If you're wondering why saffron tends to be more expensive than other ingredients, it's because the harvest window is pretty small. "Kozani saffron, for example, is the most red and rare kind of saffron you can find," explained Cannizzo. "It’s wild and organic and is collected by the Kozani crocus villagers in Greece, who only harvest it for 14 days a year. This is because it only blooms for those two weeks. In October, they wake up and the fields are veiled in purple flowers and they hand-pick every single one. It takes 170,000 flowers for us to get one kilo of the saffron stems and, per kilo, it is more expensive than gold. When the saffron is harvested, it’s extracted within 24 hours to stay at its most potent." In other words, it needs to be harvested fast to maintain its efficacy in skincare.