Blog · Ep. 01
At Huay Hin Lad Nai, harvesting means taking only what the forest’s cycle allows — a discipline that also shapes how we develop a formula.
Before taking even one honeycomb, the people of Huay Hin Lad Nai ask how much they should take, rather than how much they can. The questions begin in different places.
The first begins with the comb, the season, and what is happening in the forest that year. The second begins with the wishes of the person holding the knife.
The Pgaz K’Nyau community here has chosen the first question for generations. It was our first lesson from them.
Harvesting without depletion means more than simply taking less. It calls for a finer understanding.
It means knowing which comb is ready and which needs time. Knowing when the forest can replenish what is taken, and when it cannot. Knowing what people may share, and what must remain for the bees, the trees, and the year ahead.
These are not rules written on paper. They come from reading the forest — an ability built through living with the same land long enough to understand its rhythms. Roughly 10,000 rai of forest in the Mae Lao headwaters still stands today partly because of that understanding.
This community knows what depletion looks like. It has witnessed it firsthand.
Between 1986 and 1988 — Buddhist Era 2529–2531 — this land was affected by logging concessions and large-scale clearing. The guiding question was simply how much could be taken: as much as possible, with no thought for what would remain.
The difference between these approaches goes beyond quantity. It lies in who sets the pace: the forest, or human desire.
We brought this principle into both our sourcing and the way we develop formulas.
Most skincare formulas have “empty space” between the ingredients that do the active work. Most makers fill it with inexpensive, inert ingredients such as mineral oil or silicone, which are easy to incorporate and give an immediate feel.
We chose to let several cold-pressed seed oils fill that space together. They cost more and are harder to work with. It takes careful layering to achieve a light texture that absorbs quickly. For us, this means filling the formula with substance, rather than simply making up its volume.
In other words, we try to keep the formula whole — retaining what belongs and leaving out what is unnecessary. The reasoning follows the honey harvest.
Because this principle changes the question we begin with.
“How much can we take?” and “How quickly can we fill it?” deliver fast results, but leave depletion behind. “How much should we take so there is something next year?” and “What truly belongs in this formula?” take longer to answer, but what they produce endures.
The community at Huay Hin Lad Nai was asking those slower questions long before we arrived. Our part is to listen until we understand, then put that learning into practice in our own way.
References
Phatthanaphraiwan et al., “Reciprocal relations in the Karen highlands of northern Thailand,” People and Nature (2025)
“Living with the Forest: Huay Hin Lad Nai’s rotational farming,” Citylife Chiang Mai
Lakanavichian, “Logging bans in natural forests: Thailand,” FAO
“Hin Lad Nai,” Wayfinders Circle
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