The Story Behind the Lepaar Box: Roses, Three Ways

Boxwalla December Beauty Box featuring Rose skincare

Just the other day, as I was browsing through a local used bookshop I came across an illustrated book of Japanese haiku called A Net of Fireflies. I’m always on the look out for good translations of haiku, especially of Basho and my favorite Kobayashi Issa, so I brought it home. Today, as I was dipping into its pages, I came upon this:

One Sense of Beauty

On white plum-petals that were pure and sweet,

The nightingale now wipes its muddy feet.

  – ISSA

The beauty in Issa’s haiku is intangible, just as you briefly grasp its meaning and beauty, it disappears. At least, that’s how I felt now as I was trying to hold the couplet between my fingers to pin it down, to tell you what I felt when I read these words. And while I can’t tell you anymore how I felt, I know that I smiled when I read it, as the unexpected nightingale arrived, and its muddy feet made me long for the sweet plum-petals even more. 

It reminded me of our rose-filled gorgeous December Beauty Box, which speaks of roses in both expected and unexpected ways. And of Johanna saying of the Rose Gold Face Balm:

“I’ve dreamed about this balm for months – how to create a beautifully fragrant and light balm around the plant family of the rose, without the rose fragrance? Instead, playing with the late Summer ripeness of collagen-boosting Apple, the creamy sugar of moisturizing plum, the delightful sweet of antioxidant Strawberry and the tart sour of Vitamin C rich sloe.”  

A box of roses for you that plays with both the presence and absence of roses.

Get the box now!

Lepaar: Roses, Three Ways

How It All Began

I had been talking to Johanna Everingham, the co-founder of Lepaar for a while now about creating something special and unique for a box. If you are somebody who is fed by the beauty of nature, you also understand the impermanence of that beauty. And I’ve long wanted to express that thought in a box, capturing the evansescent and fleeting nature of beauty, of the plants and botanicals that Johanna and I love so much, and creating an unforgettable experience that can be briefly experienced through the box. An experience that you will (hopefully) remember as the potions and the box disappear.

Mono No Aware : This is a term in Japanese culture that signifies the ‘pathos of things’, that poignant feeling that an object can evoke because of its transience or impermanence.

Below, I talk a little bit about the ‘three objects’ in this box.

Rose Gold Face Balm and White Rose Sandalwood Mist 

One of the things that characterizes Lepaar’s Skincare is the very minimal use of essential oils and absolutes in the skincare. And this has become more and more true over the years. I’ve watched and experienced as Johanna has played around with removing them from some of her potions, working hard to develop the aromas without the essential oils. And I am not an idealogue when it comes to this, I enjoy carefully formulated skincare with essential oils in them, but I have noticed the difference in Johanna’s work when she removes them, as she works even harder to draw out the ‘soul’ of the plant materials into the potions she creates in other ways like with longer maceration of the botanicals, and I have found that this subtle change leads to an even more soulful experience and also, surprisingly, an increased efficacy. It is hard to explain (and sounds all very woo woo when I try) but I think you will understand when you experience them yourself.

The Face Balm is a limited edition rose gold version which is luscious, subtly sweet & creamy. I adore Lepaar’s balms and this limited version is incredibly special. And with the glow-inducing Mist, you will smell the ethereal Bulgarian white rose hydrosol that was especially added to the exclusive version of the mist for this box. It also contains Australian sandalwood hydrosol, damask rose, frankincense and myrrh hydrosols.

Perfume: Golden Roses and Woods

While the skincare in this box is very subtle in terms of its fragrance, the Perfume oil is abundantly fragrant. Perfume, especially natural perfume, was my first love in Beauty and it gives me a ridiculous pleasure and joy to share this love with you in this box. The rose in this perfume oil though, is not a fragile rose but a rose that has sprung from the earth. And you smell the smoke, the resins, the leather, the incredible Agarwood, with the light sweetness of the rose moving through this composition like a silken thread.

It is my favorite kind of rose perfume, woody, earthy, with swirls of smoke. It feels like a precious oil to anoint yourself with, that’s both an adornment and an armor, a strength. It would smell equally glorious on anybody, man or woman.

An Overview of the Box (icymi)

 Lepaar products are hand-blended in small batches with the lunar cycle. Deeply complex, naturally active, synergistic compositions, formulated with sun-infused whole plant extracts, minimum intervention plant oils and pure minerals. 

The ingredients are organic, biodynamic or wildcrafted, sustainably grown, harvested and processed with love and respect for Earth. The December Box features three products, made fresh with some fun twists, just for our box. Together, they tell three different stories of roses.

  • Lepaar Rose Gold Glow Balm, 30 ml ($101)
  • Lepaar Glow White Rose Sandalwood Mineral Water, 50 ml ($41)
  • Lepaar Rose Aurea Perfume Oil, 5 ml ($60)

Retail price: $202

Now available as a limited edition box for $75

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