SARAH YOCUM HAS HER GRANDMOTHER Kathy Tapia’s garden to thank for Mañana Botanicals. “All the hollyhocks in our products are sourced right from her backyard,” says Yocum, an Albuquerque native and the founder of the handmade skin-care line, launched in 2021.
Rooted in New Mexico’s traditional plant medicine, or remedios, Yocum’s balms, elixirs, salves, mists, and teas feature foraged ingredients like her abuela’s hollyhocks, as well as cota, brook mint, piñon, yerba buena, and willow.
Yocum took online classes from the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine, in North Carolina, and trained at the Herb Store, in Albuquerque, but the remedios ethos was in her DNA—literally. Her great-great-grandmother was a curandera, a healer who uses plant medicine. Once the pandemic hit, Yocum tapped into her calling and began Mañana.
“My grandparents take me to all their secret piñon tree spots, where they would harvest when they were younger,” says Yocum. She also seeks out ingredients along the Río Grande bosque and in the mountains of northern New Mexico “to connect with the earth and set peaceful intentions” in her products.
The Herban Cowgirl Garden Balm, a customer favorite with a fun illustration of Yocum in a hot-pink Western outfit on the tin, helps keep hands and cuticles soft in New Mexico’s dry climate. For summer, Yocum has created Greñas (Spanish for “tangles,” and her family’s nickname for crazy hair), a hair oil made from globemallow flowers that promotes hair growth. “I’m preserving knowledge of the past while modernizing remedios for the future,” she says.
Find Mañana Botanicals products at the Albuquerque Downtown Growers’ Market, Sub Rosa Mercantile in Santa Fe, and Weave and Gather in Las Vegas. Follow on Instagram (@mañanabotanicals) or purchase online at mañanabotanicals.com.