For a while now, I’ve felt it was time to make something more nourishing for the eyes.
We already have products I love for this area. But I kept coming back to the idea of a balm. Not a cream. Not a serum. Something richer and more substantial, made for skin that’s extra dry or starting to look crepey.
Meet the Boswellia & Rose Eye Balm – Nourishing Beauty Treatment, the newest addition to our Wild Alchemy collection.
And I also wanted to share where it all started.
I actually first made this balm as a holiday gift for our team last year. They were my test group, and they loved it. One team member just reached out to me, as she didn’t realize it was going to be an Annmarie Skin Care product anytime soon, and asked if I could make her some more.
Luckily, I had a jar from my test batch to send to her and surprised her by telling her it would be launching in the next few weeks.
Some of our loyal customers tried it too. If you were one of them, this is it. It’s here!
This is the eye product we’d been missing for a long time. It brings together so many of my favorite ingredients in one rich, nourishing balm.
Why a Balm?
A balm is made with no water, so every bit of it is butters, oils and waxes. It’s concentrated, so a small amount goes a long way. It melts into the warmth of your skin and helps retain moisture, which is what dry, thin skin around the eyes needs most. It also layers so beautifully over a serum or cream to seal everything in.
When I started formulating, I wanted butters that each brought something different: richness, softness, and help holding moisture in.
- Cupuaçu butter comes from the Amazon. It’s known for holding onto water really well, and it has plant sterols that help soften skin.
- Bacuri butter is another Amazonian butter. It’s very rich but absorbs quickly, and leaves skin feeling soft instead of greasy.
- Mango butter is smooth and softening, and lighter than shea.
- Shea butter is a classic for good reason. It’s high in plant compounds and vitamin E that support the skin’s barrier.
- Cocoa butter is firm and protective, and helps give the balm its body.
All of these are held together with rose wax and beeswax. Rose wax comes from the rose flower itself. It’s what remains when rose petals are processed to make rose absolute. It adds a soft hint of rose and a smooth finish. Beeswax gives the balm its structure and helps lock in moisture.
I also added pearl powder because it’s such a beautiful ingredient for the eye area. Pearl has been used in skin care for centuries. It contains calcium, amino acids and trace minerals, and it reflects light, which helps brighten the look of the under-eye area.
Another part of this formula that is special to me is the spilanthes and frankincense resin infused in golden jojoba.
And I want to spend a little more time on these botanicals because they’re ingredients I’ve been especially excited to work with.
Spilanthes: The Plant Often Called “Nature’s Botox”
Spilanthes is a flowering plant with small yellow and red flowers. It contains a naturally occurring compound called spilanthol, which is one of the main reasons this plant is used in skin care to help improve the appearance of fine lines, firmness, and elasticity.
You may actually know spilanthes as the toothache plant. If you’ve ever chewed on one of its flowers, you’ll know why. It creates a very noticeable tingling, almost numbing sensation in your mouth.
That’s the spilanthol at work.
And it’s also where the comparison to Botox comes from. Spilanthol has been researched for its effects on muscle activity, although applying a botanical extract to the skin is very different from receiving Botox injections, of course.
What we’re interested in with spilanthes is its potential to help soften the appearance of fine lines and support firmer, smoother-looking skin.
One of the things I’ve been thinking about while creating this balm is how the skin around our eyes changes as we get older.
The skin here is already so much thinner than the rest of our face. And between smiling, laughing, squinting in the sun, and all the little expressions we make without even realizing it, it’s no wonder this is one of the first places we start noticing fine lines.
But there’s also the loss of firmness and elasticity that happens as we age, and I think it’s worth understanding the difference between the two.
Firmness helps our skin maintain its structure, while elasticity is what allows it to stretch and return to its original shape. Both are supported by collagen and elastin, which naturally change as we get older. That’s why we might start noticing that the skin around our eyes looks a little less firm or has that crepey appearance.
And this brings me back to spilanthes.
While it isn’t going to replace lost collagen or work the same way as Botox, I love that it gives us another way to care for the skin as it ages. We’re not trying to stop our skin from showing expression or get rid of every fine line. I wanted something that could help soften their appearance while supporting the delicate skin around our eyes as it changes.
The Story Behind Our Spilanthes
Something that makes the spilanthes in our balm very special to me is where it came from and how we prepared it.
I started growing spilanthes myself (that’s my little gal in the photo below)
No, I didn’t grow it for all of you (that would be a LOT of plants), but I found a source that felt so deeply aligned in so many possible ways.
I ordered some buds, shared a bit of what I was working on, and they were immediately like family. They were so incredibly helpful in making this product successful.
First, they are a small family farm and were extremely helpful with either providing or creating any and all documentation I needed for our MADE SAFE certification.
They are 100% committed to sustainable practices — regenerative farming and giving back to the land.
AND to top it off, they do a great deal of education on why you should avoid chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers; what GMOs are and how they contribute to the problem; and they list out all of the companies that have opposed GMO transparency during all of the propositions that were introduced.
They speak my love language.
The source is magical, simply put… and we then infused it into a rich, golden jojoba oil along with frankincense resin.
As for the tingling sensation you may have heard about with spilanthes—we use only a small amount of spilanthes infusion in the finished balm, so you won’t feel the tingling this plant is known for.
When I was first testing this one out, I, of course, did research on the plant, usage, percentages, etc. (I even started growing it!!), and I connected with the owners at the farm for my own Q&As, but the real learning came from the actual test batches.
I started strong and worked my way down from there. I landed with an infusion that feels just perfect.
Especially for the eye area, I wanted this balm to definitely provide the effects of this potent little bud, but without any of the sensation you’d get if you stuck it in your mouth for a toothache.
And that’s exactly what we have.
And of course, dryness plays a role in how visible our fine lines are too. That’s why I surrounded this infusion with rich botanical butters, waxes, and oils that help the skin retain moisture.
I wanted the balm to provide that deep nourishment while also including ingredients like spilanthes and frankincense resin that care for the appearance of firmness and fine lines.
Rose and Frankincense: Two Botanicals I’ve Loved for Years
I’ve always loved both of these botanicals, and when I started working on this balm, I knew I wanted to bring them together.
Rose is one of my favorite ingredients for the skin, especially when we’re talking about dryness, sensitivity, and the changes we start noticing as we get older.
And there’s much more to rose than its beautiful scent.
Rose contains naturally occurring antioxidants and other plant compounds that help care for the skin and provide support against environmental stressors. It’s also known for its soothing properties, which I especially appreciate when working with the delicate skin around our eyes.
In this balm, we use rose in two different forms.
The first is rose wax, which comes from the rose flower itself. It’s what remains when rose petals are processed to make rose absolute.
Rose wax helps give the balm its beautiful, smooth texture while also helping to soften the skin and hold in moisture.
If you’ve ever smelled pure rose wax, it’s absolutely divine—it feels as if you’re floating through a field of roses. It’s so powerful yet delightful at the same time. This balm carries that rich aroma of rose wax that I love so much.
And then there’s rose absolute, which I added in a small amount for its beautifully soft yet surprisingly complex aroma.
Now, frankincense resin, I also have a lot of love for.
Frankincense comes from the Boswellia tree. When the bark is carefully cut, it releases a rich sap that hardens into small, golden resin tears. This precious resin has been collected for thousands of years, anchoring traditional skin care, aromatic rituals, and wellness practices around the world.
While most people recognize frankincense for its deeply grounding scent, the resin itself holds remarkable properties for the skin. It is rich in calming monoterpenes that quiet tissue irritation and naturally occurring boswellic acids that preserve elasticity. Packed with potent antioxidants, the resin also actively defends against environmental stress while working to visibly tone and plump the skin profile.
As we mature, our skin naturally becomes drier, more delicate, and sometimes more easily irritated. This shift is most noticeable around the eyes, where the skin is thinnest and completely lacks its own oil glands.
By introducing frankincense resin infused into lipid-rich oils, you help lock in vital moisture and build a protective barrier. It’s a gentle, deeply intentional way to keep this vulnerable area feeling soft, comfortable, and beautifully supported through the aging process.
That’s one of the reasons I wanted rose and frankincense together.
Rose brings its soothing properties, antioxidants, and beautiful natural aroma, while frankincense adds its own calming and antioxidant compounds.
And rather than simply adding frankincense to the finished balm, we also infused the resin into golden jojoba oil along with spilanthes from that very small farm.
Jojoba oil is wonderful for softening and nourishing the skin, and I wanted this infusion to help the balm retain moisture, especially around the eyes where dryness and crepiness can become more noticeable.
To top it off, another aspect of the scent profile is a lavender flower-infused frankincense essential oil. This, blended with the sweet scent of the resin, the rose wax, and the rose absolute, brings something that is beyond memorable.
More Nourishing Ingredients I Wanted in This Balm
We also partnered with Pure O3 on an ozonated castor oil.
Castor oil has long been used around the eyes, brows, and lashes. Ozonating creates compounds called ozonides, which have been studied for their skin-supporting properties.
From there, we added oils I love for their nutrients and antioxidants:
- Prickly pear seed oil, very high in vitamin E
- Pomegranate seed oil, rich in a rare omega-5 fatty acid
- Marula oil, soft and quick-absorbing, with antioxidants
- Plum kernel oil, light and smoothing
- Red raspberry seed oil, with vitamin E and omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids
- Green tea seed oil, light and quick-absorbing
- Sea buckthorn berry CO2 extract, full of carotenoids and omega-7
- Squalane, a stable form of squalene, which is naturally found in the skin’s oils. It helps keep skin soft and supple.
- Astaxanthin, a carotenoid and one of the most potent antioxidants studied. It helps protect skin from daily environmental stress.
And as for the scent, you’ll smell the rose first. It’s topped with a little rose absolute and frankincense essential oil that’s been infused with lavender flower.
How I Use the Boswellia & Rose Eye Balm
If you love our Fruit Ceramide Eye Serum and Anti-Aging Eye Cream, keep using them. I do too, and I rotate between them.
This balm is the finishing touch.
I personally use it every morning and every night. I dab on the sides of my eyes and all around my orbital bone, touching my brows.
I put a little between my eyebrows as well… on my crow’s feet, and sometimes around the sides of my mouth (when I start to notice them looking crepey).
It’s rich, creamy, deeply nourishing, and smells absolutely divine.
I’m so happy to finally be able to share this balm with you.
This is the eye product we’d been missing for a long time. It brings together so many of my favorite ingredients in one rich, nourishing balm, and I hope learning a little more about the ingredients gives you a better understanding of why I chose them.
You can officially shop the Boswellia Rose & Eye Balm now!
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