We’re in our first beauty box!
As a young company, we are just launching ourselves into the marketplace. We’ve had some incredible early-adopter fans who have believed in us from the start and their sweet support is allowing us to make a little bit of a splash in this exciting time.
How does a company like ours make a bigger splash? Through wonderful partnerships like being in a beauty box (these are boxes of beauty products delivered to consumers and businesses and created by a brand, company, or celebrity).
But we don’t want to be in any ol’ beauty box. There are dozens of brands, companies, and individuals who distribute these packages of fun. For a company like ours, it’s all about finding a partner with a staunch commitment to the same things we are all about–100% organic, quality, and powerful ingredients.
You can imagine how excited we were last month when we were accepted as a featured brand in the Art of Organics beauty box. This amazing company is headed up by Claire Molyneaux. Her mission is to bring truly organic skincare to a wider audience without compromise. She fully researches the products she considers (including all ingredients), and this gives her customers peace of mind. Of course we jumped for joy at this opportunity as our values couldn’t be more aligned.
And then we were called out
So there we were, doing happy dances, celebrating our accomplishment when I got a concerned email from Claire. She called me out on two of our ingredients–potassium sorbate and benzeneethanol–letting me know that her customers had contacted her about their concern with our choice of preservatives.
At that moment, it hit me like a ton of bricks: we at Botnia take for granted how much we know about skin and what is truly healthy for our largest organ. We haven’t fully explained why we hand-select each ingredient we use, not only for its efficacy but for its safety too. We realized we needed to get to work and educate you.
So, here’s a quick and dirty guide to good preservatives
A large majority of organic skincare products are oil-based. This is because companies know that oil-based products don’t require a preservative or an emulsifier. Since preservatives are “bad” (right?), that sounds great!
Except for one major problem–most people’s skin suffers and becomes oversaturated when given too much oil, leading to many complications like . . . it will feel moisturized to the touch but it will actually be dehydrated because the skin cells are not getting enough water.
This is precisely why we create water-based products: to address dehydration, the #1 skin problem. Water-based products include oil but are significantly more effective at repairing skin issues than oil-based. Here’s the important thing to know: When mixing oil and water in skin products, you need a preserving system to prevent the natural growth of bacteria and mold.
And the good news is that there are healthy preservatives out there. So, as long as a product uses a preservative that is derived from natural materials, and it is produced in a laboratory to ensure a sterile environment, it is not only safe but much safer than the product would be without the preservatives.
We are proud to say that we take our preservative quality as seriously as every other ingredient in our products. We use two preservatives: potassium sorbate, which is a salt, and benzeneethanol, which is an extract from essential oils to give you the water your skin needs while preventing mold and bacteria growth.
You need to know this stuff
We are committed to not only bringing you the best ingredients that really work, but also to pulling back the curtain of tricky marketing that has been snowing us for decades about what is really good for our skin and good for our bodies. We don’t want to sound distrustful, and at the same time, we want to shout this stuff from rooftops as crusaders of the new age of transparency and integrity when it comes to our health.
I am deeply grateful to Claire for her commitment to her mission, which reminded us of what we know and sometimes forget, that most consumers don’t yet know all of this stuff. We’re thrilled that we were able to nerd out about this with Claire and we are proud to be part of the Art of Organics November Beauty Box.
Stay informed, ask questions, and find brands you trust. We are all in this together.
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