Garden to Skin: A South Australian Botanical Skincare Workshop

South Australian gardens are full of potent botanicals — Mediterranean herbs, native plants, citrus and pomegranate trees, lavender, rosemary, calendula — that have been used for centuries to care for the skin. Most gardeners walk past them every day without knowing what they hold.

This hands-on workshop brings together the botanical world of the SA garden and the ancient art of natural skincare formulation. Guided by Zhanna Petku — founder of Fragrant Rituals, natural perfumer and slow apothecary — participants will learn to identify the skin-nourishing properties of plants they already grow, and craft their own natural skincare collection from them.

Participants will make 3 to 4 products to take home, including preparations made from locally grown and foraged botanicals. The workshop will also introduce the basics of hydrolat making and botanical infusions — simple techniques that can be continued at home, from the garden, season after season.

Drawing on Mediterranean herbal traditions, Eastern European folk remedies, Western herbalism and the native plant knowledge of the South Australian landscape, this workshop offers a genuinely cross-cultural, deeply rooted experience of what it means to live in relationship with the plants around us.