Nice to meet you,

I am Cortney Herrera— Intuitive dreamer, mother, botanical distiller, and founder of Wildcare. Long before we had children, my husband Alejandro and I created a weekly ritual of wandering throughout Oregon and California in an adventurous and whimsical way. With eyes closed, we would point to a place on a map within a certain radius and allow ourselves to be led by surprise.

That practice of immersion in nature and finding beauty wherever we ended up, deeply shaped the philosophy behind Wildcare—cultivating an appreciation for varying landscapes, aromatic plants, sensory memory, and the many forms beauty can take within the natural world. Through botanical distillation, hydrosol making, herbal skincare formulation, and whole-plant extraction, I continue to draw inspiration from landscapes, gardens, dreams, scent, and the emotional experience of being present in nature. We believe that kind of openness and play is essential to developing intimacy with the living world. Wildcare was built from this relationship: a belief that beauty is not perfection, but presence, reciprocity, curiosity, and connection. No matter where you are, beauty can be found when we remain attentive, vulnerable, and in conversation with the world around us.

FOUNDED IN 2015__ Wildcare was brought to life through a dedication to creating effective, holistic botanical skincare rooted in biomimicry, sensory ritual, and a deep relationship with the natural world. Beginning first in our family garden, each formula is designed to evoke a sense of place, peace, and plant-speak through small-batch hydrosols, whole-plant extractions, herbal oil infusions, and nutrient-dense botanicals.

Our ethos draws from my intuitive dreams, scent memories, seasonal observation, and what I often describe as a mediumship with nature—so much so that many of our formulations first arrived as dreams before becoming our physical products. This process has become a relationship built on trust, patience, listening, and connection to the living world. I began this DREAMLIST as a form of transparent record-keeping and a way to share our creative and formulation process with our community in real time. More on my relationship with dreams can be found on our JOURNAL. Through our products, we hope to spark intimacy, delight, wonder, and a deeper connection between skin, ritual, and terrain.


OUR FORMULAS__ Everything we create begins as a catalyst for emotional discovery and sensory connection first. Our botanical formulas are designed as rituals of repair—encouraging deeper engagement with yourself, your skin, and the natural world. Through small-batch formulation, whole-plant extractions, hydrosols, herbal oils, and nutrient-dense botanicals, we create products that support both skin health and emotional well-being.

Each formula is deeply informed by my background as a chef in various kitchens and with recipe building, considering how every ingredient relates, balances, and evolves with another through scent, texture, memory, terrain, and sensory experience. I approach skincare the same way I approach food— with reverence for organic, garden-grown fruits, flowers, leaves, roots, and fresh-pressed unrefined oils that nourish the body through vitality and connection. When we experience joy, nourishment, and presence through the ingredients we apply to our skin, the skin often reflects that care through texture, tone, resilience, and radiance. Our bodies are constantly communicating—revealing what we are feeling, consuming, applying, and carrying internally. This philosophy continues to shape my dedication to holistic skincare, herbalism, energetic healing, and the interconnected relationship between internal and external care. My hope is that Wildcare offers not only effective botanical skincare, but a joyful experience with touch that helps you reconnect with your body, your senses, and your place within the living world.

WHOLE BEING SKINCARE __ We coined Wildcare as “Whole-being Skincare” because we believe beauty begins as a relationship—one rooted in feeling, ritual, presence, and reciprocity with the living world. To us, skincare is not separate from emotional well-being, sensory experience, or the ways we care for ourselves daily. Through our hydrosols, botanical distillations, flower essences and whole-plant formulations, we create skincare that supports harmony between skin, spirit, and terrain. When you cleanse, mist, moisturize, and anoint yourself with plants, you enter into an ongoing dialogue with the natural world. Our hope is that Wildcare offers more than visible results alone—that it becomes a practice of renewal, remembrance, and reconnection. Beauty begins the moment you feel it.

STUDIES __ I am currently working towards completing a program as a Flower Essence Practioner and continue an Advanced Herbal Mentorship Program with Ethnobotanist & Clinical Herbalist Ash Ritter of Black Sage Botanicals. Each week is spent with a new plant, deepening my relationship with phytochemistry, ethnobotany clinical applications & energetics. Continuing education as an earth-speaker and formulator is critical to my practice. This can look like personal dreamwork, experience in the studio, travels, research, classes, literature and clinical studies. Through real-lived experience and first-hand practice, I have logged easily a few hundred distillations over the last 10 years. My background in Hydrosol distillation specifically includes educational courses with distillers and formulators such as Cathy Skipper, Marco Valussi & self-driven research shared from long-time distillers such as Ann Harmon and Jeanne Rose. I received my first more formal introduction to working with plants in a clinical setting at a naturopathic office / botanical dispensary with a mentor, through an Herbalism Internship in the Pacific Northwest 15 years ago. I am also a graduate of The Oregon Culinary Institute with food and recipe-building as a pillar of my foundation.

Shoutout to my shining star sisters—

Ash is a desert dwelling ethnobotanist, herbalist and educator. Her botanical medicine studies have spanned the past 18+ years through various clinical, academic & traditional settings and I’m lucky to be receiving weekly mentorship and herbal training under her wing. If you haven’t checked out her classes & herbal candy-of-the-month club yet, run- don’t walk. They typically sell out the same day a new flavor drops. We’re on a similar creative wavelength, plotting a collaboration and are always bouncing future business ideas back and forth. Ash’s works.

Mo is a mother, artist and poet living in the Pacific Northwest. Her works most often consist of drawings, sculpture, books, html & cat houses, and intermedia installations sourced from dreams and other found materials. She‘s also had her illustrations weaving in through the early designs of Wildcare designs! Mo's works.
Mo is now the Co-director of House of Arts and Crafts in Portland, Or.

Thank you for being here.

With love,

Cortney Herrera,
founder, formulator & distiller

All of our products are made with care and integrity in the Pacific Northwest.