Capturing Wild Spaces
Desert duo combines art and science for sustainable skincare and fragrance brand.
*This article was published in the February 2022 print issue of Albuquerque the Magazine.
Dryland Wilds’ newest product, a ‘russian olive face serum,’ consists solely of: organic jojoba oil, organic argan oil, organic prickly pear seed oil, wildcrafted russian olive flower + leaf, and wildcrafted horsetail. This refreshingly short and chemical-free ingredient list isn’t unusual for the Albuquerque-based brand, started by Robin Moore and Cebastien Rose in 2016. In fact, every single Dryland Wilds product, from the ‘piñon desert soliflore’ to the ‘primrose lip tint,’ is handcrafted by Moore and Rose from dryland plants in New Mexico.
“We are different from other cosmetic companies that have to test on animals and do horrible things because they use awful ingredients,” says Rose. “We test on friends and hardcore Instagram fans, get their feedback over a period of a year, and adjust until they’re very, very happy.”
Correspondingly, Moore adds, “With us, it’s all just plants and amazing oils. To get back to that simplicity that’s based on ingredients that you can read, understand, and go out and see — that’s self-care.”
Prior to Dryland Wilds, Moore and Rose worked as landscape designers until they were able to get the business going, spending six months coming up with the brand’s design: hand drawn animals wearing clothes, as well as determining the most iconic scents of New Mexico: piñon and juniper. Since then, the couple has taught themselves essential business skills, like bookkeeping, and are continuously figuring out creative ways to encapsulate New Mexico in a bottle. Over time, they’ve found the craft to be a mixture of innovation and scientific knowledge, concocting everything from green chile perfume to honey mesquite beauty oil.
“We didn’t know what the reception would be, but we’ve found that people who live in New Mexico or have experienced the state have such strong connections to the land,” says Moore. “Our sense of memory and place are so intertwined with our sense of smell, so the goal of our products is to literally transport you to those wild spaces.”
Furthermore, Rose, who’s been foraging since she could walk and learned everything she knows about plants from their grandmother, says, “And we’re hoping that by helping people feel even more connected to nature, they’ll take care of it a little bit better. This is Indigenous land and one way to respect it is to learn the plants and be a good steward.”
To collect their ingredients, the pair venture all over the desert, harvesting invasive and common plants from ranchers and land stewards who want them removed. Basically, Moore and Rose save the plant material from going to burn piles or the dump, take it back to their South Valley workshop, and extract properties and fragrances using slow, old perfumery techniques. We’re talking slow methods — for example, their limited-edition perfumes, including the cliff rose one they’re brewing up for this year, take roughly three years to make.
“We’re self-taught perfumers, so it’s been eye-opening to go out a couple of years in a row to do the harvest and then processing it in our garage to the point where the flower’s fragrance is captured just right,” says Moore. “We’re one of two perfumeries in the country that do it because it’s so long, but it’s so beautiful.”
Dryland Wilds’ commitment to clean ingredients, sustainable practices, and aesthetic packaging has not only garnered a loyal clientele throughout the state, but across the world. In addition to being sold in 12 stores in New Mexico, their products are carried by retailers in Portland, San Francisco, and more. While Moore and Rose continue to run the business on their own, they recently hired Rose’s parents to ship out worldwide orders placed through their online shop, drylandwilds.com. The site has been booming since the ‘desert deodorant’ went viral on TikTok and instantly became their best-seller. Why? Because it’s natural, smells like a monsoon storm, and it works.
“It’s packed with major antibacterial high desert plants, like Artemisia, so it doesn’t just cover up your odor like most deodorants. Ours effectively reduces or eliminates the bacterial load that causes the smell,” Moore says.
When Dryland Wilds began attracting a widespread online audience, Rose’s entrepreneur father encouraged them to rent a space and start a ‘real factory.’ However, both Moore and Rose are determined to stay local and to defy the pressure to scale up.
Rose says, “What I love about my life is waking up with Robin, driving out to the middle of the desert or forest, setting up camp, harvesting flowers for two weeks, and getting paid for that. Our products are almost an afterthought that put food on the table, but the goal is helping people treat the land with more respect.”
Staying a small business in New Mexico allows Moore and Rose to spend more time together, while also sharing Indigenous knowledge about New Mexico land that has been passed down for thousands of years. Standing up for social and environmental justice causes has always been their priority, seeing as they met co-facilitating a ‘Challenging White Supremacy Workshop.’ Therefore, Dryland Wilds regularly donates to anti-racist southwestern organizations and offers free wild walks to Indigenous folks. Moore says a massive part of Dryland Wilds is “using our platforms to support Indigenous-led causes and seeing that as crucial to sustainable land management because that’s where this wisdom of plants comes from.”
For educational, empowering insights on local plants and a behind-the-scenes look at Moore and Rose crafting their products, follow @drylandwilds on Instagram. They are selling beauty gift boxes for the holiday season.
