Buckeye Botanicals Herbal Body Care Flows with the Rhythms of Nature.
Photos by Paige Green
There’s a quiet alchemy unfolding in the gardens and kitchens at Buckeye Botanicals. This small-batch herbal body care line by Natalia Bertotti features handcrafted soaps, salves, and creams that are as poetic as the landscape where they’re made.
“The name Buckeye Botanicals took a lot of thought and feeling to come to,” says Bertotti. “The land our family stewards is named Buckeye Ranch. I wanted to connect what I make from the land to the name my parents gave it, and my ability to be here. There are over 250 buckeyes lining a seasonal creek and dispersed over the 52 acres.”
From this land and its lush gardens just off Adobe Road in the foothills of Sonoma Mountain, Bertotti harvests potent herbs like lavender, rosemary, sage, and calendula, infusing them into oils and fats to create her healing balms and tallow-based soaps.
“Botanical means ‘a substance obtained from a plant and used as an additive,’ which is fitting,” says Bertotti, “I’m putting the plant material into oils to benefit from its healing powers, enjoy their company in the garden, their scent, and sometimes their taste.”
The creation of her products is deeply seasonal, flowing with the rhythms of nature. Bertotti sources the majority of her ingredients locally: tallow and lard from Badger Ranch and Beffa Springs, goat milk from Sarah Keiser at Wild Oat Hollow, and olive oil from McEvoy Ranch, and all the herbs and plants in her products are from her garden.
“I use milk during the spring into the summer as friends milk their goats. Herbs are on a seasonal time clock from spring through the fall harvest. Lard and tallow is most available in the fall,” she notes. “I make what I can with what is available out my door, and I’m interested to see if it is possible and enough—that is the part that is so satisfying for me!”
That ethos of enoughness, of working with rather than against nature’s pace, infuses every part of her practice.
“My products are the answer to how I can feel good about what I am making, satisfying my creative expression, making something useful and beautiful for our community and working with the environment.”
Bertotti’s handmade line includes her signature scent: Lavender Lemongrass Soap. Other scents include Cedar Rose, Sage Bay, Rosemary Thyme, and Lavender Rose. Each scent has a purpose, from heart-opening to antibacterial.
“My products are the answer to how I can feel good about what I am making, satisfying my creative expression, making something useful and beautiful for our community and working with the environment.”
“I choose a soap depending on what action I’m hoping for,” she says, “for example, Rosemary Thyme is by the kitchen sink. Sage Bay is for after my days at work as a massage therapist or any moments needing more than just physical cleansing. Lavender is calming and lemongrass is grounding.”
Her salves and creams, such as Dandelion Face Cream, I Love My Body Butter, and Boss Lady Balm, are all made in her kitchen and infused with plants from her garden.
“Boss Lady Balm came to me from a desire to have a tallow salve that was not so oily and has healing and moisturizing properties,” she explains. “It can be used directly on a wound or as a moisturizer for hands, elbows, knees and feet—places that typically get small wounds by being the boss of each day.”
Bertotti’s process and recipes are ever-evolving in her kitchen; and grow out of teachings from her mentors like Sarah Keiser, who passed her soap business on to Bertotti; Cheryl Fromholzer of Gathering Thyme; Catherine Abby Rich; and Barbara Jean (BJ) Avery at the Herb Exchange. Even the imagery on her brand’s logo holds special significance.
“The buck is symbolic to my feeling over the course of my life being more in touch with my masculine side… I gave my buck some long eye lashes, surrounded them with buckeye leaves and blossoms, and added a third eye with a crown for balance. The creations themselves come from my feminine side.”
You’ll find Buckeye Botanicals in locally owned stockists hand-chosen by Bertotti, including Gathering Thyme, Grand Central Coffee Shop (where she recommends the rose chocolate mocha) and Harlequin in Duncans Mills, a vintage boutique run by Kate Melo. Bertotti also sells her products at pop-up events and at Into the Magic Market, a seasonal gathering she hosts at Buckeye Ranch—the next one happening this September.
Buckeye Botanicals is not a business Bertotti intends to expand; instead, it’s a vibrant expression of what it means to live in harmony with place, purpose, and people.
“This is my creative outlet, not something I am looking at to scale for maximum production or profit,” she says. “I have a deeply creative side that I’ve channeled into a feral garden from which I can create useful, healing and beautiful products.”
Each bar of soap, she notes, is shaped like a heart, a peace sign, or the word love. “I say those things as I pull them—and maybe you do as you use them—to remind myself why I do this… Maybe you will think of me and be glad to know the person who made what you hold in your hands.”
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Buckeye Botanicals
For inquiries or to purchase directly: onebuckeyeranch@gmail.com
IG: @kharmama
Magic Market at Buckeye Ranch
September 21, from 10–3 p.m.
2425 Adobe Road, Petaluma
Gathering Thyme
426 Petaluma Blvd S. Petaluma
Grand Central Café
226 Weller St, Petaluma
Harlequin
25193 CA-116 store D, Duncans Mills