TOPICAL OF THE MONTH

When I first saw this product, I was curious about it, but I assumed it was another one of those poorly formulated products aimlessly marketed toward women. The side of the box boasts “a light and emollient, yet potent eye and neck cream, with powerful cannabinoids and soothing calendula. Leaves your skin smooth and soft.” Upon further investigation, I realized just how wrong I was to misjudge Green Bee Botanicals. I’m not proud. But, on the bright side, I now know of one of the most badass women-owned, operated and funded companies in California! There is so much more than meets the eye when it comes to the product underneath the beautiful packaging.

“The incredibly hydrating avocado oil and shea butter work together with vitamin E to leave a radiant glow on even the most neglected, dried out skin.”

GREEN BEE BOTANICALS BRIGHTENING EYE CREAM

GREENBEEBOTANICALS.COM // @GREENBEEBOTANICALS

I applied the eye cream after my normal skincare routine: cleanse, tone, and then moisturize.

After applying my all-over face moisturizer, I took a very tiny dab of the brightening eye cream and gently tapped it around my lower eyelids. I then smoothed the remaining cream onto my upper eyelids, and was left with an extra bit to even out my neck.

The incredibly hydrating avocado oil and shea butter work together with vitamin E to leave a radiant glow on even the most neglected, dried out skin. It’s worth noting that a little bit goes an incredibly long way if you are applying on top of a standard moisturizer.

You may need a slightly larger dab of cream if applying solo.

After hours of working, running errands in the dry California sun and cooking meals in my home, I can safely say my skin is still feeling silky and smooth. I liked the addition of caffeine in the mix of ingredients - it was almost as if I could feel my skin tingling and tightening from it in the application.

Their site notes that Founder Bridget May, “formulated this eye cream for herself many years ago and gave it as gifts to her friends, who promptly told her she should bottle it up and share it with the world. It’s the product that inspired her to launch Green Bee.”

Not only is Bridget the in-house product formulator, but she’s also a botanist and chemist who parted ways from the biopharmaceutical industry to pursue her passion for Cannabis medicine.

You can truly feel the difference when love goes into the products, as the quality of ingredients and efficacy of the solutions is physically tangible. This is a product I’d use even if there weren’t cannabinoids infused, although I prefer them to be.

And the buzz doesn’t stop there - the team at Green Bee Botanicals gives back via philanthropies to “fight climate change and social injustice, and to support wildlife and clean water for all.”

Nothing warms my heart more than supporting this tenacious group of women, while also knowing that this company gives back to the community.

RUSSIAN RIVER BLIND PIG IPA

LUCID BOTANICALS AFRICAN QUEEN

Both the beer and the herb boast big flavor, yet

are restrained enough in effect to make the overall

pairing a largely approachable combination.

TANNINS | RUSSIAN RIVER BLIND PIG IPA 6.25% ABV - Hopped with Amarillo and Simcoe

Russian River is a world renowned brewery famed for setting the craft beer industry’s gold-standard of Triple IPAs, Pliny the Younger.

Founded in 1997 in Santa Rosa, this brewery has been producing standout barrel-aged sour beers and aggressively hopped ales to consumers in California for over two decades.

Russian River’s Blind Pig IPA is a full-bodied brew with medium bitterness and drinks with notes of citrus and wood, rounding out with a dry, resinous and dank finish.

With a relatively modest ABV for IPAs these days - clocking in at 6.25% - Blind Pig has just enough kick without going overboard.

This beer has stood the test of time, essentially unchanged for 15+ years in a brewing industry where the current hot trend is to throw anything and everything in the mash tun - making this accomplishment that much more impressive.

TERPENES | LUCID BOTANICALS AFRICAN QUEEN Durban Poison x Malawi Gold x Swaziland Sativa African Queen is a landrace mashup of several well-known African cultivars grown from seed in the heart of Mendocino County in Willits, California. Lucid Botanicals is a fully licensed sun-grown farm utilizing organic growing practices, including planting in native soil and feeding strictly organic inputs.

Lucid Botanicals produces specialty narrow leaf strains that are rarely found, thanks to the significant difficulty in cultivating them.

African Queen is strongly aromatic with over 3% terpenes and a pronounced nose of decomposing oranges and lemon-lime. The flowers boast a bright green hue, with equally bright orange hairs and a visible coat of trichomes. The smoke is light and minimally expansive, giving way to a wonderfully euphoric, uplifting and heady high.

THE PAIRING

What could be better than bringing a couple classics together? We’re thinking not too much. The flowers lift and enhance mood, while the brew relaxes the tongue and diminishes worries.

The African Queen’s orange-y bouquet complements and enhances the citrus notes in the brew. Both the beer and the herb boast big flavor, yet are restrained enough in effect to make the overall pairing a largely approachable combination.

This pairing is worthy of busting out anytime - whether you want to wow casual consumers or your heady terp-hounding friends - this Russian River and Lucid Botanicals combo is sure to impress.

THE ENLIGHTENED VOICE

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