It can be refreshing to get back to the basics and realize the beauty in simplicity. We recently caught up with Jennifer Hirsch, ethnobotanist and consultant for The Body Shop to nature, laughter and what makes a superior beauty product.

As an ethnobotanist, you're interested in the relationship between people and plants. When did you first discover that interest, and how did you decide to pursue it as a career path?

I think I've always been curious about the world around me-my favorite question is 'why?'. As a student at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, I had all the tools to connect the plants growing in the collections in the gardens with original taxonomic samples (the samples collected in the wild that recorded the plant for science) and ethnobotanical collections that reflected traditional use. It's one thing to read about a plant and its history, but to have physical evidence collected in front of you makes it leap to life. I was hooked.

I was lucky enough to meet a small natural beauty company with two women who knew botany was at the heart of what they did, and wanted an in-house botanist to join their team. Seeing the birth of a beauty product from blue sky inspiration to the bottle on your bathroom shelf had me hooked. Working with growers, harvesters, collectors and getting to trawl the shelves of the British Library and the ethnobotany collection at Kew just confirms for me I'm doing the right thing.

How did you make the leap from botanist to beauty consultant with The Body Shop?

Natural beauty is a very small world. In my previous roles, I've crossed paths with the incredible sourcing team on the hunt for a great ingredient, speaking at conferences and at industry events. So when one of the team asked me what I thought about working with The Body Shop, I very nearly bit his hand off. The brand champions in actions as well as in words so much of what I believe to be true and important about botanical ingredients.

What makes you feel beautiful?

Laughter. It's that simple. Laughing makes everything better. You can't worry and laugh at the same time. I try and worry about the things I can control and influence, and let the stuff I can't just slide on by.

What makes you feel powerful?

Networking. Connecting people and seeing the glorious collaborations flourish and benefit. Relationships, connections, those are the things that make me tick and keep me telling stories. Because stories, whether they're about plants (my preference) or not, are how we've understood our world from our very beginnings.

Do you have any people that have inspired you professionally or personally?

Of course! My mother taught me to read labels and the back of pack, encouraged me to ask why and helped me find answers. She nurtured and inspired creativity, thinking outside the box and taking adventures. And instilled the importance of having nice manners no matter the situation.

Anita Roddick, The Body Shop's founder, inspires me professionally. Anita was absolutely a trailblazer. She might not have been the first to formulate natural products, but her understanding of women (and probably men), of the way we shop and our desire to use products that reflect and represent our social values and ethics, the desire to connect our story to the stories of other people and communities across the globe, and the potential of doing business differently, all that was and is visionary. Anita believed that each and every one of us has the power to make a difference. So there's no excuse not to be the change you want to see.

We couldn't help but to stalk your Instagram account (so many lush flower shots!). What are a few of your favorite accounts on Instagram?

@kewgardens - where I did my postgraduate study and guaranteed to deliver an overdose of all things plant. Frequently exotic and always beautiful.

@carolinehirons - she makes me laugh in person and on Insta, and always speaks her truth about beauty

@tate 'cause it's like having an art gallery in your phone, and some days require great art.

@abelandcole these guys deliver organic veg to my door each week to supplement what I grow. Their Insta inspires and motivates me to do more and different in the kitchen.

@theperfumesociety started by two of my beauty heroines, Jo Fairley and Lorna McKay to make fine fragrance more accessible. I want to grow up to be just like them.

You have a quote from Aristotle included in one of your blog posts: "Nature Does Nothing in Vain". Do you have a 'just the essentials' approach to beauty?

Absolutely. Products only work when they're out of the bottle and on your skin. So having a bathroom full of choices is irrelevant if you're not taking the time to apply them. All of the research on the benefits of natural actives is on regular use, so being faithful to a product or a ritual should definitely pay off. And let's face it, if a product is hassle, complicated, messy or painful (basically anything short of a joy to use), we're not likely to use it. So it won't work.

Of course, my definition of essentials has expanded past cleanse, tone, moisturize and SPF to include a facial oil, eye serum, sleeping cream, and masks. But I still start and finish the day with a great cleanser. For me, it's the foundation of great skin.

The Body Shop 'Spa of the World' product line conjures up images of world travel to far-off locations. What's the most exotic location you've traveled to in the name of beauty and botany?

I've been to some amazing places, but Lake Malawi in Malawi definitely stands out. I had a perfectly bijou thatched cabana on the cliff top above the lake and was serenaded each morning by fishermen setting out in their traditional canoes for the day. I was researching Kigelia africana, a tree Dr. Livingstone writes about camping under (not his smartest move - the sausage shaped fruit weigh around 12 kilos and do drop from the tree). Spending time with the local Chewa and Ngoni tribes and seeing the impact the harvest of kigelia fruit has on the communities continues to inspire me. Through trade, the communities are able to install boreholes and pumps for safe water, roof schools, immunize children. That's pretty powerful for a beauty ingredient.

What's one plant-based product no one should have to live without?

A great cleanser. The efficacy of everything else you apply afterwards is impacted by how good a job your cleanser does. My recommendation is always for a cream, balm or oil cleanser. And here's why. If you think about what happens when you mix oil and water, they separate. Where an oil based (always plant oil, in my world) cleanser has the edge is in its ability to mix with oil based makeup, grease and excess sebum and oils your skin produces. You get great results without the pH disrupting effects of a soap or foaming cleanser.

Can you think of some beauty wisdom from other cultures that we could use more of in The West?

Lots of other cultures, from African to Asian, revere their elders. They see wrinkles as the badge of a life well lived, of experiences had and memories gained. A Ugandan great grandmother from a shea cooperative told me her wrinkles were her story. That's a beautiful and eloquent way to see and accept the process of aging.

You wrote that "Behind every botanical ingredient, there are always the most marvellous stories of adventure, romance and discovery." Can you briefly tell us one of your favorite stories about a botanical ingredient?

As soon as Cortez and the Conquistadors brought vanilla orchids back to Spain from Mexico the commercial potential was clear. But while the plants flowered, the unpollinated blossoms would wither and fall off the vine without producing pods. In the wild in Mexico, vanilla is pollinated by the tiny stingless Melipona bee. Without its pollinators, Vanilla planifolia was fruitless. So by the early 19 ^th century, the race to be the first to develop a technique to pollinate vanilla was well and truly on.

The winner and person credited with having developed the technique that created the vanilla industry outside Mexico was Edmond Albius. Albius was just twelve when he developed the technique in 1841. Albius's method, the 'marriage de vanille,' involved using a narrow bit of twig or grass to lift the flap that separates the anther (male) and stigma (female) of the flower. Then he used his fingers to spread the pollen on the anther all over the stigma. The simplicity and cost-effectiveness of this method led to its popularity not only in Réunion, but in Madagascar, the Seychelles, Indonesia and Tahiti. Inside five decades, these islands would be producing more vanilla than Mexico.

The Body Shop 'Oils of Life' product line is entirely hand picked and cold-pressed. How does this benefit the final product and the communities where ingredients are harvested?

Handpicking offers quality control from the start. When machines are used to harvest a crop, the farmer picks the moment when on average, a crop is ripe. Handpicking allows the harvester to select only the ripe seeds. With seeds, being ripe is the critical moment when the oil and plant chemistry in the seed is at its optimum. The difference between an oil made of seeds of average ripeness and only ripe seeds will be reflected in the levels of its active chemistry.

Heat and light are the enemy of oils. They can erode the active principles of the oil. And ultimately they cause oil to oxidise and spoil. Oils of Life is based on three highly active seed oils: black cumin, camellia and rosehip. By using pressure rather than heat to express the oil from the seeds, the maximum activity is preserved.

What should our readers look for in a great beauty product?

Natural and performance...although maybe not in that order. I think we should expect results. After all, what's the point if you don't see or feel a difference? And for millennia, we've been achieving that difference through using plants on our skin. Modern cosmetic science has made this even more sophisticated and easy. So there's no reason to settle for a beauty product that is anything less than a joy to use..

What do you hope to achieve through your work?

To make a difference. Anita Roddick said a mosquito could move an animal many times its size through its persistence. When you put it that way, I aspire to be a mosquito.

What are your three favorite natural scents?

The smell of a forest floor after rain, grass after the lawn has been cut, and baby skin. But you're probably talking about the plant-sourced fragrance ingredients. In which case, and this is a tough one:

Osmanthus - Fragrance and memory are closely associated and this is the fragrance of southern gardens for me and can transport me in seconds to the sun dappled warmth of my gardening godmother's nursery in South Carolina.

Lavender - For me, this is the most English of garden plants. I have no 'granny' association with it, only happy gardening memories. The best lavender smells like you've crushed a flowerhead in your hand. And on top of that, lavender is incredibly potent. We've always known it can help you sleep, but modern research has shown that it improves the quality of sleep you get. I'm obsessed with The Body Shop's French Lavender Massage Oil - it captures exactly that from the garden note.

Tonka bean - This unprepossessing bean from the Amazon river basin has amazing notes of hay, caramel, vanilla, and yes, baby skin. I have to lock up my stash of beans or they go walk about with people 'just borrowing one'.

Where's a good place to start for people who are unfamiliar with botanical products?

Start with a kind of product you're really comfortable with, be it cleanser, moisturiser, facial oil, body lotion... Then look for one that's naturally based. You may be surprised and find one on your shelf.

And don't be afraid to ask questions of the brand about what they're using and why. Brands that know a lot about their ingredients, how and where they're grown, what they do on skins, are more likely to understand naturals and how to use them. If in doubt, look for something Cleopatra used. She was the original beauty editor, and modern scientific research is justifying many of her beauty choices.

** What inspires you & makes you feel powerful? Let us know in the comments below!