Reverse Osmosis Purified Water: When looking at other
skin care products I always want to know how the water they use
is purified(if at all). Is it filtered? How small a filter?
Ozonated? Often the devil is in the details. We use only Reverse
Osmosis purified water. Reverse
Osmosis purified water is the gold standard for being clean and
pure. So if we are talking microscopic differences why
is it important? Reverse Osmosis water, we’ve found, works
better than any other water to maximize the potential of the
precious ingredients we use. It’s
expensive, but we believe anything else is purely just cutting
corners.
Golden Jojoba: Jojoba is very similar in composition to
human natural skin lipids. Within a moisturizer, Jojoba
penetrates the skin rapidly to nourish it and also softens and
moisturizes skin. We use 100% pure jojoba, the extract of seeds
produced by the jojoba plant from the southwest USA, which is
expeller pressed, once. No solvents are used during this
process. Jojoba is sometimes called “jojoba oil” but it is
technically an extract. It’s not an oil at all but a liquid wax
ester. Jojoba tends to be expensive because it can take nearly
1200 trees to produce one pound of Jojoba nuts, which only yield
50 percent oil. 5
gallons costs us over $250. We buy it by the 55 gallon drum,
almost $3,000
Macadamia Nut Oil: (Macadamia integrifolia) This tree
is native to Australia. Also known as Queensland nut oil, this
cold pressed oil is high in palmitoleic acid, a monounsaturated
fatty acid that acts as an antioxidant, preventing deterioration
of cell membranes. For mature skin it is hydrating and gentle.
It is a skin lubricant and is easily absorbed by the skin,
sometimes described as a “vanishing oil.” Helpful in cases of
sunburn and wound healing. it’s about $150 for 5 gallons.
Squalane: This is a precious extract of olive oil. This
is not the olive oil anyone could afford to cook with. Squalane
is a remarkable extract found in olive oil. It is a
non-irritating, protein rich, moisturizing agent with
exceptional skin softening properties. In fact, it is one of the
most effective moisturizers ingredients available. Squalane is
rich in vitamin A, thus helping with improving suppleness and
resiliency of the skin. In addition it helps to prevent the
formation of brown age spots. Because of its “light as water”
consistency, it is absorbed quickly and deeply in to the skin
with no oily film. Plus it gives our moisturizer a silky
feeling. Not a lot of companies use this oil. 5
Gallons costs over a $1000.
Meadowfoam Seed Oil: Meadowfoam oil is used here due to
its stability, lubricity and ability to stay on the skin.
Meadowfoam Seed Oil’s skin feel is distinct from many other
natural oils. This is due to the novel chemistry of its fatty
acids, which contain more carbon atoms than fatty acids common
in most edible oils. As a result, Meadowfoam Seed oil provides
good emolliency without being overly greasy. 5
Gallons costs us over $400
Emulsifying Wax: is a vegetable wax. Used to combine
the water and oils in True moisturizers. Most moisturizers today
aren’t made like ours. They are mostly oils (usually not very
good oils) and thickeners like Sea Weed (Algin, Kelp) and
Xanthan gums. Which means technically they aren’t moisturizers.
An additional problem is Sea Weed derived thickeners have
Sulfurs in it. A known allergen and in certain chemical states a
pollutant.
Stearic Acid: This is also a vegetable wax, used to not
only combine oils and water into a moisturizer, but also makes
this moisturizer creamy.
Germal Plus: Paraben free, vegetable derived
preservative.
Green Tea: Also great skin regenerative properties.
Lavender: Natural essences of. We do not user
fragrances.
Our moisturizers are pH neutral. All moisturizers we’ve
tested tend towards the mildly acidic to very acidic levels.
Acids are very popular right now. We believe they are being
overused and might partially explain the incredible increase
over the last few decades of adult acne. Constantly applying
acidic lotions to the skin might cause the surface bacteria
(needed for normal healthy skin) to move deeper into the skin.
Without those surface bacteria your skin can be stressed. Your
skin can also dry and oily at the same time. Out of sorts. Our
skin care products tend to restore this healthy balance.
What about clogging pores? Actually this term Noncomedogenic is
a purely made up term. Yes some people do indeed respond to
certain oils and butters and form acne. But this is a type of
allergic formed acne. Noncomedogenic was
a term used by certain marketers to sell their products and
trash their competitors. It is used especially to sell the ‘oil
free’ products. We don’t like oil free products because they are
nothing short of just a chemical stew. Often with animal derived
ingredients and artificial fragrances. They are oil free only on
a technicality. The Mayo Clinic released a top ten list of known
contact skin allergens. No oils were even on the list. There
were many artificial fragrances and other common ingredients in
other skin care products.
What else makes our moisturizers special? Keep in mind we
don’t use Silicones(Dimethicone). Silicones are
commonly used in just about all skin care products. (in some
instances there are no requirements to even put them on the
label) They are also the active ingredient in GasX. What’s the
connection? Silicone removes bubbles and foam. When you’re
making a million jars of ‘moisturizers’ a day, you haven’t got
time to stop the line and clean up a bubbly mess. Just like the
TV commercial for GasX silicones magically remove bubbles. But
at what price? Buy a can of spray on silicone lubricant and try
spraying it on your skin. It’s seals the skin. In a skin care
product, it keeps it from absorbing into the skin. GREASY! YUK!
This does require a lot more labor on our part. Small batches of
a few hundred jars or bottles at a time. Bottles and jars have
to be hand packed. You’d
expect that in a $100 dollar product, not in a $15.00 one. This
is again the miracle of buying direct. No middle man.
No animal ingredients! So what makes that so important?
Vegetarians like the idea of all vegetable moisturizers, but
even meat eaters need to be concerned about applying animal
derived skin care products to the skin. We don’t fully know what
are in those ingredients. Often hormones and all sorts of
chemicals are added to the feed grain a few weeks before
slaughter. When we eat meat, our stomach acids do a pretty good
job of destroying these chemicals. But applied to the skin, they
might go right into the blood stream. And lets face it, were not
talking about the best parts of the cattle and pork and sheep
here. We’re talking about the parts they cannot use for anything
else. Nothing gets thrown away including brain and spinal
tissue. These parts are made into Stearates, Waxes and
Glycerin. Unless
your lotion says no animal ingredients, you can just about bet
on it that there are animal derived ingredients in it. It’s
a dirty little secret how skin care products are made today. But
their focus is on pretty jars and ingredients that they can
leave on a store shelf for years. Quality isn’t real high on
their list of concerns.
No Animal Testing: We do use humans to test on, but no
animals.
No animal testing on ANY ingredients: Although some
products will promise no animal testing, they always add a
little kicker. NO ANIMAL TESTING ON FINISHED PRODUCT. What this
means is they don’t know and they don’t care if there was some
testing on animals of the ingredients they use by someone else.
Most moisturizers today are made with long named unpronounceable
ingredients. These aren’t really single ingredients, but
products in themselves composed of many ingredients. If you
visited one of these factories that make these skin care
products, you would notice they are located next to a railroad
track. Railroad tank cars of these chemicals arrive constantly.
All these factories do is mix various chemicals to arrive at a
finished product. We use raw ingredients that our suppliers
assure us there was no testing done on animals.
Freshness matters: everything we sell is made and
shipped fresh. Most products sold in stores were made years ago.
I have to confess this is one of the main reasons we haven’t
gone big. It’s just not possible to wholesale our product and
depend on retailers to rotate and sell our products fresh. This
way we ship it directly to you. Everything we ship was made
within the last two months.
