When Samantha Trotta, owner of Wild Harvested Esthetics, presents one of her natural skin-care or perfume products to a customer for purchase, she feels “as if I am serving them my heart.” Trotta said that’s because she and her husband, Dustin Adams, who works alongside her, put “1,000%” of themselves into the perfumes and richly-scented soaps, toners, creams, masks, oils and salves created from wild harvested and organically cultivated or sourced ingredients. “I’ve always felt a deep fascination with scent and how it affects us,” said Trotta.
“I also felt the need to have luxurious perfume and skin products made with natural aromatic plant materials and ingredients that — through aroma, color and texture – reconnect you to the natural world. Now, more than ever, in this busy world, that seems important.” A licensed esthetician who worked in San Francisco spas for nearly two decades, a student of herbalism for seven years and an herbalist for three years, Trotter raised her business out of the ashes.
Literally. Trotter and Adams moved from Chico to their new home in lower Paradise the weekend before the Camp Fire raged through the mountain town on Nov. 8, 2018.
Like so many other ridge residents, they lost everything. It took the couple two years to decide what was next for them — but, ultimately, they made the decision to return to Paradise and rebuild. For the next year, Trotta spent her days managing the rebuild.
In the evenings, she developed a b.
