Would You Like Your Questions Answered?

During the coarse of a 4 hour Farmers Market I get asked an abundance of questions. As I answer these and explain the various facets of my business people are always suggesting I either teach a Course or hold Seminars. Well time constraints, we all have and understand these. So I thought, hrm, maybe make better use of this blog and set it up as a Q&A session. You ask and I’ll make a post answer. No question is too trivial. Ask away.

For example I have been asked more times then I can count “What is the difference between Fragrance oil & Essential oils?”.

Fragrance oils are synthetically produced and have an aroma, that’s all, they smell good.
Essential Oils are botanically derived, not only do they smell good they have medicinal properties, are active, and you can taste them.

Quality Ingredients you can Feel, Smell, Taste and Afford.

Want the best products for your money? The first step is to go to the source producer. You will learn more about how the product is made as well as the quality of ingredients used. Small artisans that have resisted being pulled into the commercialism of mass production will usually always have the highest quality. But do they cost more? Not really, let me explain.

The quality difference is extreme. Artisan’s products are not cut with fillers. This theory applies to a multitude of industries. Wouldn’t you rather spend $12.00 on 10 oz of Sage infused Olive Oil knowing the oil is 100% Extra Virgin instead of spending $11.00 on a 10 oz bottle that is only 20% extra virgin and 80% sunflower oil? Even though both can and are marketed as Olive Oils?

Changes to the recipes of products happens 99% of the time when Artisans go main stream. They now have investors to answer for, and profits they must increase. There are 2 ways…raise price or cut product with cheaper fillers. Most try to maintain a price point, so the quality of the product gets compromised. How many times have you seen this happen? All of a sudden marketing gets stronger & the quality diminishes when investors get involved. All in the name of profit.

Take soap as a second example. There are a lot advertised as “handmade”. The majority are really “handcrafted”. The difference? Well handmade from scratch requires saponifying oils & a alkali and then curing them for 2 weeks or more. The handcrafted is simply melting & enhancing a pre-manufactured base that is ready to use as soon as it hardens again. (some are cut with additional water) And most are made with synthetic fragrances which smell good, but that’s all. You cannot taste them Although if you are out to buy decorative soaps there are some really neat ones, and these are certainly still better for your skin then detergents bars.

Taking this a step further, handmade can still be done with inferior oils, alkali and extracts. It is actually quite complicated. How is a customer to know? Know your artisan. Once you see for yourself what really goes into making these, you will suddenly see the bargain artisan made products really are.

You can spend $6.00 on a bar of soap that is made with certified food grade extra virgin Olive, Coconut, USA grown Palm & non GMO Canola oils, food grade alkali, certified pure botanical Essential oils and organic/wild harvested herbs.
Or you can spend less money for an inferior quality soap made with lower grade oils (that you would not ever consider eating), industrial alkali (lye) & extracts. Extracts are marketed as natural and they are, however what you are actually using is the alcohol that the botanical was soaked in (think vanilla extract), no thank you. Is it really worth saving that $1? It is you’re skin that these inferior soaps are drying out.

Gaia Essentials uses only certified food grade vegetable oils. My Olive Oil is first press extra virgin. My Palm is grown in the USA. My Canola is non-GMO. I use pure Essential Oils because they provide a superior aroma, are medicinally active, and you can actually taste them. My herbs are grown in my organic garden or I secure them wild-harvested. You cannot find a higher quality Soap for the price and your skin knows it.

Heading into my 7th year, Thank You all!

Yep, Gaia Essentials celebrated 6 years in business last month and I could not of done that successfully without you. What started out as a mission to make good 100% handmade wholesome Soap is now an entire line of delicious Skincare inspired & designed from my customer’s needs, requests and input.

Anti-bacterial Cleansers getting FDA’s Attention Again

The power of the media astounds me, but it does work both ways. Fear tactic marketing was used to sell chemical based anti-bacterial cleansers for personal usage & just about everywhere else in our lives with proof that they were no more effective then regular soap & water is. Now once again they are back in the eye of the FDA due to side effect health concerns caused by repeated exposure, particularly Triclosan.

I blogged about this over a year ago, the issue is not new, and the FDA has opened investigations again. Front page articles back in the news:
Listing of FDA investigation articles via Google News

Be safe, be simple, if you would not eat it do not use it on your skin surfaces. The pores in your skin absorb what you lay on it, get into your bloodstream and effect you internally. Think of your skincare regiment as you would your meals.

Fresh Ingredients vs. Processed Food = Natural Nourishment for your Skin.

I touched on this earlier in my article about the different types of Soap. People found it so interesting a local magazine refined it to AP standards and ran the article in their health issue. So that tells me there is a concern about healthy “eating” via topical applications.

Our skin is our largest organ. It contains a bazzilion pours that are like little mouths eating whatever is on it. Feed it as you would your stomach. If you would not put it in your mouth, do not put it on your skin, simple enough.

Fresh Botanicals

Make sure all the ingredients of your skincare products are fresh & wholesome (like whole foods), full of vitamins and essential fatty acids. You can get this from Pure Botanicals, the same as you get your daily intake of vitamins from fruit & vegetables. Steer clear of synthetics and processed ingredients, the same as you do in your diet. They are full of blank filler and offer nothing nutritional. And definitely stay away from overly refined ingredients that are suspected of causing adverse health reactions.
READ those labels!

At the same time be wary of products that focus market only a small percentage of nutritional ingredients yet fill the rest of the container with cheap bulk fillers. Unfortunately this is a common practice in the name of commerce, the more corporate, the more it is done. I have watch more companies do this then I care to, all for the sake of profits. They start out with a mission to provide good wholesome skincare products, build a brand image, then start cutting corners with your health.

Again, think of your skincare as you would your nutritional diet. You are eating whatever you put onto your skin via topical application. So think…would I eat it?

Archived Article

It is up! The HMB Review Magazine Article. This might be easier to read than my scanned pages.

Q & A Interview with HMB Review Magazine, Health Issue (scanned)

After talking with Carina, the lovely reporter, it seems it will be awhile before they get the magazine electronically accessible. So I scanned it

Interview with Carina, photo’s by Lars

Blessings, Debby

A more refined rendition of “Healthy Soap” and the Importance of Skincare.

Coastviews Magazine took the time to reword my last blog posting and publish it in the health area of their December issue. Thank goodness, as I am not a writer.

Living Well/Healthy Soap

Look for the differences

The Health Issue of the Half Moon Bay Review Magazine also did a feature Q&A article in the January 6th release, I will post it as soon as it becomes electronic.

Thank You all, for bringing to light the concerns we should all have with good skin care.

In Pursuit of Healthiness

It is happening all over. People are getting educated and understanding that we need to change course to live healthier. We see it more in the foods we choose to consume. We know that the mass-produced convenience items that are bulked up with god knows what and processed as cheaply as possible are harmful. Years ago we reached for them not even thinking about anything but it’s “fast & easy”, now we know better.

There is a strong movement to be more selective with our food purchases. Read those labels and set aside anything full of filler and non-nutritious, bleached, over processed ingredients. Buy from local farms and farmers markets. Be conscientious with our decisions about what to consume. This needs to be done with all products, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the skincare products we use.

Skincare? Yes, anything you place on your skin, you are essentially consuming. And if you would not eat it, you should not be using it on your body.

Food is not the only thing that got caught up in the mass-produced consumables. Skin and body care products are right there as well. A huge majority of manufacturers followed suit and found that to be more profitable, bulk it up with non-nutritional filler and focus marketing on the 1% good ingredient inside the product.

The labels are attractive, it says “organic” or “natural” or “essential oils”, but further investigation shows the fine print and all the other stuff in them. (extracts, fragrances, synthetics, filler oils & fats, ect.) Look for products that are 100% wholesome ingredients, not just 1% for marketing purposes.

Read the fine print on your skincare products, think. Would you eat it? Here is a common horror ingredient in most Soaps, Shampoos, Toothpastes “Sodium Laural Sulfate” Oh there are more, enough to make you shudder, a good place to check the safety of the skincare products you are using is here at “Skin Deep” But what about the small business’s that make skincare? The ones not large enough to get in the database? There are some conscientious small local business’s that offer safe alternatives to skincare.

All skincare product’s need close investigation. Let’s start with soap, what is it exactly?

True soap is simply saponified vegetable or animal oils/fats. The alkali used is a derivative of wood ash, the residue left over when rainwater washed through it. Most commonly known as Sodium Hydroxide or Potassium Hydroxide and now clinically produced to provide a more reliable formula. Is there a difference in soaps? You betcha!

The best is “Made from Scratch” (cold process) where you control every ingredient. Look for the benefits of 100% food grade vegetable oil based soap, A “Soap Maker” that utilizes certified food grade alkali for saponifying. Make sure the aroma & beneficial botanicals are from 100% essential oils. (not extracts that are processed with alcohol) and especially steer clear of synthetic fragrances. This creates a highly superior soap you can both feel and taste. Yes taste, that is the true test of a soap claiming to be made with botanical essential oils, you should be able to taste them!

There are quite a few “soap crafters” out there. Those that use pre-manufactured soap bases and then enhance them, re-mold and market. This is an entry level type of home-made soap. One that is faster, easier and less expensive than from scratch. However you are not in control of the ingredients in the base you are using. This is the kind that you can find at hobby shops or wholesale suppliers.

I am not saying that all pre-maufactured bases are poor quality, there are some good ones out there. But lets be honest, most are not going to spend the money for them and go with the bulked up ones with ingredients you really do not want in a pure soap, or any skincare product.
This type of soap crafting is called “melt & pour”. You do not have to actually make the soap, do not have to know and calculate the alkali needed to saponify. You can get away with a fraction of the essential oils, toss in goat milk powder and call it goat milk, make it in pretty molds, it is easier for sure. These are mostly used as decorative soaps.

I chose to be a Soap/Skincare maker, one that does everything from scratch for the control of every ingredient. Does this make my products more expensive, perhaps, at least to create. I use superior food grade oils & alkali, 100% pure essential oils, and wild harvested herbs. Never a pre-manufactured base, no extracts, no synthetic fragrances. You can feel, smell and taste the quality.

Commercial Soaps or Anti-bacterial Soaps. Just eewwww. We assume because they are stocked on shelves in the “soap” isle of the grocery store, they are safe soap, not the case. Most ALL commercial soaps have been so over processed and had so many unnecessary bulking ingredients added, they are now detergents. So much so they cannot even put “soap” on the label and use the more popular phrase of “bar” FDA ruling (beauty bar, cleansing bar, deodorant bar”) These are simply disgusting for your skincare and health. Cheap? sure. Healthy? No.

Now that we have gotten into the habit of healthier eating, we need to take the next step for healthier Skincare.

Refreshing a Website’s Pictures & Content

Scary, when you do not know what you are doing or know enough to be dangerous. My husband is dabbling in Photography and graciously took all new pictures of the Gaia Essentials product line for me. One by one I placed them on my website and this took 3 days. I am very happy with the results. Gaia Essentials

The Farmer Market Season is coming to a close and the Christmas Season around the corner. For the first time we participated in the Pacifica Fogfest, opening another door to display and offer the product line.

Being a conscientious consumer, I cannot educate enough about simplifying your life while taking care of yourself by using high quality skin care. My philosophy is “If you would not eat it, you should not be using it on your skin”. We honestly do not need a multitude of different things for cleansing and moisturizing, providing you select the right things to use.