LuffBotanicals

12/01/2026

Grateful for the herbs I have seen. Grateful for the people I've met. Grateful for my first herbal walk in 2026 with a group of tcm doctors, students, enthusiasts to study and explore all about herbs and their uses.

You'll be surprised many herbalists, doctors or aromatherapists might not be able to identify herbs or plants they use. Unless they are gardeners or botanists, most don't know how a plant looks like in real life even though they may have used it in their lives or even with their patients.

That's why walks like this are so useful to help us identify herbs.

Did you know we cannot forage herbs in Hong Kong? The same applies to Singapore. And if you are allowed to forage herbs where you live legally, be grateful. And I'm so happy for you.

Did you know that even if you can forage herbs, you need to make sure there aren't any poisonous herbs in the vicinity? Well, at least 1 metre or some say they wouldn't even forage the herbs if there is a poisonous plant within 4 meters.

In HK, there are 4 well-known poisonous herbs. 香港四大毒草：羊角拗、斷腸草、曼陀羅及馬錢子.

08/12/2025

What do you think happens when 2 herbalism fanatics meet?

Thank you Juneau .co for catching up with me while I was in Singapore. We chatted non-stop even though it's the first time we met one another, discussing small business challenges, sharing products we made or sell, smelling hydrosols, and discussing about herbalism.

We both share the same love and respect for herbalism, believing that ethics, sustainability and business can co-exist.

The products we both create are also focused on herbalism. And we have spent plenty of money, time, and education in improving our crafts and skills to share with our audience.

And what a coincidence that our husbands are foreigners. Even the way we met our other half is rather similar.

Hoping to distill with her soon, and perhaps collaborating future projects together. Thank you, Universe, for connecting us.

If there's anyone in the similar business who wishes to connect, I am more than happy to hear from you.

02/12/2025

Listening to a canto music while illustrating my Osmanthus labels. You know who's receiving this soon.

Apologies for the weird photography angle.

27/11/2025

Kuromoji 大叶钓樟 or Lindera umbellata is a smell you'll not miss if you go on a forest walk in Japan.

Green forest notes that is calming, woody, a little citrusy and soft due to high linalool compound. It's refreshing yet calming to the senses. Belonging to the Lauraceae family, it resembles rosewood in scent.

I tasted a candy or mouth freshener recently, and it also has this Kuromoji aroma and cleanses your palette after a meal. It can also be used in throat candies, or to flavour gin.

Are you feeling anxious, nervous or having insomnia, if you are, you'll fall in love with this oil.

10/11/2025

Hibiscus mutabilis #木芙蓉 is a medicinal tree known for its showy flower that changes colours 3 times a day. Wow, It's like she's doing a fashion walk. How fun & exciting to watch her transformation!

The flowers can be used in skincare or added into salads. It is slightly bitter, cooling, clears heat and toxins 清熱解毒, stops bleeding, reduce swelling, etc.

The leaves are smashed and applied on sprained joints 鐵打扭傷, eczema skin, or mild burns.

its roots are used to reduce swelling, and good for eczema, any allergies or inflammation; even good for snake bites.

I've never seen a flower that transforms 3 times a day. It's fascinating what nature offers! Unfortunately, being in Hong Kong means I cannot forage plants I see along my botanical hikes for TCM herbs, for my own use. Otherwise, that few petals available will be gone if everyone does the same.

If a flower can transform 3 times a day, what about you? How do you desire to transform yourself? Let me know.

03/11/2025

Osmanthus absolute is often used in perfumery and lesser known in Aromatherapy. But if you have smelled their gorgeous fruity peachy, floral, aroma, you'll be transported to China, where it's natively grown.

If someone sells you Osmanthus to be used in diffuser, it's likely a synthetic fragrance. Because Osmanthus are exquisite and expensive and one wouldn't normally use them in soap or a diffuser. Well, if you're prince of Arab, it's a different story. But it's still wasteful to use them in diffusing if you know how plants' essentail oil or absolutes are extracted.

Synthetic fragrance has its place, but buying a fragrance, thinking it's from the real plant, is plain ignorance. Worse still, if you have been sold an aroma at high costs but not getting the real thing. It sucks to be cheated or misinformed. And that's why I'm here to share with you their differences.

There are 3 types of Osmanthus commonly known.
Light yellow, yin gui 银桂
Orange yellow, jin gui 金桂
Reddish Orange, 丹桂

For Osmanthis, be it an absolute, hydrosol or cytosol, the Orange Yellow ones are often extracted.

If you haven't even heard of Cytosol and how different it is from Hydrosol, DM me. Cytosol is even more premium, and the scents often resemble the real plant much, much more closer in scent profile.

01/11/2025

The joy of formulating!

This is the 1st time I experienced anything like this. I made an Osmanthus soap, infused with Osmanthus oil, Osmanthus floral wax, Jasmine Cytosol (you heard me right. Not hydrosol but cytosol) and no essential oils or fragrances.

Process and recipe is identical. They were poured at same time, same batch. Yet the colors differ after 2 hrs because I covered one on right, not the left one.

WHY? Looks like heat during saponification produce a different colour.

It's mistakes like this that made a formulator grow in experience and skills. Will need to wait for a month before I see the final results. Yes, handmade cold process soap needs time to cure.

01/11/2025

Excited with this new soap formula
where I finally use hydrosol (always thought they were too precious & expensive to be used in soaps), & floral wax (often used to create exquisite balms, perfumery, or skincare to impart amazing natural fragrance).

Floral waxes are by-product of the proceeses used to create floral absolutes. The latter is often used in natural perfumery, but not in Aromatherapy.

Some essential oils are simply too expensive to be used in formulation, especially in wash-off products like soap.

Quality hydrosols are distilled with fresh plant materials, and adding essential oil to water, or synthetic fragrances to water is not a hydrosol or 純露 in Chinese. Good hydrosol can be added into your drinks and cocktails and impart amazingly, nice fragrance to your mixology; plus it has the plant's energy and therapeutic benefits.

Yesterday, I walked past a very well-known skincare/bodycare shop that sells shampoo like Blue Chamomile. An untrained eye will think mistaken fragrances for essential oil. Worse still, their hydrosol makes me faint. I don't even know what it is, and neither do they have proper label nor scents of natural plants. Yet such brands exist for a long time.

Are businesses meant to make profits or is it to sell true quality products to benefit consumers health? And not to pretend selling synthetic fragrances as essential oil? That's why I started Luff Botanicals; no bluff, no fluff. Just luff (love) for botanicals for your beauty and wellness.

conscious aromatherapy

28/10/2025

Osmanthus fragrans, or Osmanthus flower a beautiful fruity, peachy, light, floral scent that is highly prized in perfumery. They blend well with green tea absolutes, citruses, or perhaps a tiny tinge of treemoss. The petals are very small, but the scents can travel miles when in full bloom.

I particularly loved to formulate with co2 extract in my perfumery. Osmanthus Hydrosol is also an amazing product that can be used as a toner, freshener for the face prior to makeup or skincare routine. Not to mention the gorgeous Osmanthus floral wax that can be used in all sorts of skincare formulation.

Image 1: Osmanthus in full bloom
Image 2: Osmanthus Tree
Image 3: Osmanthus Forest with 8000 trees all trimmed into a lovely, magical round shape.
Image 4: Osmanthus Trees when in full bloom
Image 5: Workers trimming these trees

Traditionally, is used in TCM food therapy #中醫食療 to clear phlegm & heat from the lungs, move Qi & blood, suitable for autumn use when people are prone to respiratory issues. In food, it's used to make desserts, cocktails, cordials. In perfumery, the aroma is highly loved.

If you're interested to attend a self-care women's workshop with the theme of Osmanthus where we appreciate Osmanthus, learn its origins, taste the tea, differentiate its varieties, use its hydrosols, smell some real quality Osmanthus absolutes and perhaps even DIY some Osmanthus products, let me know in the coming poll below.

Frankly, I often like to stay behind the scenes formulating & doing R&D, and it is rare I am planning to host such events as the idea seemed tiring to facilitate. But followers have been urging me to hold a wellness event to share my TCM, aromatherapy, perfumery, formulation, food therapy knowledge to a larger crowd.

I'll be relocating to Singapore soon, and hope to meet y'all who are interested in self-care, aromatherapy, natural perfumery & formulation, food therapy or simply want to immerse yourself with this alluring Osmanthus floral scents; I can also share simple acupuncture tips to assist you in your wellness journey.

Please feel free to share with friends who might be interested.

01/10/2025

25/09/2025

The extremely strong and fierce super typhoon has blown down one of my favorite trees. Melaleuca cajeputi Tree that produces essential oil #白千層.

In TCM, cajeput is used to dispel wind and exterior disorder. So if you have caught a flu after being exposed to wind & cold, this is a good oil to use. It also drains dampness and relieve itching, which is often associated with eczema skin .

In , cajeput is a useful respiratory relief, for colds & congestion and its expectorant properties help clear nasal blocks, expel mucus, and aids digestion, relieves sore throat.

Energetically, cajeput can be used to clear mental blocks or used if you need some focus and mental clarity as it has this cool, airy effect, almost like you're floating above the forest canopy.

In terms of scent, it has more than 50% compound, & often found in Eucalyptus and rosemary. It smells refreshing, camphoraceous, fruity, herbaceous.

I used to hate oils that were high in cineole when I was young as it's often used during headaches & for relieve in aches & pains, plus they smelled medicinal to me. But when I picked up cajeput oil years later, my opinion shifted. I began to detect the fruity back notes which I love. It's strange that our take on the same aroma might change over the years.

For skin applications, cajeput is more irritating than the other melaleucas like tea tree, eucalyptus or niaouli. Always dilute your essential oil safely. If you need a essential oil dilution chart, DM me.

17/09/2025

Yesterday, a 6.3m long whale carcass was found floating in Singapore. The last one was found a decade ago, and its carcass (Jubi Lee in 2nd pic) is now displayed at Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum at the National University of Singapore.

Someone asked if ambergris can be collected in this case.

Ambergris (the first pic, photo of super pansar store) is the excretion of s***m whale. This whale vomit is excreted when s***m whales eat squids and when its intestines is irritated by the beak of the squid, it produces this waxy mass which is then expelled.

Once excreted, this solid waxy subatance that looks like a rock floats above the sea. Initially foul smelling, it ages over time and turns grey, with a musky smell, highly treasured in the perfumery world. Ambergris is a wonderful fixative in perfumery and is known to cost more than gold.

1 gram of ambergris costs 125USD whereas 1 gram of gold currently costs 118USD.

If you've picked up a mass of rock that floats above water, thinking you've found gold, I'm sorry to disappoint you. Baleen whale eats tiny prey like krills and small fish and does not eat squids. So not all whales excrete ambergris.

Ambergris is forbidden in USA and Australia. Any parts of an endangered species are considered illegal to possess even if you've found real ambergris. Now, since ambergris is an excrete, or a so-called whale vomit, it is technically an excretion and not a part of the whale. It only become an ambergris overtime.

If you're a fan of using natural ingredients to formulate perfumery, note ambergris is natural. Synthetic ambergris is a lot cheaper and this is case, I'll consider using it even though I mostly formulate with naturals in my skincare or perfumery.

Do whales die after excreting this "vomit"? No. Some do if this mass becomes so large that it explodes in its intestines.

Would you still be on the lookout for ambergris on the beach? Let me know.

***mwhale