Ah, the trials and tribulations of an organic skincare formulator! It's finally sunk in why I can't achieve the bright green color I want for our new seaweed balm: Kelp is brown.

(I know! I know! Light dawns over marble head.)

Admittedly, the oil blend I'm using (golden Passion Fruit seed oil and the pale yellows of Sesame seed and Sunflower seed oils) is only adding to the warm tone.

Sage and Echinacea are in the mix too but they extract as a khaki-type green.

(Are you laughing yet? Seems obvious how this will turn out, doesn't it?)

I saw this palette but boldly believed I could work some magic just by adding highly pigmented Green Tea wax. The result was a face cream with the worst color in the history of the world, perfectly described by a friend as "Pissmurkle".

Using whole herbs instead of extracts and unrefined oils and butters instead of their bleached, deodorized counterparts can make combining them more difficult. It also means that vitamins and minerals haven’t been refined away!

Now that I’m looking at it, I actually like the color of the kelp brown balm. It’s real; a true representation of what it’s made out of. Let’s hear it for natural!