Juniper Berry

A natural history

Juniper is a hardy aromatic evergreen of the cypress family, sprawling across rocky hillsides all around the northern world. Its little blue berries, spicy and resinous, have been valued since antiquity, burned for cleansing and protection and prized for their bright, clearing scent. Here is a small botanical secret: those berries are not berries at all but tiny, fleshy cones, ripening slowly over two or three seasons.

Those same cones give gin its name and its soul. The very word gin traces, through the French, back to juniper, and it is the juniper cone that lends the spirit its crisp, unmistakable flavor. One small evergreen carries two enduring legacies, the world's most aromatic berry and the signature of a classic drink.

What it does for your skin

Juniper berry is an aromatic, clarifying botanical. In laboratory study, juniper berry oil showed antibacterial and antifungal activity, a clarifying quality behind its long use in purifying preparations.^[1] Analysis of the oil confirms it is rich in the crisp terpene compounds, led by pinene and limonene, that give juniper its character and antimicrobial activity in testing.^[2] In a formula, used in gentle measure, juniper berry gives a clarifying, purifying, toning touch to congested or blemish prone looking skin. That clarifying, purifying character is documented in laboratory studies of its crisp terpenes.

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