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journalism → support → readers
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we → purchase → commission
Tucked into a hillside near Siena, next to the medieval hamlet of Palazetto, is BorgoSanto Pietro, a remarkable Tuscan hotel set amid 300 acres of organic farmland, vineyards and cypress-lined paths.
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Pietro → tuck → farmland
It also houses a skincare laboratory.
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It → house → laboratory
As summer closes, the guests thin out and the leaves turn russet, but over at the lab it’s business as usual.
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it → close → lab
I’ve been lucky to visit twice and while I am no stranger to luxury skincare — nor a particular glutton for its charms — I’ve been inspired by Seed to Skin and the woman behind it.
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I → visit → it
Danish couple Jeanette and Claus Thottrup left Notting Hill for Tuscany in 2001, looking to escape the pace of urban life.
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Thottrup → leave → life
Instead, they discovered an abandoned estate dating back to 1129 and spent the next 25 years transforming it into the now-renowned Borgo Santo Pietro.
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they → discover → Pietro
“It was something else, very personal,” Thottrup explains.
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Thottrup → explain → ?
When she arrived in Tuscany, she was trying to conceive.
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she → arrive → Tuscany
After conventional treatment failed, she turned to herbal medicine, acupuncture and a lifestyle rehaul.
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she → fail → medicine
“Two years later I had my son.
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I → have → son
That experience changed how I understood the body.
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I → change → body
The couple learned that the estate — and its herbs — had long beenused for healing: pilgrims were treated there on their way to the nearby abbey of San Galgano.
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pilgrims → learn → Galgano
“That’s what the land had always done,” says Thottrup.
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Thottrup → ’ → what
We never began with a plan.
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We → begin → plan
We followed what the land seemed to ask for.”
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land → follow → what
She subsequently studied natural medicine, but this was no vanity project.
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this → study → medicine
She brought in cosmetic scientist Anna Buonocore and spent 10 years developing the formulation system before launching the first product in 2018.
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She → bring → 2018
In a process almost unheard of today, Seed to Skin’s botanicals are grown on the certified organic estate, harvested and processed in its own herb house, then formulated and produced in the lab.
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botanicals → grow → lab
Finished formulas are sent away for independent clinical testing.
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formulas → send → testing
Thottrup calls the model “360-degree bio-autonomy” — combining natural ingredients with advanced biochemistry to improve their stability and performance.
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Thottrup → call → stability
“I wanted the richness and complexity of nature, with efficacy that could be measured and proven,” she says.
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she → want → efficacy
Why keep so much in-house when outsourcing would be cheaper?
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outsourcing → keep → house
“Because outsourcing means handing over the part of the process where integrity is either kept or lost.”
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integrity → mean → process
She gives the example of the hypericum and calendula macerated oil used in my favourite Recovery Cream (£218, Libertylondon.com).
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She → give → Cream
Made through a slow infusion of hand-harvested botanicals, it is the kind of ingredient that makes little commercial sense.
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that → make → sense
“No supplier would produce that for us, because it is slow, seasonal and small in volume,” she says.
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she → produce → volume
“Had we outsourced, that oil would not exist.”
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oil → outsource → ?
“We have grown more slowly than we might and turned down things we could not supply,” she admits.
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she → grow → things
“But I have never believed that growth should come at the expense of the product.”
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growth → believe → product
Being able to take this route is a privilege, but for Thottrup, that’s rather the point.
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that → take → Thottrup
“True luxury is knowing exactly where something comes from, how it was made and why every decision was taken along the way.”
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decision → know → way
Her skincare advice is similarly measured: “Do less, more consistently.”
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advice → measure → ?
Coming from a woman who spent a decade perfecting a cream, it is advice worth taking.
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it → come → cream
The Aporia
