Evidence-based. Hands-on. Products you actually need.

Your bathroom shelf is full of products that smell incredible and do approximately nothing. You've spent real money on body care that feels luxurious in the moment and makes no measurable difference by morning. The beauty industry has become very good at selling fragrance as function, and most people have no framework for telling the difference. Skin absorption is one of the most well-studied areas in topical pharmacology. Calendula's triterpenoids have documented barrier repair activity. Peppermint and rosemary both have published data on microcirculation stimulation at the skin surface. Sea buckthorn is one of the most researched botanical oils in dermatology, with documented effects on barrier repair and elasticity across multiple trials. And the French botanical oils, including neroli distilled from bitter orange blossom and aromatics sourced directly from producers in the south of France, bring documented skin-conditioning and anxiolytic activity that explains why they've been central to apothecary tradition for centuries. You'll make three products that work as a complete body care routine. A French Botanical Body Butter built on calendula-infused shea with neroli and French-sourced oils, formulated for moisture retention and the kind of skin-as-perfume experience that drugstore body care never quite achieves. A Peppermint and Rosemary Energizing Scrub with a salt and sugar base and both actives at concentrations calibrated to the circulatory research. And a Sea Buckthorn Barrier Oil built for fall skin protection, with a dry-finish base that absorbs rather than sits. You'll leave with all three and a permanent skepticism toward anything that can't explain why its ingredients earned their place.

You get tension headaches. You reach for ibuprofen or acetaminophen and you'd rather not, but you don't know what else actually works. Everything marketed as a natural headache remedy either does nothing or comes with zero explanation of why it should. In 1996 a peer-reviewed clinical trial found topical peppermint oil equivalent to acetaminophen for tension headache relief. The finding has been replicated. The mechanism involves peripheral pain modulation and vasodilation at the application site. It is not widely known outside research circles and we have never understood why. In this class you'll learn the science behind that finding and what it tells us about botanical pain support more broadly, then make two products: a temple roller for acute headache relief and a neck and shoulder tension blend for end-of-day buildup. You'll leave with both, and the next time a headache starts you'll know exactly what to reach for first.

Your skincare routine is thorough. Cleanser, toner, serum, moisturizer. And yet your skin still isn't behaving the way you want it to. You've swapped products, simplified, added back, and you're still troubleshooting. Nobody has suggested that your routine itself might be the problem. Your skin hosts a complex microbial ecosystem that regulates barrier function, inflammation, and resilience. Research over the last decade has made clear that many conventional skincare ingredients, including common preservatives, surfactants, and synthetic fragrances, disrupt that ecosystem in ways that create the exact problems they claim to solve. Understanding the microbiome changes how you think about everything on your shelf. In this class you'll learn what the research shows about the skin microbiome and barrier function, then make two products designed to support rather than disrupt. You'll leave with both, and a completely new framework for evaluating everything else in your routine.

Y Your cycle is unpredictable, your mood shifts in ways that feel outside your control, and nobody has given you a satisfying explanation beyond "that's just hormones." You're managing symptoms you don't fully understand with products that may or may not be doing anything, and you're tired of guessing. NRI has published clinical research on PMS, perimenopause, and the female stress response. Botanical compounds including vitex, evening primrose, and specific adaptogenic herbs have been studied for their effects on hormonal regulation, symptom burden, and quality of life across the reproductive lifespan. Women's bodies are not an afterthought in this research. They are the entire focus. In this class you'll get a clear, honest picture of what the evidence shows and what it doesn't, then make two products formulated specifically for women's hormonal health. You'll leave with both, a working understanding of your own biology, and the particular confidence that comes from finally being taken seriously.

The English countryside has been a working pharmacy for a thousand years. The elderflower growing along the Cotswolds lanes. The rosehips covering the Jurassic Coast cliffs in autumn. The meadowsweet blooming in summer meadows that gave nineteenth-century chemists the molecular blueprint for aspirin. Long before clinical trials existed, English cottage herbalism was doing the careful, generational work of figuring out what actually helped. Most of it holds up. Dr. Cavanaugh sourced these botanicals directly on her Cotswolds and Weymouth trip, which means the plants in this class have a provenance most herbalism courses can't offer. We'll spend time on the history, the chemistry, and the published clinical evidence behind five hedgerow botanicals, because understanding where something comes from and why it works are not separate conversations. During World War II, the British government organized a nationwide rosehip harvest when citrus imports were blockaded. That decision was not folklore. It was applied botanical science, and the research behind it still holds up. You'll make three preparations that put that tradition directly in your hands. A classic elderflower cordial, the quintessential hedge-to-glass preparation that has been made along English lanes for centuries and carries documented antiviral and anti-inflammatory activity beneath its fragrance. A rosehip oxymel, honey and apple cider vinegar as a delivery vehicle for one of the most vitamin C-dense botanicals in the hedgerow, in a preparation that keeps for months and tastes like it was made in a farmhouse kitchen. And a meadowsweet salve, built from the plant that gave chemists the compound they turned into aspirin, salicylate-rich, anti-inflammatory, and deeply embedded in English herbal tradition, applied topically as the oldest headache remedy in the hedgerow. You'll leave with all three, the stories behind each one, and a new relationship with a tradition that was evidence-based long before anyone called it that.