What's Hiding in Your Products - Us v Them

I've been musing on the difference between what we do and the majority of other makers, it's something that I often think about. I think the biggest difference is that what we do flows from my therapeutic background. We make Herbalist/Homeopath/Plantswoman led products. It's about a different kind of beauty, it's about giving back, nourishing and supporting the skin, mind and body. It's not radical but it runs contrary to the vast majority of products on the market which are driven by trend and dominated by capitalising on 'pain points'. Rather than support, they often undermine the skin's biome by using harsh formulations, cheap ingredients and mass production.

Working as we do we breathe energy into our products, we harness the incredible power of plants organically grown and well cared for. We find a precious few of our ingredients in the wild, preferring where possible to grow them ourselves. The pristine sea that surrounds our little island is a fertile spot to gather seaweed sustainably. 

Ours is a quiet revolution, tucked away on our island home. It's about spreading a message to all the women we work with, that what they need is the gentle but effective skincare that comes from medicinal plants. Plants that are picked by hand when they are at their most potent, macerated in oil for months and months until the oil has taken on the therapeutics, pressed by hand so we get every single drop, nothing added, nothing taken away, full of vitality and only then can we start making.

The quality of the plants determines the quality of the product so we take a lot of care of ours. We feed them with seaweed, our well-rotted hen manure and comfrey leaves in a powerfully strong smelling brew to make them super healthy and resistant to pests. 

We plant in layers, with the tall Roses underplanted with the Calendula and Chamomile. We grow figs to encourage the wrens and robins into the greenhouse to eat the slugs and aphids. We now have two that live happily at the top end of the greenhouse. We made our greenhouse door of a wide metal mesh to allow bees, birds and other insects free access. 

These are not the ordinary ingredients of cosmetics - the vast majority of which are made in huge bulk in laboratories, they are a part of the chemical and big pharma industries, they are not part of the ancient herbal tradition. 

The scent profiles often fall under the name of 'parfum' or 'fragrance' in the ingredients list, hiding a multitude of horrors, from endocrine disrupting phthalates to artificial scent, synthetic musk to methylene chloride, formaldehyde releasing agents to benzyl acetate. A Dutch study in 2022 published in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, found that 60% of cosmetics they studied contained endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC) including a load in products for children. 

In contrast we are 100% transparent about our ingredients - none contain EDCs, we always publish the full ingredient list on our website and on our products. Coming at making from a therapeutic perspective precludes the use of anything we feel would be harmful. All our products are designed to support, safely.

This is not to suggest that our products are without scientific validation, a look through our ingredients is an education in scientific, herbal knowledge. Each plant we use has a long pedigree of use medicinally and where possible we share the compounds within each that has an effect on the mind or body. What we value is the knowledge that the whole plant has the very best effect. We don't extract solely the actives, we use everything because using the whole plant offers balance. 

I was picking Roses earlier today, they were beautiful, perfectly formed and full of scent. What simply smelling a Rose can do is to trigger the release of mood-boosting brain chemicals by activating areas of the brain associated with relaxation and happiness. Inhaling the scent of Roses can reduce stress and anxiety, whilst simultaneously improving mood and emotional health. Rose fragrance in contrast comprising a cocktail of synthetic chemicals does literally nothing at best, and at worst, in the Journal of Xenobiotics in 2023 it was reported that synthetic fragrance oils can cause headaches, dizziness, anxiety, breathing, neurological and cardiovascular problems.

As the drive for bigger profits and lower costs drives the skincare industry into larger scale, cheaper products, it's really important to scrutinise what the ingredients are. Whilst we embrace small scale, sustainable making with incredibly lovely, carefully selected ingredients, many other skincare businesses large and small are leaning into biotech because they don't understand how amazing products can be that embrace the natural compounds found in whole plants.

We don't use lab grown hyaluronic acid for example, we don't need to, within Fucus (one of our local seaweeds) there is a compound called fucoidan and other polysaccharides, these inhibit the enzyme hyaluronidase, which breaks down natural hyaluronic acid in the skin. This means that more natural hyaluronic acid remains in the skin. Added to that we include plants that support the structure of the skin and improve elasticity. We formulate whole plants to get the results you've told us that you want. We want you to glow with health from the inside out and the outside in.

And I suppose that's the other huge difference between us and many others, we listen to your needs and then respond. We don't keep producing products to increase insecurity and drive new sales, we only make something new when we're asked to by enough people. That's why we made the Serene Sleep Trio and now the Shampoo Bars.

So as we walk our path up here in Harris, I really hope you continue to feel the vitality and life in our products whether it be skincare, tinctures or teas. And if you ever need any advice, I'm always happy to be emailed (although sometimes I'm a little slow to reply!) at amanda@asapoth.com