Our recent visit to Wonderland was full of whimsy and curiosities, but alas it is time to fly off to an enchanting new realm of wonders and delights! Our May collection will find us traveling to far flung lands where fantasy and reality blur. Are you ready???
Spread your wings and fly with us to Neverland! Yes, that's right! Peter Pan and Tink are our cohorts in this newest adventure. We've got fairies and magical lands where fantasy abounds and youth is eternal! The classic children's story of Peter Pan might appear to be a simple tale about the joys of childhood, but beneath its surface of childlike wonder, the story is woven with intricate symbols and themes about human nature, society, and the bittersweet process of growing up.
Our Come Fly with Me Collection represents the timeless dance between dreams and reality, where your own story comes to life. The voice inside of you, the one that calls you to fly, reminds you that you are capable in every way. Your dream matters. You can make a difference. You have what it takes. YOU were born to fly!!
Faery Magick
All you need is faith, trust and a little pixie dust!
Tinkerbell quote by J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
As I sit here and write, it is Beltane eve (aka May Day)....a time where the veil is thin...where the boundary between the physical world and the spirit world is thinner allowing more connection and communication with spirit beings...and the realms of the fae. The flourishing energies at Beltane are very attractive to the faeries. Because the fae are wardens of the natural world, they tend to nature’s balance by helping it grow and thrive. Therefore, the fae love a bit of merry making during Beltane that leads to new life on Earth! So if you're feeling a bit of extra magick in the air this season, it may be faery magick!
Photo caption: Hawthorn blossoms in full bloom on May Day on our property. Hawthorns are said to be fae enchanted and under their protection.
Speaking of Beltane, we created some gorgeous ritual perfume rollers to assist you in your Beltane rituals, seasonal intentions, and well, just for fun, too. You don't have to celebrate Beltane, or any of the other Wheel of the Year seasonal celebrations to enjoy our aromatic delights. But if you do, you'll enjoy the thoughtfully crafted details we put into each and every blend.
Our beautiful Beltane roller marries an enticing floral bouquet of rose, jasmine, violet, and lily of the valley with sunny mandarin and lemon top notes; all wrapped up in a sultry ribbon of earthy vetiver, sandalwood and musk. It's intoxicating and radiant....the perfect accompaniment to wear when you're feeling passionate. We've included both clear quartz crystals and fiery carnelian in every bottle to boots your confidence and allow for your true self-expression. Reiki blessed for your highest and greatest good.
Our Beltane roller is pictured here with a flower crown handcrafted by the amazingly talented Emily Thompson Fuller of Heartsong Farm. If you're local and you're headed to Shakori this weekend, you'll find Emily there with armloads of fresh flower crowns!
If you're more of a Tinkerbell fan, we've got a special perfume roller made just for you! Tink knows that a dusting of pixie dust will bring you powerful magick that gives you the wings to fly! Being showered with this golden, sparkling powder is said to bring you luck, success and fortune. But we think pixie dust is so much more! It brings confidence, faith and fills you with surprise, joy and wonder!
Our endearing Pixie Dust perfume roller is a delightful essential oil blend of soothing lavender, juicy sweet orange, bergamot, ylang ylang and geranium. It's cheery, yet sweetly floral and perfectly balanced. A base of sunny calendula offers skin nourishment with every application, whilst also boasting sunny, herbal faery magick! And when you hold the roller bottle up to the sunlight, you'll see the sparkling of pixie dust inside! Let this wee bit of fae magick open your heart to the invisible wonders of the world and allow it to bring bountiful blessings into your life!
If you've been around here a while, you might be wondering about another seasonal product by the same name that we introduced a few years back. Well, of course, we HAD to bring back our Pixie Dust Shimmering Dry Body Oil! Our luxurious and quick absorbing oil blend delivers a rich spectrum of antioxidants and essential fatty acids to support skin health. Bronze and copper toned micas offer subtle shimmering highlights and a radiant dewy glow for amazing looking skin all summer long. The same essential oil blend is featured in both the body oil and the perfume roller. Live your best fairy life and wear them both!
Well now, you didn't think we'd stop there with the faery magick, did you? We've barely even mentioned Tinkerbell, LOL! Who doesn't love Tink?! We love all fae folk, and Tink, though entirely fictional (unlike REAL fairies, duh!), is one of our favorites. When I think of Tink, I see a magical and enchanting being, a free spirit and a loyal friend.
Our dazzlingly bright Tink soap bar radiates Tink's perky personality through and through! Fresh and bursting with positive energy - citrusy top notes of lemon, lime and grapefruit mingle with cool cucumber, heady jasmine, sweet pineapple, and hints of bubbly champagne. Bright swirls of yellow, green and orange evoke happy vibes and a generous sprinkling of pixie dust (biodegradable glitter) adorns each bar! Shower yourself in pure faery magick!
I could talk endlessly about fairies and fairy lore. I mean, my last name truly is Fay, after all! I've got fairy blood running through my veins! I think about the fae a LOT, lol. I talk to them in my gardens, I spy them in the wilds, and I take heed to avoid stepping inside any fairy circles. IYKYK! Fantasy fiction and fairy tales have led us all to believe that fairies are happy-go-lucky, friendly lil folk that fly around your garden patch, but ask any elders from Scotland or Ireland, and you're likely to hear an altogether different story. There are strict rules for dealing with these Old World fae, and they can get downright nasty and temperamental if you disrespect them. They're the OG tricksters and will take advantage of your every weakness.
Have you ever wondered where fairies live? It's an age-old question to be sure. Fairies reside in a place that is neither here nor there, in unseen parallel realms outside of our ordinary physical reality, just beyond the veil that separates us from the Otherworld. The only ones who can see this world and its magical inhabitants are those with special sight...or those who are under a faery spell.
There are places on this Earth that touch the soul with the sheer power of their magnitude. Anyone who lives in close embrace with the natural world knows of sites in the natural landscape that for one reason or another stands out from the rest of the environs. These places are often steeped in superstition - places where then energy feels distinctly different and encounters with mysterious phenomena have become local legend. Attitudes to such places vary from fear and inapproachability to attraction and reverence.
Prominent amongst the many cultural landscape features of Scotland are the numerous hills and mounds said to be the underground dwellings of the fairy folk and recognized as gateways to the Otherworld. In local culture, it would be taboo, and even dangerous, to tread upon these areas during the liminal times of dusk and dawn, and removing anything from such a place, even as small a token as a pebble or a stick, would have one shunned from society on the offchance that that person is now cursed, having disrespected the fae folk.
What sort of curse might befall you if you've disrespected or mistreated the fae? Most notably, the faery mound/hill is a place where unsuspecting travelers could become trapped in the Otherworld and find themselves living with the faeries deep within. Time stands still in these enchanted realms, and when emerging from a faery mound, the lost soul will have found that time had not stood still but raced past. What may have passed as mere minutes in the faery realm could have been 200 years in our reality. Ah, but one might feel lucky to have been spared such a fate and not get trapped in the faery world... just to have their crops fail, their cows struck with a sudden disease, or other such malady (or a series of serious maladies!) befallen upon them. Despite these purported dangers, fairy hills (and other locales of such lore) hold a certain fascination for many of us who have been smitten with fae magick. Scotland's Isle of Skye and Highlands region tops many a tourist's bucket list of fairy havens. From the Fairy Pools to the Fairy Glen, Scotland is an open storybook of magical adventures for the fairy lover.
But did you know that you need not travel halfway across the world to discover places steeped in fairy lore?? We just so happen to have our own legendary places right here in NC! Chimney Rock and the adjacent Hickory Nut Gorge, just west of Lake Lure, has been known for centuries to hold such mystique. The Cherokee tribe of Western NC have regarded the area as sacred and have long known of fairy activity in this region, believing the fairies to be the guardians of the mountain. As far back as the 1800's, people have talked about the "floating fairies". These beings presented themselves as human-like but smaller, distinctly men, women and children, by the dozens, but were bright as the sun and all wearing white gowns, just flying around the mountain. Multiple eye-witness accounts of the phenomenon have been explained away by scientists, but those who have seen them with their own eyes will tell you they were indeed very, very real. It is said that the race of Little People here do not like to be disturbed, and will throw a spell over a disrespectful traveler and make them lose their way. Those who live in the area, or have visited, know in their hearts that this is a magical place.
Our fascinating Fairy Hill bar brings the magic of the fae to life! A green fairy hill rises from a colorful wildflower meadow under blue skies. Fairy Hill is scented in a fresh and fruity blend of soothing lavender, exhilarating mint and spring air, bright lemon and pineapple blossom, with a floral heart of jasmine. It will lift you up on fairy wings!
Would you like to bring more faery magick into your garden this summer? Perhaps a moon garden will lure the wee folk into staying a while. Read all about our Moon Blooms soap, the sacred yet lethal mooonflower (aka datura), and how to create a magical moon garden here!
Featured Product of the Month: Firefly artisan botanical soap
Look to the night sky as summer sets in and you're likely to see curious flashes of light that make you blink twice. You don't have to look high in the sky, either - these particular blinking lights will appear anywhere from ankle height to eye level. Fairies?? Well, lol, maybe, but most likely they're fireflies.
Fireflies (aka lightning bugs) are likely the most appreciated summer insect. My heart always fills with joy when I see my very first firefly each summer, such a “blink and you miss it” moment! Who doesn't have treasured childhood memories of chasing fireflies on warm summer nights? Who hasn't cupped a firefly in their hands and marveled at the flickering glow, watching the edges of your fingers glow as the tickle of its little feet whispered across the skin of your palm? Their fascinating glow is, of course, a purely biological feature - a mating ritual intended to attract a worthy mate. The flashes are not only a flirtation, but also are a warning to any would-be predators. The luciferin that makes fireflies glow also tastes noxious to most animals who would snack on them. That same molecular compound is also found in certain species of forest fungi, known as foxfire or fairy fire.
Fireflies and fairies are intimately connected in folklore around the world. In Thai folklore, fireflies are believed to be the spirits of fairies or celestial beings. It is said that their presence brings good luck and prosperity. Some people in Thailand hang small lanterns or light candles to attract fireflies, hoping to invite blessings into their homes. It is said, too, that fairies themselves often glow with bioluminesence light at night, leading one to mistake them for fireflies or even stars. So maybe you really are seeing fairies! ;)
There are actually dozens of native firefly species; the most ubiquitous of which is as common as a spring robin. Here in the NC, we’re lucky to have two of the most beguiling and rare species.
In Southern Appalachia in the Western NC mountains, as spring slides into summer, otherwordly apparitions appear to be skimming the ground in the night in the cool forest glades. Blue ghost fireflies (Phausis reticulata) emit a haunting blue glow instead of the expected yellow-green of more common fireflies. Rather than flashing, their continuous blue glow lasts about a minute, creating an eerie phenomenon when one happens upon a well-populated habit of hundreds-to-thousands of them. Where they are abundant, Blue Ghosts create the effect of an ethereal fairy village, full of will-o'-the-wisps, earning them the nickname Fairy Lanterns. But they've sparked another curious superstition, as well. According to Appalachian legend, the glowing blue fireflies are said to be ghosts of Confederate soldiers, as many soldiers lost their lives in the region where the fireflies appear. It is believed that fireflies carry the spirits of these lost loved ones, guiding them to the afterlife.
The most famous firefly in NC, though, is undoubtedly the synchronous firefly Photinus carolinus. The male synchronous fireflies flash in unison, all blinking together and all stopping at exactly the same moment, as if a conductor has cued the orchestra. For decades, these insects have drawn thousands of visitors to Elkmont in the Great Smoky Mountains. The spectacular event is so popular that the NPS has resorted to a lottery system of 100 cars per night for the singular week that the mating ritual is expected to occur.
Photo credits: Spencer Black/Discovery.com and firefly.org
These enchanting creatures are more than just a whimsical sight. They play a crucial role in our ecosystem and plant pollination and even serve as indicators of environmental health. Sadly, though, firefly populations are dwindling thanks to habitat loss, light pollution, and pesticides (firefly larvae can stay underground for up to two years, and lawn fertilizers and pesticide treatments are increasingly damaging their habitats). The next time you see a firefly's wondrous glow, hold onto that moment of magic in a mindful vigil. And remember to do what you can to live gently upon this earth and shine your own precious light wherever it is needed.
Our mesmerizing Firefly bar is scented in a fresh summer floral blend of bright grapefruit, bergamot, soothing white tea, herbal thyme and delicate hints of rose and honey. Our colorful splash swirl design on a dark black and blue background is sure to spark childhood memories...and maybe entice you to book a firefly viewing tour this summer! ;)
Next stop.... Neverland!
As much as we adore fairies, our collection wouldn't be complete without the cast of quirky characters that inhabit Neverland and its surrounding waters.
Your inner child will delight over our Pan, Hook and Tiger Lily artisan botanical soap bars. Each one is intricately designed and thoughtfully crafted right down to the custom scent profiles to evoke the essence of each of these characters and their complex stories. Click the links for each to read even more!
Has our whirlwind trip to Neverland and the world of faery magick inspired you? Are you ready to take flight and chase your dreams? We hope that you will!
Bountiful blessings, my friends!
xoxo
Steph
