals bring us into connection with ourselves, and other women. If you only have three minutes, make this the most delicious three minutes of your day. It’s about feeling good.”
The idea, the products and Lindstrom herself were so compelling that she ended up on the cover of my first Organic Spa Magazine Annual Skin Care Guide, in 2012. Her brand is, understandably, a big success—The Clean Dirt, The Honey Mud, and The Blue Cocoon all immediately became iconic products—and Lindstrom is still focused on formulating products that create a “skin-friendly, soul-friendly experience,” she says. Her latest hit is the Pendulum Potion: a gorgeous cleansing oil, and one of the first to start the current trend.
As an innovator, Lindstrom was the first to bring blue tansy (Tanacetum annuum), one of my favorite new skincare ingredients, to market. “Blue tansy is the single most powerful ingredient I ever worked with,” says Lindstrom. “It is extremely anti-inflammatory,” she continues.
Indeed, I’ve seen it work miracles on eczema, psoriasis, acne, rosacea, dermatitis—just about any kind of inflammatory skin condition you can think of. Active compounds chamazulene (a powerful antioxidant) and a-bisabolol in blue tansy are legendary for their “antihistaminic, anti-inflammatory, antiviral and anti-microbial properties,” according to Lindstrom. No wonder it is such a hot ingredient in skincare right now.
And the effects are more than skin deep. “In aromatherapy,” says Lindstrom, “it is extremely calming—used for anxiety, sleep disorders, feeling out of control—and what it does for our skin is the same thing that it does for our psyche.” Even the beautiful blue color is instantly soothing.
Ultimately, for Lindstrom, the beauty of her May Lindstrom Skin rituals is that “you are being kind to yourself,” she says. “That’s the point, the love story with yourself. That’s what I wanted to bottle.” The Blue Cocoon beauty balm, with blue tansy, is utterly enchanting and powerful. maylindstrom.com