The Subtle Medicine Doctor

Directions Website Contact the business

The Subtle Medicine Doctor Helping women build healthspan at home - steady, intelligent wellness rooted in daily inputs. Foundations. Nervous system. Cleaner living. Doctor-led.

Science-grounded. Integrity-first. Health that’s lived, not outsourced.

01/10/2026

FULL RECIPE IN CAPTION 🌿

There’s nothing quite as miserable when you have a cold as the bit you get into bed and just can’t settle with your stuffy nose 😩

Even worse when it’s one of the children.

I really love having things like this already sitting in the cupboard when someone wakes up bunged up and miserable. It’s so comforting to be able to reach for something simple that eases symptoms, and I’ve made myself.

So this week’s addition to our Home Apothecary is Breathe Easy Chest Balm 🌿

This isn’t that eye-watering blast of menthol and eucalyptus you can practically feel behind your eyeballs. It’s deliberately gentle and formulated for adults and children from age 4+.

SAVE THE RECIPE ↓

63 g coconut oil
27 g shea butter
9 g beeswax

10 drops lavender
7 drops ravintsara
6 drops eucalyptus
4 drops copaiba

Gently melt the coconut oil, shea butter and beeswax over a bain-marie. Take it off the heat, let it cool slightly while it’s still liquid, then stir in the essential oils.

Pour into a clean jar and leave to set. That’s it.

When we need it, I’ll massage a little over the chest and upper back before bed.

For ages 4+. External use only. Keep away from the face, nose and mouth in children. Do not use on broken or irritated skin or in children with a history of seizures. Stop use if irritation occurs.

Save it for the inevitable first cold 🌿

23/09/2026

One for the cupboard BEFORE you have the horrible chesty cough 🤧🌿

This is thyme oxymel - and possibly one of the easiest things we’ll make in our Autumn Home Apothecary.

An oxymel is simply an old herbal preparation combining vinegar + honey. Here we’re using the vinegar to extract fresh thyme, then turning that strained infusion into something much nicer to take with an equal amount of honey.

And thyme is a particularly lovely herb to know at this time of year.
It has a long history of traditional use for coughs, particularly the chesty, productive kind that come with ordinary colds. Honey brings its own soothing qualities too.

The whole thing is beautifully simple:
🌿 fresh thyme
🍎 apple c***r vinegar
🍯 honey

Thyme in a jar. Cover with vinegar. Leave for 2–3 weeks, shaking regularly. Strain. Measure. Add the same volume of (raw) honey.

For adults, I use around a teaspoon when needed, either straight from the spoon or stirred into a little warm water.

Keep it labelled in the fridge and use within 6 months.

And THIS is what I mean when I talk about building a home apothecary.

Not 47 mysterious bottles of things you’ll never use.

Just learning a handful of plants, making simple preparations when they’re abundant, and slowly building a cupboard of useful things before you need them.

We’ve got plenty more to put in ours before winter 🌿

Save this one for your thyme harvest - and follow along if you’re building your Autumn Home Apothecary with me.

17/09/2026

ELDERBERRY GUMMIES 🌿🫐

I decided there’s definitely not much point filling my freezer with foraged elderberries unless my family is actually going to use them… so today that meant turning them into tiny purple dinosaurs.

These started as my homemade elderberry syrup - elderberries gently cooked with ginger, cinnamon and cloves, strained, then sweetened with raw honey - before I set some with agar agar rather than gelatine.

And this is very much Test Batch No. 1.

They taste beautifully of the syrup, pop perfectly out of the moulds and have passed the small-human taste test 😂 The texture is more firm jelly than chewy gummy though, so I want to tweak that before I give you a recipe and pretend I’ve nailed it.

I also want to see how they behave after a few days in the fridge - because sometimes the useful bit of testing happens after the camera has been put away.

As for why elderberry? There is some interesting evidence around elderberry preparations and respiratory infections, particularly symptom duration and severity, but the research is still limited. I don’t think we have good grounds for turning them into another “take three every morning to boost your immune system” supplement.

For me, they’re another way of preserving and actually using something we gathered while it was abundant — and potentially a much more appealing way of reaching for our elderberry syrup when cough-and-cold season arrives.

I’ll share the finished recipe once I’m happy it’s genuinely worth making.

Follow along to build your Autumn Home Apothecary with me - gathering, preserving, testing and making our way into the colder months, sometimes one tiny dinosaur at a time. 🌿

You voted overwhelmingly to see what was in the basket… so here she is 🌿😂This was from a couple of simple September walk...
14/09/2026

You voted overwhelmingly to see what was in the basket… so here she is 🌿😂

This was from a couple of simple September walks in North Wales and honestly, we found so much.

Elderberries, hawthorn, rosehips and sloes all came home with me. We found St John’s wort somehow still hanging onto two tiny yellow flowers, spotted yarrow, plantain and pineapple w**d, found an actual strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) which I was ridiculously excited about, and saw more mushrooms than I could even begin to confidently identify 🍄

The blackberries, on the other hand, were basically done. We found plenty of brambles, sour and under developed fruit, but it’s felt like a tough year for them. Occasional walking snacks a plenty though!

THIS is why I love going out with a basket 🧺 it helps me feel so connected to the season and natural world around me.

Plus I came home with a purposefully really modest amount - 100g of sloes - enough for a tiny batch of sloe gin - 79g of rosehips that are now in the freezer waiting for me to find some more, and more elderberries to add to the stash already building up in there.

I promise you really don’t need huge harvests to make lovely things - neither do you need to plan elaborate and specific walks - these were regular dog walks!

Now, obviously though I want to turn everything into something 😂🌿

So some of this little haul is coming into the Autumn Home Apothecary with me over the next few weeks.

Come and see what becomes of the basket. We’re going to make some cool things!

Hope this inspires you to get out too… Basket. Boots. Let’s go and see what’s ready 🚶🏻‍♀️

09/09/2026

Your Autumn Home Apothecary starts here 🌿

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to build one slowly, with the season - and I’d love you to build yours alongside mine.

We’ll strain the fire c***r that’s been quietly infusing since August, make elderflower gummies, turn a simple packet of thyme into a traditional respiratory oxymel, make herbal honey throat pastilles, formulate an aromatic chest balm and respiratory inhaler, and find a few more uses for the elderberries already tucked into my freezer.

But this isn’t just about making lovely things in jars.

I want us to understand what we’re working with too - the traditional knowledge behind these preparations, what modern evidence can (and can’t) tell us, and how we can bring some of these old household skills into modern life without leaving good science or medicine at the door.

Some we’ll gather. Some we’ll preserve. Some we’ll formulate. Some will simply soothe.

I’ve written a new article, How to Build an Autumn Home Apothecary, which is now live on Subtle Medicine. I’ll keep adding each new recipe and formulation to it as we make them, so it becomes somewhere useful to return to throughout the season.

And if you want to make your way through autumn with me, join my weekly Subtle Medicine letters. I’ll send the new preparations, seasonal notes and everything we’re learning along the way straight to your inbox.

Come and build yours alongside mine. 🍂

Read our started article now - and be sure to stay tuned every week!

01/09/2026

It’s fire c***r season 🔥🧅🫚

A jar that gets fiercer by the week.

This is one of my favourite preparations to make as summer begins to tip into autumn - partly because it feels like such a marker of the season, and partly because there’s something sooo satisfying about making things now for the colder months still to come. It will be ready right on time 🔥

Fire c***r is a wonderfully punchy herbal vinegar, traditionally made by packing a jar with pungent roots, herbs and spices, covering everything with apple c***r vinegar and then simply… waiting.

Mine has already been tucked away infusing for a couple of weeks. Over the next few weeks that vinegar will become fiery, aromatic and very definitely deserving of its name.

And despite how impressive a full jar looks, it is ridiculously easy to make.

If you’ve been wanting to build your own home apothecary but don’t quite know where to begin, this is exactly the sort of preparation I mean: simple ingredients, an old skill worth knowing, and something useful waiting in the cupboard as the seasons change.

I’ve written a full guide on Subtle Medicine - including where fire c***r came from, what we actually know about its ingredients, why I chose what went into my jar, how to make it, how to use it and a few important safety considerations.

🍂 Comment “fire c***r” for the full recipe + guide

29/08/2026

Save this one for the recipes - and comment INHALER if you’d like the link to the exact blank inhalers I use. ♥️🌿

Anyone else spent the last few mornings wondering whether they’re getting a cold? 🤧

Late-summer allergies are still very much a thing, and what pollen forecasters call “w**d pollen” can continue into September, including pollen from familiar plants such as nettle, mugwort and plantain.

So I’ve added one of the simplest little makes to my late-summer home apothecary: a personal aromatherapy inhaler.

And as promised, here are the blends:

SOFT + CLEAR
6 Ravintsara
4 Lavender
1 Peppermint

FRESH + CLEAR
6 Eucalyptus
3 Lavender
2 Peppermint

WOODLAND AIR
4 Eucalyptus
3 Siberian Fir
3 Lavender
1 Peppermint

The aroma should last for a few weeks, depending on how often you use it. When it starts to fade, you can refresh the wick with the same blend once or twice before replacing it.

This isn’t filtering pollen from the air or stopping the allergic response, but for those horribly stuffy late-summer days, it’s a lovely little aromatic tool to have in your pocket.

I’ve gone properly down the research rabbit hole with this one too, looking at what the science actually tells us about aromatic inhalation and allergic rhinitis, the emerging research around eucalyptus and 1,8-cineole, why peppermint can make a blocked nose feel clearer, why Ravensara ≠ Ravintsara, and why I haven’t automatically reached for that famous lavender + lemon + peppermint allergy blend.

Full article is on Subtle Medicine now 🌿

19/08/2026

The elderberries are already here🫐🌿

And if you’ve been noticing those heavy, dark clusters in the hedgerows and wondering what on earth to do with them, this is your sign to start gathering.

Elderberry syrup might be the preparation we know best, but these beautiful late-summer berries can be included in so much more: fire c***r, oxymels, tinctures, infused vinegars - or simply be frozen now, ready to experiment with later.

I’ve been gathering my local Sambucus nigra, and this first batch is on its way to becoming elderberry syrup: simmered with warming spices, strained, then sweetened with honey and bottled for my autumn home apothecary.

And if you’d like to gather your own, I’ve brought together everything I think you need to get started - how to identify elderberry confidently, when and how to harvest it, how to prepare the berries safely, and what you can actually make with them once you get home.

There are two new articles: one for the hedgerow, and one for the kitchen, with three different elderberry preparations to try.

Because the autumn apothecary doesn’t really begin in autumn. It begins now, while everything is still growing 🤍🍂

Want the articles? Comment ELDERBERRY below and I’ll send you both links🌿

17/08/2026

Save this for those late-summer bites + stings 🌿

This little relief stick is easy to keep in your bag and swipe over hot, itchy skin whenever you need it.

For one small stick:
🌿 1.6g infused oil
🌿 1.2g shea butter
🌿 1.2g beeswax
🌿 Lavender + Peppermint + Helichrysum essential oils
🌿 Vitamin E (optional)

I used dandelion-infused oil for its traditional use in soothing skin (and because I already had a jar I’d made earlier in the year). If I were infusing an oil specifically for bites and stings, plantain would be my first choice. Calendula is another lovely skin-friendly alternative.

Gently melt the beeswax, shea + infused oil in a bain-marie. Remove from the heat, allow to cool slightly, add your essential oils + vitamin E, then pour and leave to set.

No Helichrysum? Try Roman Chamomile.
No Peppermint? Leave it out.
Only have Lavender? Use Lavender alone - simple can still be beautifully useful.

That’s the beauty of a home apothecary: not having every ingredient, but learning how to work with what you have 🌿

*Always dilute essential oils appropriately for the person you’re making for; Peppermint isn’t suitable for young children.

15/08/2026

Apparently nobody thought to teach me this one. 😅🍓

Instead of slicing the whole top from a strawberry, use a ½ teaspoon to scoop around the stalk. It takes out the hull without sacrificing a perfectly good chunk of strawberry with it.

Such a tiny thing, but I love these little pieces of everyday know-how - the things that don’t really warrant a lesson, but somehow get picked up because somebody once showed you.

And I know it can be hard, but that’s one of the reasons why I love having little hands alongside me in the kitchen too 🤍

They’re watching, trying, tasting, asking questions and quietly picking up all those little things along the way. Research also suggests that involving children in preparing food can encourage greater willingness to try different foods and support healthier eating habits.

And don’t throw those strawberry tops away either 🍓

If there’s still a little fruit attached, you can pop them into a jar and turn them into strawberry-top vinegar, or use them to make a simple strawberry syrup - both of which we’ve made here before.

Less strawberry in the bin, another little kitchen skill passed on, and something delicious from what would otherwise have been waste.

My kind of kitchen knowledge 🌿

Address

Manchester

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when The Subtle Medicine Doctor posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to The Subtle Medicine Doctor:

Shortcuts

Share

Category