Organic Science

Not long ago, a client asked me two VERY good questions.  I’d love to share the first one here, and the second in a later post.

“I jumped ahead a bit and previewed your video series.  Still need to take the survey, but it was evident the amount of work and thought and heart that went into your video series… so well done!  I wasn’t very conscious about the stuff in my personal care products.  And, the awareness is still a work in progress for me…  I have a couple of questions to help increase my personal awareness and understanding of this topic:  1) Ingredients – When I look at the ingredients on the back of my moisturizing bottle, I’m surprised to see a rather long list.  I expected organic to be simple…”

Here was my quick answer to her:

“Organic definitely means simple in terms of the types of ingredients – things we can pronounce.  🙂  But, there is still quite a lot of science and research that goes on with regard to what ingredients do what and in what combinations – in the case of skin care – for the skin.  If you ever have a chance to listen to Narelle, who has formulated the Miessence products, speak on this, it’s really quite fascinating.”

Creating a shelf-stable product that is certified organic to food grade standards is a HUGE challenge.  Many people can and do whip up their own DIY recipes in their kitchens using organic food ingredients.  And in these situations, you can often use just a handful of ingredients.  But there are a few major drawbacks for some:

1- It takes time and often needs to be done daily to ensure freshness of the DIY product.  Some people love doing this – rock on!  Personally, I’d rather buy products from someone I know I can trust and spend my limited time in the kitchen preparing food to eat instead of lotions and potions.  (Although, truth be told, I’m not a big fan of cooking either.  We border on ‘going raw’ because it’s just so much easier to grab some raw produce – plus it leaves the full nutritional potency in the food.)

2- There is a microbial concern in some cases.  If you whip up your own concoctions in your kitchen and DO keep it more than one day, it almost always needs to stay in the fridge (with some obvious exceptions, like using straight coconut oil for a moisturizer).

3- There is a compromise in what many think of as quality.  Perspectives on this will obviously vary depending on what a person is used to using.  For example, some people find straight coconut oil works great.  For others, it’s too greasy and they just don’t care for it.

Whether for time saving reasons, microbial safety reasons, or quality reasons, many people prefer to find truly organic products that just replace their conventional products rather than go the DIY route.  But to create a shelf-stable product that is food-grade organic and that you can keep in your bathroom for months, there is a LOT of research that goes into what organic ingredients and packaging and more will keep the product from separating, molding, or going rancid.

Check out this presentation Narelle put together on their R&D process.  That’s some extensive, organic science and research.

The coolest thing though, is that it CAN be done!  For years, people said it couldn’t be done.  In 2001, Miessence proved the naysayers wrong.  And now, 10 years later, others are catching on.  The old, “But you have to have some synthetic preservatives” excuse just doesn’t fly anymore.