The bounty that we see in the stalls of farmers markets doesn’t have to exist solely on your summer party menu.

Fresh produce can be just as nourishing when used for the glow and texture of your skin.

Vintner’s Daughter CEO and founder April Gargiulo knows this all too well with her Active Treatment Essence and Active Botanical Serum, which contain over 50 ingredients that include things such as pineapple, apple, papaya, lemon and hazelnut.

She likens most skin care to a meal-replacement bar but says her ounce-size products that hydrate and moisturize are more like “going to the farmers market, buying the most beautiful local, organic produce and then coming home and preparing a beautiful plate of food.”

“We begin with whole plants,” she said. “We take them through weekslong extraction processes that are very gentle and temperature-controlled to extract all of the most incredible skin-beautifying nutrients so they can be delivered directly to your skin.”

It takes 21 days to make every bottle of serum; every bottle of essence takes 35 days to make, according to Gargiulo.

“Most skin care is made in hours, and that does not include the month of sourcing that we do for ingredients around the world and then the weeks of testing that we do when they come into our lab to ensure their quality,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what age you are, it doesn’t matter what skin tone you have, it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman, it doesn’t matter if you’re someone who deals with rosacea or someone who deals with acne. It’s nutrition. All skin thrives off the same nutrition.”

And feeding the skin can come in different ways.

“So many of our products are about artful combinations of things — fresh raspberry juice, almond milk, dragon fruit,” said Erica Vega, a brand and product expert at Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics in Chicago.

“For fruits and vegetables we try to go local as often as we can. Our stuff is closer to a farmers market than it is to a pharmaceutical lab — whole, simple fresh ingredients.”

We found some skin care that will feed the side of yourself that you show to the world.

drockett@chicagotribune.com