Flora's Kiss

Complex PTSD and neurodivergence can produce almost the same picture, and each is regularly mistaken for the other. This deep dive looks at why the two overlap so often, why trauma in autistic and ADHD adults so often goes unrecognised, and what the evidence actually says about the differences between men and women — including one finding that cuts against almost everything written on the subject.

https://floraskiss.com.au/2026/09/19/two-stories-in-one-body/

There's something warming about seeing our range on the shelf at The Common Room Cafe Project in Stirling — a place built for people to gather, sit a while, and feel at home. We restocked this week, so if your favourite had disappeared, it's back where it belongs: creams, balms and lip products, made by hand in small batches here in the Adelaide Hills.

And we've brought something new with us. Our Signature Candle Range has arrived, made in collaboration with our friends at Green Door Cottage. Five scents, hand-poured in small batches with soy wax and cotton wicks, and all vegan: Frost and Firewood, Roses and Rain, Spice and Embers, The Still Garden, and Peel and Thorn.

Come in for a coffee, stay for a wander around the shelves. It's a good excuse to sit down for half an hour in good company.

Thank you to the team at The Common Room Cafe Project for having us — and for the welcoming corner of Stirling you've made.

There's something lovely about seeing our little jars and tins tucked in among the flowers at Tayla Made Flowers. We restocked the shelf this week, so if your favourite had disappeared, it's home again — creams, balms and lip products, made by hand in small batches here in the Adelaide Hills.

And we've brought something new with us. Our Signature Candle Range has arrived, made in collaboration with our friends at Green Door Cottage. Five scents, hand-poured in small batches with soy wax and cotton wicks, and all vegan: Frost and Firewood, Roses and Rain, Spice and Embers, The Still Garden, and Peel and Thorn. They're the sort of thing you light at the end of a long day and feel your shoulders drop.

Come and have a wander next time you're in — flowers and candles together is a very good combination.

Thank you to Tayla and the team for making room for us.

Fresh stock on the shelf at The Grocer. We've topped up the range this week, so if you've been waiting on a favourite, it's back. Creams, balms and lip products, all handmade in small batches in the Adelaide Hills.

And there's something new alongside them — our Signature Candle Range has arrived, made in collaboration with Green Door Creative. Five scents, hand-poured in small batches with soy wax and cotton wicks, and vegan: Frost and Firewood, Roses and Rain, Spice and Embers, The Still Garden, and Peel and Thorn. Come and have a look next time you're in.

Thank you to the team at The Grocer for having us.

floraskiss.com.au

Flora's Kiss

You'll now find Flora's Kiss on the shelves at Mt Barker Foodland. Bath salts, creams, balms, lip products and more, handmade in small batches in the Adelaide Hills and now sitting right there alongside your weekly shop. A big thank you to Paige, Mel, Teresa and the team for looking after us so beautifully — the display is lovely. Pop in and have a look next time you're in.
com.au

Flora's Kiss

You have been told pollen is worst first thing in the morning. In Australia, the measurements say otherwise.

Grass pollen rises with the warm air all day. After sunset the ground cools, the air stops stirring, and a shallow layer settles near the surface — sometimes only a few tens of metres deep. All that pollen comes back down into a fraction of the sky it had at three in the afternoon.

Same pollen. Far less room. Which is why your skin and your eyes can get worse in the evening, after you have come inside and done everything right.

Our new post follows the whole chain, from a paddock north of the city to the skin on your face. Why rain does not clear the air. What four separate things a hot northerly does to a sensitive barrier at once.

And one line worth carrying: in the 2016 Melbourne thunderstorm asthma event, most of the people hospitalised had never been diagnosed with asthma. Almost all of them had hay fever.

If spring makes you sneeze, that is a September conversation with your GP, not a November one.

Education, not medical advice. https://floraskiss.com.au/2026/09/10/what-the-weather-carries/

This one's a long one. Kettle on, feet up.

The Skin That Listens — our new deep dive into the sensory receptors underneath your skin, and the chemistry that keeps them talking.

Your skin can resolve detail down to half a millimetre. It also has a dedicated nerve fibre that seems to exist for one purpose: to register affectionate touch.

Comfort isn't purely psychological. It has a nerve fibre.

We cover the receptors one by one, follow a single touch from fingertip to brain, open up the tiny molecular pump that makes every nerve signal possible (and why magnesium and potassium are non-negotiable to it), and look honestly at what happens when the system is compromised — when the signal fades, when it won't stop, and when it arrives intact but is read differently.

It's a proper sit-down read rather than a scroll. Grab a cuppa and settle in.

https://floraskiss.com.au/2026/09/06/the-skin-that-listens/

Educational only, not medical advice — please see your GP about symptoms.

The Skin That Listens How a two-square-metre organ turns pressure, stretch, warmth and pain into electricity — and what it takes, chemically, to keep that conversation running.

ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder) is a real eating disorder — driven by sensory sensitivity, low appetite, or fear of what eating might do, not by body image or weight.

It overlaps significantly with autism and ADHD, often goes undiagnosed for years, and currently isn't covered by Medicare's Eating Disorders Care Plan in Australia — a gap worth knowing about if you're navigating this.

New deep dive is up now.
https://floraskiss.com.au/2026/08/24/more-than-picky-eating/

More Than Picky Eating When food itself — its taste, its texture, its risk — becomes the thing a body cannot get past, no matter how much the mind wants to.