Questions people actually ask.

Put a small amount on clean skin at the inner forearm or just behind the ear, leave it there, and look again at 24 and 48 hours. If nothing happens, it is reasonable to move to the face.

It matters because a plant extract is a mixture, not a single molecule — one cold-pressed oil carries dozens of naturally occurring compounds — and individual sensitivity to any one of them varies from person to person. Test one new product at a time; test several together and a reaction has no obvious source.

As a rule of thumb: light and protective in the morning, rich and reparative at night. Mists and lighter serums sit well under daytime layers and can be refreshed through the day. Heavier cold-pressed oils, balms and hair oils belong in the evening, when nothing is going on top of them.

Two things push a product to the evening specifically: a texture heavy enough to interfere with whatever is layered over it, and citrus-derived botanicals, some of which are photosensitising — they make skin more reactive to sunlight.

Thinnest to thickest, water-based before oil-based. In practice that is cleanse, mist or tone, serum, then oil or moisturiser, then sunscreen in the morning. Oils form an occlusive film, so whatever goes on after one has a much harder time getting through.

Let each layer settle for a few seconds instead of rubbing the next one straight in. For hair, oil goes on dry lengths before washing as a pre-wash treatment, or on damp lengths afterwards in a far smaller amount.

Usually, yes — add one new product at a time and leave about a week between additions, so you can tell what is doing what.

Take more care if your routine already includes strong exfoliating acids, retinoids or benzoyl peroxide. Those temporarily thin the skin's surface barrier, and layering an active botanical onto a compromised barrier is where most irritation comes from. Alternate nights rather than stacking them. If a product was prescribed to you, ask the doctor who prescribed it before changing anything around it.

Because the raw material is agricultural. The colour and aroma of a cold-pressed oil or an infused extract depend on the harvest — the season, the soil, the rainfall, how ripe the seed was when it was pressed. Chlorophyll and carotenoid levels shift with all of those, so one pressing can run a deeper green or a warmer gold than the last.

A conventional product holds one fixed shade because it has been decolourised, deodorised and fragranced to a standard. Variation inside a normal range is what an unstripped material looks like — not a fault.

Conventional formulation isolates a single active and delivers it at a fixed concentration in a largely synthetic base: precise, repeatable, often fast. Herbal formulation works with a whole botanical extract, so what reaches the skin is a mixture — fatty acids, vitamins, polyphenols and trace compounds that occur together in the plant and act more gradually.

The trade-off runs both ways. Herbal tends to be gentler on the skin barrier and more variable batch to batch; conventional is more consistent and more aggressive. Neither is automatically the better choice — it depends on what you want the product to do.

The seed or kernel is crushed mechanically, with no added heat and no solvents, and the oil is separated by pressure alone. Large-scale extraction normally uses heat, and often a solvent, to raise the yield, then refines whatever comes out of it.

Heat is why the distinction matters. It degrades the fragile parts of an oil — vitamin E, polyphenols, the more delicate unsaturated fatty acids — and those are exactly the parts that make the oil worth putting on skin. Cold pressing gives a lower yield and a shorter shelf life in exchange for keeping more of the plant intact.

Some people get a short adjustment period — a week or two of small congestion — whenever they change routine, herbal or not. It usually reflects existing debris clearing faster, or a richer texture than the skin is used to.

That is not the same as a reaction. An adjustment is mild, stays in the areas you already break out in, and settles. Stinging, spreading redness, itching, or spots somewhere you never normally get them are not adjustment — stop, and see a doctor if it does not settle. If a rich oil is the trigger, use it less often, or on damp skin, so less of it sits on the surface.

Ask your doctor or midwife before adding any new skincare during pregnancy or while breastfeeding, and take the ingredient list with you.

Several botanicals that are unremarkable the rest of the time — a number of concentrated essential oils among them — are ones clinicians advise limiting or avoiding in pregnancy, and that advice varies by trimester and by individual circumstance. Every product page here carries its full ingredient list, so your doctor has what they need. This is not something we are able to advise on ourselves.

Many people with sensitive or acne-prone skin use botanical products without trouble, but the answer depends on your skin rather than on the category. Two things help: patch test first, and introduce one product at a time.

If you are acne-prone, note that heavier occlusive oils sit differently on different people — a lighter, faster-absorbing oil is usually the better place to start. If your skin is under active treatment for a condition, that is a conversation for your dermatologist rather than for us.

Stop using the product. Rinse the area with cool water and a plain unscented cleanser, then leave the skin alone — no exfoliants, no other actives — until it has settled.

If the reaction is severe or spreading, or involves swelling or any difficulty breathing, treat it as urgent and get medical help. For anything that has not settled within a couple of days, see a doctor and take the product with you so they can read the ingredient list. Tell us as well, with the batch number, so we can look at it from our side.

Children's skin is thinner and more permeable than adult skin and absorbs more of what is put on it, which is why the general guidance for children is fewer products, lower concentrations, and no essential oils without advice.

Ask your paediatrician before using any of these on a child, and share the ingredient list with them. Nothing here is formulated as a children's product.

Cool, dark and closed. Heat, light and air are what degrade a botanical product — between them they drive the oxidation that turns an oil rancid and fades a plant extract.

A cupboard or a drawer away from the window beats a shelf in the bathroom, where every shower cycles the temperature and the humidity. Keep caps tight, keep fingers out of jars — use a clean spatula — and never leave a bottle in a car or on a sunny windowsill.

Because there is less in them holding the clock back. Cold-pressed oils and plant extracts are full of unsaturated fatty acids and other reactive compounds that oxidise on contact with air and light, and a formulation without heavy synthetic preservatives and antioxidants has fewer defences against that.

It is the direct cost of the thing that makes the product worth using. Buy the size you will actually get through, keep it closed and cool, and go by the printed date rather than by how it looks or smells.

Printed on the pack itself, alongside the manufacturing date — the exact position depends on the pack format [CLIENT TO CONFIRM].

The batch number identifies one specific production run, so it is what lets us trace a product if you ever need to ask us about it. Keep the outer packaging until you have finished what is inside.

Yes. Béute Pro products are halal certified, ISO & GMP certified, and made without parabens or sulphates.

No — nothing we make is tested on animals, at any stage, by us or by anyone we work with.

Small batches, plant-derived ingredients, and no undisclosed fragrance. Every product page carries the full ingredient list, what it is for, and how to use it.

Unused items in their original packaging can be returned within 30 days of purchase for a refund or an exchange.