By Adrienne Perron
From our July 2023 issue
Fresh Pickins’ Sunsifter Solar Cream
With plants grown on their Cape Elizabeth farm, Dan Marion and Dominic Thibault make lotions, oils, and elixirs (as well as fresh bouquets, teas, and honeys). Avid surfers, they make their sunscreen balm with calendula flower from the farm and use zinc oxide, a natural sun protectant that, unlike chemicals such as oxybenzone, found in many sunscreens, won’t wash away in the ocean and damage reefs. A pinch of cocoa in the cream gives skin a bronzed tint. $15.
Marin Skincare Soothing Hydration Cream
In 2017, UMaine biomedical-engineering students Patrick Breeding and Amber Boutiette learned from Bob Bayer, then director of the university’s Lobster Institute, about a glycoprotein found in lobsters that seems to have regenerative properties for human skin. Today, Breeding and Boutiette partner with the Luke’s Lobster restaurant chain to collect glycoprotein — found in lobsters’ blood-like circulatory fluid — at the Luke’s processing facility, in Saco. They put it in their hydration cream, a gentle, minimalist formula for the face or body, formulated to repair dry skin and alleviate symptoms of eczema. $35.
White Pine Bath & Brew Beard Balm
Maine beer is always an ingredient in Elaine Kinney’s soap, oil, and balm recipes. The amino acids in hops and B vitamins in yeast, the South Portlander says, can soothe and smooth skin. White Pine balm is meant to hydrate and style beards without clogging or irritating pores, plus moisturize the skin underneath to prevent dandruff. $22.
Holmes + Hudson Face Mist
One spritz of this toner packs a big punch. Not only is it refreshing, botanical buff Heidi Holmes says, but it also moisturizes with aloe, knocks out puffiness and bacteria with witch hazel, and fades scars and repairs skin with carrot and geranium essential oils. Holmes makes all her products in small batches, in Thomaston, using sweet-smelling ingredients — the combo in this one leaves an earthy, invigorating aroma on the skin. $18.
Tatnic Witch Herbals Glow Potion Facial Oil
Herbalist Lissa Luckey makes four versions of this facial oil, for normal, sensitive, dry, or oily skin. Designed as a cleanser, moisturizer, and makeup remover, the Glow Potion recipes utilize ingredients that target specific skin ailments — and like the rest of Luckey’s skin-care products, teas, and aromatics, they’re infused with plants grown in her garden, in Wells. $22.
True North Beauty Solid Facial Cleanser
This soap is loaded with natural moisturizers like avocado, coconut, and olive oils, meant to make skin look healthy and reduce the appearance of wrinkles, but the star ingredient is chaga mushrooms, which True North founder Heather Lux forages near her Milo home. The antioxidants in chaga are said to help with acne, boost collagen production, and fade sun-damage spots on skin — it works so well, Lux says, she puts it in all of her skin-care products. $32.
