When people talk about “clean beauty”, the conversation often starts at the end of the supply chain: ingredient lists, lab tests, certifications, and manufacturing standards.
But in a nature-positive business like Seilich, clean beauty begins much earlier; in the soil!
At Seilich, we grow our botanicals not just following organic practices (that means no synthetic fertilisers, pesticides, or herbicides) but also in a highly biodiverse system, in our wildflower meadow, following Wildlife Friendly principles! It’s a slower, more ecological way of growing, and it changes everything: the health of the soil, the chemistry of the plant, the flavour of our teas, and the botanical “actives” in our skincare products.
Read on to get the science behind the Seilich approach, and why “clean” starts in the field, not the factory.
Soil Isn’t Dirt. It’s a Living System.
Healthy soil is not an inert medium. It’s a living ecosystem—packed with bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, arthropods and microscopic interactions happening every second.
This underground community is often described as the soil microbiome, and it plays a fundamental role in plant health. Soil microbes:
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help plants access nutrients (especially in low-input systems)
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influence plant hormones and stress responses
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protect roots from pathogens
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shape the plant’s production of secondary metabolites (the “actives” we care about in tea and skincare)
Modern plant science increasingly recognises that plant traits—including flavour and bioactive compound profiles—are shaped not only by genetics and climate, but by the plant’s microbial partners. Reviews of plant microbiomes show deep, two-way relationships between microbes and plant secondary metabolites (compounds like polyphenols and terpenes).
In other words: when we talk about botanicals, we’re really talking about a plant + its soil ecology.
Soil Microbiology and Plant Quality: The Hidden Link
Here’s the key idea: plants produce many of their most valuable compounds in response to their environment.
Those compounds include:
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terpenes (aroma, essential oils)
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polyphenols and flavonoids (antioxidant activity, bitterness/astringency, colour)
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a range of protective compounds that affect both sensory quality and functional properties
Microbes influence these pathways in multiple ways—by changing nutrient availability, triggering plant immune responses, modulating hormones, and affecting gene expression linked to secondary metabolism.
So if your goal is botanicals that are vibrant, complex, and active, soil microbiology isn’t a side note—it’s central.
This matters for:
Herbal tea
Because the “lift” of a good infusion—aroma, flavour complexity, a satisfying finish—comes largely from secondary metabolites and volatiles.
Botanical skincare
Because many desirable properties (soothing, antioxidant, protective) are linked to those same plant compounds.
Why Low-Input Growing Encourages Better Botanicals
Low-input growing doesn’t mean “doing less.” It means supporting natural processes rather than overriding them with synthetic shortcuts.
1) Slower nutrient delivery = richer chemistry
Synthetic fertilisers deliver nutrients quickly and in concentrated forms. That often drives rapid vegetative growth—which can dilute secondary metabolites.
In contrast, low-input systems rely more on biology-led nutrient cycling. Nutrients are released more gradually, plants grow more slowly, and they often invest more in defence and chemical complexity.
A large systematic review and meta-analysis found organic crops (which avoid synthetic fertilisers) tended to have higher antioxidant concentrations and a lower incidence of pesticide residues than conventional comparators.
Is every organic crop automatically “better”? No. But the direction of evidence supports a principle Seilich is built on: agronomic choices shape plant chemistry.
2) Living soils support resilient plants
Intensive systems can simplify the soil ecosystem over time. Monocropping and high-input management are associated with reduced soil microbial diversity and greater vulnerability in soil function.
By contrast, diverse, perennial systems can maintain richer soil biology and better structure, helping plants develop more robustly without being propped up by synthetic inputs.
3) Natural stress responses increase “actives”
Plants produce many secondary metabolites as survival tools—responses to competition, herbivory, microbes, and variable conditions.
A meadow is full of these cues, and research reviews highlight that microbial interactions can promote secondary metabolite accumulation through multiple regulatory pathways.
This is one reason meadow-grown herbs can taste and smell more alive: the plant is responding to a real, complex environment.
The Absence of Synthetic Inputs: Why It Matters for People
Seilich’s approach avoids synthetic pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers. That matters for three intertwined reasons:
1) Residues: avoiding the problem at source
Regulators monitor pesticide residues across food categories, and overall consumer risk is typically assessed as low—but residues do occur and vary across products and supply chains. EFSA’s annual reporting gives an overview of pesticide residue monitoring and compliance in the EU.
Our point isn’t to create fear—it’s to highlight a design choice:
Seilich reduces exposure risk by not using these inputs in the first place.
2) Soil life: protecting the engine of plant quality
Synthetic herbicides and pesticides are designed to disrupt living organisms. Even when applied “correctly,” the broader ecological impacts (including soil biology) are part of the conversation in sustainable agriculture.
A low-input system protects the living network that makes plants resilient and nutritionally interesting.
3) Plant expression: letting botanicals behave like botanicals
When you intensify a plant’s environment—fast nutrients, chemical protection, simplified growing conditions—you often get uniformity and yield. You don’t always get depth.
Seilich chooses the opposite: ecological richness, slower growth, and plants that can fully express their chemistry.
Why “Clean” Starts in the Field, Not the Factory
Many brands build “clean” around processing steps:
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extra filtering
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solvent choices
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purity claims
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lab testing at the end
Those things matter. But they’re downstream interventions.
At Seilich, we don't just follow those practices, but we start much earlier, for us “clean” begins much earlier in the process:
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in the soil
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in the absence of synthetic inputs
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in the ecological context of a perennial meadow
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in harvest practices that respect both plant health and habitat
This is why our model is not simply “natural ingredients.” It’s nature-positive cultivation.
A Rarity in the Wider Industry: Why Seilich Is Different
Let’s be blunt: most botanical supply chains are built for scale.
Even when ingredients are plant-based, they’re often grown in ways that prioritise:
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monocultures
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synthetic fertilisers for yield
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pesticides for uniformity
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intensive land use
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“natural” marketing without nature-positive land management
Truly biodiversity-rich meadow cultivation is uncommon because it’s harder:
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lower yield per hectare than intensive cropping
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more complex management
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slower to scale
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requires ecological knowledge, not just agronomy
And in the UK specifically, species-rich wildflower meadows are now rare: around 97% of wildflower meadows/species-rich grasslands have been lost since the 1930s, with flower-rich grassland reduced to a tiny fraction of national land cover.
So when Seilich grows botanicals within wildflower meadows, we’re not just selecting a “nice” provenance. We’re operating inside a habitat type that is nationally scarce, ecologically valuable, and deeply relevant to biodiversity recovery.
That combination—botanical products + habitat creation + soil stewardship—is still rare in the wellness and beauty space.
What This Means for You: Better Botanicals, Better Outcomes
When you choose a Seilich tea or skincare product, you’re not just choosing an ingredient list. You’re choosing a growing system.
A low-input meadow system can deliver:
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More complex flavour and aroma in herbal tea, driven by richer volatile profiles
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Botanicals with robust “actives”, influenced by soil microbiology and ecological interactions
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Reduced reliance on synthetic chemicals, cutting the need to “clean up” ingredients later
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Healthier soils that support long-term plant vitality and landscape resilience
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A business model that treats nature as a partner, not a resource
Closing Thought: Soil Health Is Human Health (Even When It’s Subtle)
We’re used to thinking about skincare and tea as personal rituals—private moments.
But they’re also ecological stories.
Every botanical product begins as a land-use decision. Seilich chooses living soils, biodiversity, and low-input systems because we believe the highest-quality botanicals come from the healthiest ecosystems.
Clean doesn’t start in the factory.
It starts in the field—rooted in living soil.
References
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Pang, Z. et al. (2021). Linking Plant Secondary Metabolites and Plant Microbiomes (review).
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Lv, J. et al. (2024). Microbial regulation of plant secondary metabolites (review).
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Barański, M. et al. (2014). Higher antioxidant… and lower incidence of pesticide residues in organically grown crops: systematic review and meta-analysis. British Journal of Nutrition.
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EFSA (2025). 2023 EU report on pesticide residues in food + overview.
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UK wildflower meadow loss statistics (97% since 1930s): UK Government / Plantlife / National Trust.
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Misra, P. et al. (2019). Vulnerability of soil microbiome to monocropping… Frontiers in Microbiology.