R.L. Linden & Co. Spring Releases and a Q&A

I’m sure many of you know R.L. Linden & Co. for their lovely La Balmba Rosa Healing Rose Balm (delightfully light and good-smelling moisture for the lips) and the Thousand Petal Beautifying Mist (garden of flowers for your face). Excitingly, the minis of their Travel Set (available since winter 2013-ish I think) are soon to be available for purchase in full sizes.

I will save a full review for when I get my hands on some of the full-sizes, but I thought I would at least share some quick thoughts on several of the newbies based off of my sample sizes and a short Q&A with which the founders of R.L. Linden & Co. kindly indulged me.

If you already like cleansing with honey (and if you haven’t tried, highly recommend), if you like chocolate, and if you don’t like harsh exfoliants, I think you will enjoy The Bee Charmer. It’s like chocolate honey but with a thinner consistency and with a delightful kick: gently exfoliating poppy seeds. It can also be used as a mask, but I saved it as a second cleanse after removing my makeup. What’s great is that it has the anti-bad properties of the honey combined with the antioxidants of chocolate.

Want something a little fancier than jojoba or coconut oil to remove your makeup? Your Eyes Only is coconut oil + jojoba oil + essential oil of bourbon vanilla. I used this, as per the name, to remove eye makeup leftover from oil cleansing with the de Mamiel Restorative Cleansing Balm or the Aurelia Miracle Cleanser. I would take a pump or two on a cotton round, hold it on an eye for a couple seconds, and then gently wipe my eye makeup away. This was the first product from their set of new releases I got hooked on, but unfortunately I have stopped using it because after some time of using this and wearing Kjaer Weis eyeshadow, my eyelids got severely dry and one eyelid developed a strange dry patch. They have since healed after abstaining from both products, but I am still hesitant to try both products again. *tear

Think you know jojoba oil? Think again with Time After Time. My small sample lasted a week, and every night after application, my face was instantly so smooth and nourished thanks to a super-infused jojoba oil combined with meadowfoam seed oil, rosehip seed oil, squalene (from olives), and tamanu oil (a healing killer punch for the long-term). The scent is also really calming and non-offensive. This is probably the first product I want to purchase in full-size, followed by The Bee Charmer.

Their Ironwood Perfume isn’t a new launch, but yo, Palo Santo is a hot scent. To me, it’s like perfect mix of spicy and sweet that works equally well in the blizzardy winter as well as on the sweltering beach.

I had a couple of questions mostly regarding ingredient choices in the new releases that Robin and Lynn were so kind to answer for me. I hope they are helpful for you!

1. The poppy seeds in the Bee Charmer are a delight and unique touch—exfoliants like walnut shells are much more common (but also criticized for potentially causing micro-tears in the skin), but I’ve never come across a brand incorporating poppy seeds before. What inspired this choice and how does the skin benefit from this?

The idea was to lightly and gently exfoliate; poppy seeds are a great choice for that purpose. Their round shape is ideal because they roll over the skin effortlessly while encouraging product to spread evenly over the face.

2. Love eating honey, love eating chocolate, and love that you included both in the Bee Charmer. There’s lots of literature on how ingesting sugar can cause inflammation in the body and thus acne, and I’ve recently read in a couple places that it can be potentially dangerous to apply sugary products to the face as it can be bad for acne (luckily, my skin has only been having happy days since using Bee Charmer, so I’m not good proof of this idea). What are your thoughts on this and how can chocolate be good for the face?

3. I fell hard for Time After Time and I wasn’t expecting to. I thought I knew jojoba oil, but the blend in the jojoba (calendula, comfrey, marshmallow, licorice, elderflower, linden flower, rose petals) along with the accompanying oils and essential oils (meadow foam, rose hip, olive squalene, tamanu, frankincense, helichrysm, fir) is just beautiful. Instant face softener. How did you come up with this amazing combination?

Thank you – we are so grateful to know that it has had such a positive effect for you. This blend, like all others that we create, has come from lots of time and trial and error. We have a hard time NOT infusing oils; there are just so many incredible healing herbs to use! The addition of these plants absolutely adds to the efficacy of this serum. We felt very strongly about using meadowfoam for its highly nourishing and moisturizing content and rosehip for its antioxidant and vitamin C properties. Each oil was chosen for its specific therapeutic benefits. And the essential oil blend is not the usual floral notes, but after two or three uses, people get hooked!

4. Your Eyes Only was another unexpected love. I didn’t realize my need for it until I ran out and noticed the panda eyes that my balm cleanser constantly left behind (even after removing a full face of makeup well). I’m a little paranoid about coconut oil on my whole face so I reserve use only to my eyes, which unfortunately can’t smell the vanilla. I’ve used coconut oil and jojoba oil respectively to remove eye makeup, and they both do a good job—great idea to put them together! But what does the essential oil of bourbon vanilla do?

This is one product that is definitely a silent hero. To address your concern about the coconut oil, it is such an amazing oil for so many skin types. For some, however, it doesn’t work. In those people, it is most likely the high lauric acid content that is irritating. We use fractionated coconut oil in this formulation, which has most, if not all, of the lauric acid removed. Not to mention, its liquid at room temperature, so it’s much easier to apply than the solid stuff. Jojoba oil is great because it helps to moisturize the delicate skin around the eyes. We wanted to include a faint scent and vanilla is so warm and comforting, that’s the kind of nourishing one needs when dealing with a sensitive area.

5. Any hints for a release date for these lovelies? I can’t wait to see them in full-size!

We don’t have a set date yet, but our working hard to get them out in the next month or two. Right now we are working on finalizing new label designs, once we have a set date we will let you know! (Ed. Note: “next month or two” from March, aka around now. Word on the street is that they’ll be out in mid/late-May/soon/if you follow them on Instagram they’re working on labels!)

Are you as excited as I am? Which do you think you’ll purchase first (if not all of them)?

tl;dr The Bee Charmer: honey, chocolate, poppy seed cleanser. Your Eyes Only: coconut oil, jojoba oil, vanilla scented makeup remover. Time After Time: beautiful blend of face-smoothing ingredients. Ironwood Perfume: super hot perfume. Especially can’t wait to purchase Time After Time…

Ingredients: See the Travel Set for a list of the ingredients for the spring releases.

Disclaimer: I formatted the answers (deleted spaces, underlined products), but otherwise they are here in unadulterated form. I purchased Your Eyes Only (along with a repurchase of the Thousand Petal mist) from lindenbeauty.com but was generously provided with samples of The Bee Charmer, Time After Time, and the Ironwood perfume. All the same, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

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