Impact
Soybean fields near our studio
We all live on the same planet and share the same challenges. Let’s choose the right products to do the right job, finished with the right packaging.
We believe in less products overall. Working double duty or performing so well you need less of it or less of something else. That’s financially and sustainably savvy. Natural oils, butters and waxes inherently make a richer product and you use so much less. By choosing high quality natural ingredients from Fair Trade and ethical sources, we are doing good for mind, body and soul. And because of that, we sleep well at night.
Sustainability
Cardboard & Paper
Whipped butters and balms are perfectly suited for cardboard. Our cardboard containers are made in California, not China where most of these tubes come from. They’re made with FSC Certified for Responsible Forestry papers. The outer paper comes from 100% recycled papers, glued with a rice glue adhesive, soybean wax lining and empty containers are home compostable. We can’t say enough about Greenway Containers because we just love them. Our refills for solid products like lotion cakes and wax melts are offered in paper bags. Our labels are FSC Certified for Responsible Forestry papers and made to be recycled.
Shipping labels are thermal (requires no ink) made from FSC Certified for Responsible Forestry papers, made in the USA, BPA free and recyclable.
Shipping box and fill materials are 100% compostable and curbside recyclable. The exterior is bound with a our branded mailing tape as an alternative to printed boxes. The compostable tape is printed by NoIssue (who we love!) with soy inks and biodegradable water activated adhesives. The interior is stamped with water soluble wildcrafted inks made in-studio with locally foraged black walnuts.
Glass & Tin
Glass insulates fire and provides luminance for candles. Though glass is both heavier and breakable, for reasons of safety, we prefer glass. Wax crumbles (which are not lit), are a smart match for lightweight tin containers to keep them fresh and clean. To ensure our hydra cremes maintain as much moisture and clean as possible, we will continue to use glass, though we have our eyes on a flexible paper option and may opt for this in future when prices will be reasonable for our customers. Until then, glass and tin clean easily and can be recycled and reused for refills or creative storage. For larger sizes of whipped butters where cardboard is not available, glass and tin will be available.
Plastic
This might be the only material one might question. For skincare this is hard to avoid as it relates to freshness and leak potential for our more viscous products. We’d love to use cardboard for everything but it is not leakproof. Crossing fingers plant-based screw tops can be developed. The plastic tops are a presentable option for gifts as they are much more rugged, recyclable, do not rust and make for nice storage containers. We do offer metal tops as an alternative. We prefer the plastic as they don’t dent and we’ve found the metal tops have become so sharp they’ve cut skin. Any plastic film used is a biodegradable, plant-based film.
Artisan Wax Seal
Made from pure beeswax and dusted with natural mica, this can be popped off your container top or ripped off paper products and composted. We worked hard to avoid petroleum based wax seals that are much easier to find (you only need a hot glue gun), but we decided cradle to grave it was worth the effort to make it biodegradable. It can also be used towards fire starters or safely thrown in your rubbish bin. Because it’s organic it will break down, while those was seals found so easily on Amazon become a sticky puddle of petroleum that will live for millions of years. Thumbs down.
Not every product can be solid, but using a solid lotions, soap and powdered cleansers can make a real difference. Taking the humble bar of soap, we made this overview to illustrate just how much.
Why we don't use plastic tubes
Recycling plastic tubes is not black and white and the acceptance varies by location. The sorting and recycling required is expensive and not every center has the manpower or facilities to support this need. Plastics often have mixed materials which are generally rejected. We want a pretty sure bet with our packaging, so until something better comes along, we’ll stick to wide mouth containers that are easy to clean and single material metal tubes.
Photography by Annie Spratt
It wasn’t so very long ago organic food became part of our decisions and how it affects us through the food we consume. You should know where your skincare comes because most are a food source as well. Nearly everything we use come from countries outside the USA. It would be very difficult to rely on the USA to grow these “exotic” plants. One only needs to look at the cocoa plant and know that we simply don’t grow this in the US at a large scale. This is why zero waste is a useless term. What we can do is make informed decisions about the ingredients we use and where they come from.
Use it well, use it up, buy it fresh and only what you need.
Ethical Practices
(Fair Trade ECOCERT/COSMOS)
Our products come from ECOCERT and COSMOS Certified ingredients as the base of our skincare. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and Global Shea Alliance led us to New Directions Aromatics based in Toronto, Canada. We are very proud to support them. These affiliates are shining examples of innovative organizations working towards solutions to protect the lungs of our earth (the Amazon Rainforest and beyond) and provide fair wages and support sustainable farming practices. By directing these efforts towards humanity before all else keeps the temptation of clear cutting to use more land a non-issue. And of course they do so much more. Read more about ECOCERT
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)
Palm is often subject to lazy boycotting/lazy marketing without really understanding the where’s and why’s of it all. There are so many “palm-free” products, not centered at skin insensitivities (that is one thing of course) but aim their marketing in the frame of sustainability. Deforestation is the concern and mission of RSPO and one simply needs to find where their palm comes from. Many major commercial commodities back them. We definitely encourage everyone interested in palm products to read up on the efforts of RSPO.
Global Shea Alliance (GSA)
8 million shea trees are lost every year due to climate change and unsustainable clearing of land. If we only consider what this means for the environment, shea trees fix 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 every year. Global Shea Alliance (GSA) promotes women’s empowerment and protection of the shea eco-system. It provides a path to income generation and a way out of poverty. In Africa where food sources are limited and shea is only grown 6 months of the year this is critical. Shea butter requires a lot of labor and toil – done by women. We all want to be paid fairly for our minds, bodies and expertise and this is the GSA commitment. It includes program training for quality standards, sustainable farming and greater efficient in processing. Learn more about GSA.
One might expect the cost to be greater supporting organizations like these, but we have not found a greater uptick respective to price. It leaves one only to wonder where the savings of cheap labor practice goes. We initially reached out to other suppliers that ignored our questions about their products provenance. If they supported initiatives we believe in they should be happy to share this. Exploiting workers is the antithesis of everything we believe in. Happy people do good work and have rich lives for themselves and their families, simple as that.
Photography by Ashley Jaynes
Goats milk
Our goats milk soaps and skincare come from California farms that are individually Certified Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC), an independent, third-party non profit organization. Their strict guidelines ensures the care for these wonderful animals. Goats are free from steroids, antibiotics and growth hormones. Farmers that raise goats do it because they truly love the animal. If you’ve never met a goat you know how much personality they can have. Feeling is believing, particularly if you have sensitive skin and we just love the benefits which are many.
Photography by Annie Spratt
Beeswax
We love our bees for the health benefits and their critical pollination efforts they provide. Being very aware that bees are exploited for their wax and treated poorly by bad suppliers, we avoid the big companies or even little and unknown. Many come from China with no oversight that cut their wax with other cheaper materials, ie. paraffin. We only support USA organic farms. Many people think there are only honey bees which are not native bees to the USA. There are thousands of native species of bees (and we’re not counting wasps!) just in the USA alone. In our mind, by supporting honeybees that can be raised humanely while other bee species do their own little native thing, we are helping with pollination for our food crops. Hopefully this creates a demand for studying other species. Anyone paying attention to the predictions of global food needs of the future know how important this is. But this is part and parcel (pun intended) to ensure we are walking the walk of support land protection and restorative soil health so native species have a change. We understand how vegans feel (which is why we also provide soy candles) but we feel if farmers are investing in bees it’s a domino effect of how they make their other decisions too. Maybe they’ll invest in no till equipment, power their farms with wind and solar.
Photography by Kelly Sikkema
Soy
Magic beans. While there’s no giant and no golden egg to be found, this easy to grow crop is solid gold when for so long we relied on paraffin. Because the subject of harvesting from bees may turn off vegans (and we understand that), we have a plant based wax as a vegan candle option. Everyone deserves an opinion and a voice. It’s what makes living in a free world great. Like our beeswax suppliers, we get our wax from USA farms, kosher and organic.
Wooden Wicks
Lumetique patented wooden wicks are made from only 100% natural, untreated wood from Sappy Fruit Trees sustainably sourced in the USA (sourced from FSC-certified mills). The term Sappy means the tree has undergone stress contributed to anything from pathogens, fungus or insects and the tree will not fruit and starts to die. This is such a wonderful way to give purpose to these problems. They also plant trees in return which is a great trade off. The adhesive used to bond the wicks we use (booster wicks) are created using a vegan, non-toxic proprietary adhesive with wood species not listed in the CITED appendices or on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Clean Scents & Additives
All our products are free of Phthalates \ Parabens \ SLS + SLES. Fragrance oils are the main source of fragrance but we also use safe, tried and true essential oils. Many chandlers and cosmetic makers use essential oils only but a healthy respect must be shown for the power of plants. Some people react very gravely to certain plant chemicals in skincare, while many essential oils are at best, burned off in candles, or volatile, dangerous or unsafe to breathe when burned. We hemmed and hawed over this in the beginning and decided, to put our faith in science and use lab formulations, safe in skincare and/or candles. We also offer unscented options for those that don’t want any risk. If you don’t see a formula unscented and wish for it please ask. We’d be happy to make it for you. Unscented beeswax candles for example is beautiful without scent.
Cleaning for Reuse
Skincare
We hope you liked your skincare enough you scraped every last bit from from the container. Simply take a warm, wetted paper towel and remove as much oils/butters as possible. Next, with another piece of paper towel, add some Isopropyl Alcohol (Rubbing Alcohol) and rub it around the jar. This step dissolves oils and butters very effectively. From there you can wash it with hot, soapy water for reuse (preferred) or recycling.
Candles
There are many methods to clean candle jars and if you have a wax melter or even coffee mug warmer you can still enjoy the smell of your candle, even if it won’t light anymore.
Warm Method After the wax has been fully melted on the warmer, let it cool for 10 minutes. The wax should still be soft enough but not hot to chance burning skin. Pour the wax into a paper towel and throw in the bin. While the glass is warm, remove as much wax as possible with paper towels. Cold Method Adding just a little water and popping in the freezer is a quick way to clean up and it doesn’t require much time to wait. Once the water looks like it’s frozen, lightly draw a dull butter knife (dull side away from the teeth) down the edge of the glass slowly and the frozen form should release entirely or in enough pieces that are easy to remove.
Final Clean Up Natural oils clean up much nicer than paraffin. The glass may have a hazy look. Dampen another paper towel with Isopropyl Alcohol (Rubbing Alcohol) and rub the glass until it’s as clean as you can get. This step dissolves oils and wax very effectively. From there you can wash it with hot, soapy water. Reuse, donate or recycle.