Made from Alabama botanicals. Distilled here. Available in season.
Each hydrosol starts with native Southern plant material ethically harvested from pollution-free land, distilled in our traditional copper still, and bottled on-site immediately after production.
Distilled for millennia. A separate product with its own chemistry.
Often called floral waters or distillates, hydrosols are produced by steam distillation of fresh leaves, bark, flowers, resins, or other plant material. After the steam condenses, the result is an aromatic liquid containing all of the water-soluble and volatile components of the plant.
For at least four thousand years, various cultures have distilled plant materials for medicinal, culinary, and beautification purposes.
These hydrosols are unique to Alabama. Our regional collection focuses on indigenous plants native to the state. Most have been used historically for beautification and healing. The botanical material, the water chemistry, the distillation parameters, and the collection are all optimized specifically for these Alabama traditions, producing something as unique as our state.
You can smell the difference.
A hydrosol is not diluted essential oil. It is a co-product of distillation with its own distinct chemistry, pH, and therapeutic character. The two products from one distillation run are related but not interchangeable.
Every botanical distilled at the NRI Botanical Lab is sourced from clean, pollution-free land. No exceptions. The soil, the air, and the water the plant grew in all end up in the bottle.
Two Saturdays a month. Two batches per day. Roughly 20 bottles total.
Our alembic runs on a schedule, announced in advance. Each Saturday distillation is a specific in-season botanical, distilled fresh, bottled immediately. When the batch sells, it is gone. The same botanical may return in a future season when the plant is ready. Or it may not.
Distillation days are open to watch. Come in during your walk-in window and the still will likely be running.
Walk in same day. If the still is running, you can watch and pick up that day's batch.
Available while stocked. No restocks once a batch sells out.
Members receive the schedule by email with first access to reserve bottles before they go public.
Follow @botanicallabNRI for distillation day announcements two weeks out.
The Alabama Collection
All eight botanicals in our regional rotation are native to North Alabama and the Southeast. Freshly harvested locally from untouched, pollution-free land, distilled in-lab, labeled by batch. Each botanical has its own window when the plant is just right. These are distilled during that window.
Soft, floral, and distinctly Southern. Faintly sweet with unusual depth. Tones and hydrates. Mist over clean skin or spritz on linens before bed.
Warm and uplifting, with a slightly herbal, citrus-bright aroma. Clarifying for congested skin. Reach for it as a body mist or facial toner.
Green and woodsy with a clean, balsamic edge. Astringent and grounding. Ideal as a scalp mist or soothing skin toner.
Unlike the citrus oil, monarda is bright and spicy with an herbal scent that lingers. Mist on pulse points or use to freshen a room.
Sharp, clean, and unmistakably American. Clarifying on the scalp, grounding as a room mist, bracing on a compress.
Clean and piney with a cool, slightly sweet finish. Opens airways. Good on a compress, better on a pillowcase in winter.
Bright and astringent with a waxy, almost medicinal clarity. Tightens and tones. Small yield, limited bottles, no equivalent on a retail shelf.
Delicate, faintly honeyed with green undertones. Spring bloom only, one batch per year. Face mist, linen spray, or simply worth having while it exists.
Availability changes with each distillation run. Items showing here may be out of stock between runs. Inner Circle members receive advance notice before each batch is released.
Six ways, all valid. Most people find two or three that become habit.
Face and skin mist
Spray directly on clean skin, over makeup, or after cleansing. pH is naturally skin-compatible. No dilution needed.
Linen and room spray
Pillows, sheets, soft furnishings. The resinous and woody botanicals are made for this. Cedar and pine especially.
Compress and poultice
Saturate a cloth and apply topically. Traditional application for soothing botanicals. More direct than a mist.
Body spray
Post-shower, post-workout, or any time you want botanical on skin without oil. The floral and herbaceous varieties work best here.
Scalp and hair
Cedar, rosemary, and wax myrtle are particularly well suited. Apply to scalp between washes or use as a finishing mist.
Space and atmosphere
A light mist in a room before a class, a practice, or a wind-down. Hydrosols have been setting the tone in a room for a very long time.
Clean material. Pollution-free. No exceptions.
Every botanical distilled at the NRI Botanical Lab is sourced from land that is clean, unsprayed, and free of industrial contamination. We harvest within hours of distillation. The soil the plant grew in, the air around it, and the water it absorbed all end up in the bottle, because distillation concentrates everything in the plant material, the good and the bad.
Our regional collection is harvested by hand. No wildcrafting from roadsides, powerline corridors, or land with unknown history. Every harvest site is known and vetted.
The same rigor we apply to clinical trial sourcing decisions applies here. Provenance is not optional. It is the whole point.
Get first access to every batch.
Inner Circle members receive the distillation schedule by email before it is announced publicly.