Limited editionThe old-growth forest floor · Running now

Nurse Log

A fallen tree doesn't die so much as change jobs — for centuries it becomes the seedbed a whole new forest grows out of.

Real photograph · a moss-covered nurse log
seedlings rooting along a fallen fir, Hoh rainforest — full bleed

The subject

In the old growth of the Pacific Northwest, a Douglas fir or western hemlock comes down and begins a second, longer life. Moss takes it first, then huckleberry, then a straight row of seedlings rooting along its length — a nurse log, feeding the next forest out of its own slow decay. Walk the Hoh or the Quinault and you can read a century in a single line of trees standing on the ghost of the one that fed them.

Our Nurse Log study is the forest floor after rain: Douglas fir and cedar over a green, mineral base, with ground conifer needles for the tooth of bark and duff. It's made in a limited run through the wet months, while the forest smells most like itself.

In the bar

Every ingredient earns its place. Nothing here is “fragrance.”

Douglas fir needle

The standing forest — bright and resinous, unmistakably a conifer.

Cedarwood

The fallen log itself — grounding and warm, the wood beneath the moss.

Ground fir needles

A fine exfoliant and the color of the duff — the texture of the forest floor.

Green clay

Draws and cleans, and gives the bar its mossy cast.

Base oils & shea

Olive, coconut, and palm for lather; shea butter to moisturize and protect.

In the box

Every Nurse Log box names an old-growth grove you can still walk — the Hoh, the Quinault, Federation Forest — and how to find a nurse log once you're there.

Other studies

Skagit SnowmeltGlacial clay and Skagit tulip, the river in spring. Limited.

KalalochWave-quarried sand, seawater, Sequim lavender.

ShineCalendula and turmeric, the summer solstice.