Natura Siberica: Wild Harvesting

Natura Siberica products are based on the traditional remedies of ancient Siberian tribes. Featuring wild-harvested ingredients, sourced from unspoilt landscapes, Natura Siberica work with these local tribes, bringing about positive changes in their lives.

To survive the extreme Siberian conditions, endemic and adaptogenic herbs and plants synthesize highly protective active ingredients and have extraordinary antioxidant properties.

When used therapeutically they offer unique health and beauty benefits.

Wild-harvesting is all about collecting flowers, plants and herbs from their natural environment, in a sensitively managed and fully sustainable way.

The unique nature of the herbs which have grown uncultivated is that they have undergone natural selection – only the most resilient, strong plants, rich in nutrients and active components, survive.

But wild-harvesting has to be managed carefully to ensure the plants’ sustainability.

And one of the key considerations is the season –   the time of gathering has to be aligned with the time of maximum accumulation of valuable nutritive and biologically active substances in the plant.

If gathered prematurely, plant stock can’t be used for therapeutic purposes.

It’s vital to not over-harvest, leaves can be collected every year but roots can only be taken every two to three years. And some plants need to be left for five years in between harvesting.

It’s also important that gathered plant stock should be used as soon as possible by drying or other processing methods.

For example, grass which has stayed in a basket for more than three or four hours, self-heats destroying vitamins and losing its unique properties.

Award-winning natural beauty brand, Natura Siberica, started its own wild-harvesting farm in 2013.

The farm spans 33 hectares and is located in a unique region called Khakassia where many of the rare Siberian herbs naturally grow. Working closely with local farmers 16 hectares of this land has been cultivated and planted with 14 species of rare Siberian adaptogenic herbs. This has created jobs for the local communities, where they manually gather the wild herbs and are paid premium prices for their work.

You might have heard about adaptogens, but what exactly are they and how are they being used in natural beauty treatments?

The plants and herbs found in Natura Siberica products have been traditionally made into elixirs of health and beauty for countless generations.