Vered Botanicals Rosewood Neroli Body Oil

If you were lucky enough to land an appointment for a facial with Vered Beck, an aesthetician loved by beauty editors in New York, you would have left with a teensy vial of your custom created blend for the face, so fragrant in its artisanal composition that you’d likely have even worn it as a perfume. That’s what many of Vered’s clientele did – leave her skin care clinic begging for her to bottle up her creative blends for their pulse points. It’s only after 23 years of spa experience that she finally conceded. Her self-effacing, eponymous brand – Vered Botanicals – is the perfect balance of sophistication without trying to hard. Where to start with her myriad of oil offerings? I’m so smitten with the streamlined, sexed up packaging. Each bottle seems to echo the embodiment of innocence, freshness and grace. I’m so wanting to dissect each oil with great care, so, the Rosewood Neroli Body Oil ($68) is where I choose to start my exploration as the minute you open the bottle, you'll be overcome by it’s heady, unbridled strokes of romanticism in the soul of the oil.

Vered represents some of the best niche crafters quietly sneaking into the luxury marketplace & taking some pretty unabashed risks with their essences & tinctures. Rosewood Neroli Body Oil is the genteel straddle of the line between nature’s minimalism and exoticism brilliantly executed. Her therapeutic grade essentials are highly pure as seen by the olfactory-gustatory experience of Rosewood, which opens this highly feminine but ultra-shy scent. Accords of Tangerine and Neroli play perfectly well off each other, while the touch of Lavender leaves a tasty, sweet and mellow density of whirls while scattering across skin. A semi-citrus temperament of Pink Grapefruit and Lime finish the great balancement of elements, but they are tucked away so deep, they serve more as accents to the dense mellifluence of Rosewood. The scent is quite and sensual almost baroque richness of depth. There’s a very good chance, if you’re reading this, that’ll you try to place the scent in the sweetness of red roses. But, don’t. The luminous vibrations of the velvety Rosewood are more that of the brandied lush roses from the Arabian Nights. Or something like that.

And, when these essentials are entangled together in the semi-viscous core pure Jojoba, Evening Primrose, Almond & Avocado oils, it’s easy to see why Vered’s clients slathered her elixirs on both face and body without regret. From the roster of moisturizing carriers, Avocado oil is hot on trend in cosmetic science. A recent study shows how extracts from avocado pulp (and its resulting oil) create an anti-aging, detoxifying and plumping active, which stimulates the endogenous synthesis of hyaluronic acid to restore volume to mature, dehydrated and stressed skin. This active derived from avocados is now recommended at 0.1-0.6% in anti-aging, plumping and detoxifying skin care and is even certified by Ecocert for its purity. But, why take .1% of the active element, when you can use the oil straight up?

There’s an ineffable quality of luxury without the usual hype of commercialism surrounding the launch of a new brand. With Vered Botanicals, you’ll feel as though you’ve entered a new phase of buzzed about sophistication with body care, which is well worth the price tag.