Category Archives: Ingredient

Ingredient

Quality You Can See!

A short story about that Refined Rose Hip Oil on the left. 
It’s been sitting in a refrigerator for 14 years. I bought it by mistake. We tried to use it instead of our usual Virgin Rose Hip Oil. In the beginning, I just didn’t understand the difference. When the moisturizer was made I couldn’t believe the difference. It was so weak and unexciting. I noticed it first because the color was different. It seemed like we had made a moisturizer using mineral oil. Luckily, we hadn’t put it in the jars. So we tossed that batch and quickly ordered the good stuff. I still hold onto it as a reminder to always use the best ingredients.

The picture shows you why we believe our skin products are so much better. Almost all skin care companies try to save as much money as they can. Even the ones who make high priced moisturizers still cut corners. One way they cut costs, is to use highly refined oils. The deeper colors of the virgin oils, show you how many nutrients are present. They use dyes to cover this up.

What’s the difference between virgin and refined oils? 
Virgin Oils are first pressing using as little heat as possible. Refining produces a lot more oil. But refining (they use a lot of heat) strips out many, if not most of these nutrients.

So what nutrients are in these Virgin oils?
These Virgin oils are rich in nutrients such as carotenoids, tocotrienols, and tocopherols. They are loaded with antioxidants like phenols, terpenes, and glucosides; vitamins A, C, and E; beta-carotene; plant sterols; and trace elements such as copper, iron, selenium, and manganese. All important nutrients your skin can use to become healthy.

Why can’t we just apply these oils to our skin? 
Our skin is 64% water. Oils and water don’t naturally mix. Oils don’t absorb well into our skin  The way we make our true moisturizers insures these precious oils will absorb deep into your skin.

Learn More About Carley’s Ingredients at ClearandSmoothSkin.com

Ingredient

We’re Always at the Mercy of Mother Nature

Whew! That was close. We were down to 3 jars of Carley’s Wild Rose Hip Moisturizer. We’re always at the mercy of mother nature. She cut it close this year.

We were waiting on the new crop of Rose Hip Virgin Organic Oil. It just came in Friday for Mondays orders. So we’re working the weekend to get it ready.

This picture doesn’t do the moisturizer justice. It is a much deeper color. The highly processed Rose Hip is clear and inferior and easy to get. We only use the good Virgin stuff.

Unfortunately the price we paid was 50% higher. Oh well, we can’t skimp.

Try Carley’s Wild Rose Anti-Aging Cream Here.

Informational, Ingredient

Essential Oils: Your Questions About Essential Oils Answered Here

We are going to be introducing new products in the future with an eye towards using the therapeutic benefits of essential oils to assist the health of your skin.

How many essential oils are there? There are somewhere between 400 to 600 commercially available essential oils in the world.

What is the difference between essential oils and other vegetable oils? Oils like coconut, olive and argan oils are what’s known as carrier oils. They are made by squeezing the oil from seeds. They are mother natures little miracle for our skin.

Essential Oils are made by steam distilling the fragrant portion of the plant. Often the flowers, but sometimes the bark or even the roots. They are also miracles, that aren’t being used enough or correctly.

Are Essential oils more expensive? Yes most are. Some are very expensive. Some of them takes tons of flowers to make a few liters of essential oil. Rose Otto Essential Oil(the real stuff), for example, is almost a dollar a drop. But it is so powerful, a little goes a long way.

Are all suppliers of essential oils honest and trustworthy? Sadly, no. There are no industry standards. Many are watered down. With the high prices and limited availability, we only have 5 suppliers we trust.

How powerful are essential oils? Most essential oils absolutely should NEVER be used full strength(neat). As a comparison, a tea made from a flower or leaf of the same plant as an essential oil compares to an essential oil like this: 1 drop of essential oil is comparable to 40 to 70 cups of the tea.

Are some essential oils dangerous? Yes, taken internally they can be. It’s all about the dosage. Some cause photo-toxic effects when applied to the skin before tanning. The most dangerous photo effect is with Lime Essential Oil. It’s one of the reasons we say be careful doing this on your own. Anything good can also be used the wrong way. Aspirin may take away your headache and even stop a heart attack or stroke. But swallow a whole bottle of aspirin and you might not wake up.

If not full strength, how should they be used? Well, that is the dilemma. How to get the most benefits without breaking the budget? We are working with many essential oils right now.

Can essential oils help the body? There are many who claim significant therapeutic benefits.

Why doesn’t big pharma get into these essential oils? Large pharmaceutical companies cannot patent essential oils, so they ignore them. We think this is a mistake.

Don’t all skin care products use essential oils to smell good? Most commercial products use artificial fragrances instead. Which are inexpensive and derived from petroleum by products. We believe they are not good for the skin. There have been some studies suggesting they compromise the immune system.

Why the sudden interest? We have always used essential oils for their wonderful scent. Now we are starting to see how effective certain essential oils are for the health of the skin. Our new Green Tea Acne Control, uses 7 highly prized essential oils in a therapeutic way.

If you have any questions about Carley’s line of products, email Steve at [email protected] and he’ll respond within the day!

Informational, Ingredient

Is All Argan Oil the Same?

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Take a look at any commercial today about hair and you’ll see the words “Moroccan Oil” or Argan Oil plastered on your screen. You’ve heard from us about the benefits of Argan Oil. You’ve also heard the commercials but is there really a difference between what you find in the stores and what you’ll find naturally from those strange, goat-filled trees in the deserts of Morocco?

Grown naturally from the Argania Spinosa tree in Morocco, Argan Oil is incredibly beneficial for your hair and skin (known to repair damaged hair and skin), has an unique and exotic feel about it and is the “latest craze” in skin care. This means a lot of oil is being imported from these small local farmers in Morocco. What you’re also seeing is the dilution of the actual Argan oils once they make it in the products you adore.

Major companies and over the counter hair products are throwing in a few drops of the oil and calling it a “Miracle Moroccan Oil” treatment for your hair. This is absurd!

What’s even more absurd is the quality of the oil they are using. Let’s not touch on the low quality of oil they throw in from other sources and just focus on Argan Oil. The Argan Oil being “thrown” in is sub-par at best.

Freshness
Argan oil is unstable and needs a cool environment where the oil can maintain freshness. For major companies that means the oil is thrown into a vat of chemicals during the production process to maintain this “freshness”. From there they will sit on shelves for months and years at a time before use.

Price
The price and quality of Argan Oil is important. The more affordable versions (often used in culinary) won’t work on the skin as well as the slightly more expensive versions. Most companies try and throw in the cheapest possible oil they can get away with to preserve their margins. When you’re just using a few drops, who’s going to notice the difference?

Our Argan Oil
We’re proud to be working with some great partners directly from Morocco for the best Argan Oil there is. This means we pay a slightly higher price for a better overall product. Not only is the oil better but it’s fresh so you won’t be putting a stale, unstable oil right on your skin. Oh, and there’s more Argan Oil in some of our products (like the Conditioner) than probably any product out there in the world. Win win!

Informational, Ingredient

What’s Different in Store Bought Hair Conditioners and Carley’s?

I do our formulating. That means I am pretty familiar with ingredients used in the industry. Since we just released our new Argan Oil Hair conditioner, I wanted to take a few moments and look at a hair conditioner from a company that has the word organic in their name.

I can’t tell you who they are because they might sue us.

When I look at most of these ‘natural’ conditioners I see lot of extracts – horsetail and coltsfoot among many other extracts. I’m not a big believer in extracts. I know of no study that proves horsetail can even be absorbed or adsorbed by the hair. We don’t like to use most extracts unless we extract them ourselves (such as the broccoli sprout extract we put in most products). Because there are no standards for strength of extracts you’ll find the qualities vary – usually from useless to almost useless.

Picked at random, I’ll take a look at the ingredient labels (keep in mind, ingredients are listed in order of prominence. highest percentage first):

Aqua – That is water; is it just purified? Or reverse osmosis like we use?

Cetyl alcohol (coconut fatty alcohol) – This is actually good; but at #2, seems too high

Aloe barbadensis (aloe) leaf juice* – This is good, but the juice can be pretty watery

Alcohol denat – (denat. is short for denatured alcohol, wonder why they abbreviate it?); Whoa, what’s this doing here at #4?

Helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil – It’s good, but about the cheapest oil you can buy; and this is their first oil – no comparison to Argan!  I can buy a gallon of sunflower oil at the grocery store for around $20. The Virgin Argan oil we use is from a specialty importer at $150 a gallon; and Argan is about a million times better for the hair.

Milk protein – What this does, I don’t know; we wouldn’t use it because it is animal derived.  Hmmm!

Glycerin – I don’t know if it is vegetable, it should say vegetable. if it’s not vegetable, it is animal derived. You do not want to know how animal derived glycerin is made. I’m guessing it is vegetable.

The next ingredients we call ‘Label Candy’. They look good on the label. They are found to be effective at selling the product. 

Equisetum hyemale (horsetail) extract – No actual proof it does anything. Sounds great though. Horses have got long tails. and we all want long hair. Oh sorry, horsetail is a plant. I shouldn’t make fun.

Tussilago farfara (coltsfoot) leaf extract – Again, looks good. But how can the hair absorb it? Again what’s with all the horse references?

Tanacetum annum (Moroccan blue camomile) oil* – This might be good. It is an essential oil. Mostly used for scent. Although it does have some astringent properties. I know right at this point we are dealing with a tiny amount. At $120 an ounce, I am 100% certain there is very little in this product.

So the rest of these ingredients are in tiny proportions… A few drops, maybe, with each use. Maybe a few drops in the whole bottle. I’m not bothering even mentioning them.

Brassica campestris (turnip) oil, aleurites fordi (chinawood) oil, citrus grandis (grapefruit) extract, tocopheryl acetate (vitamin E), hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel) extract, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), glycine soja (soybean) oil, daucus carota sativa (carrot) root extract, beta-carotene.

*Organic

I’d also want to know what the pH is
Since they don’t use a traditional preservative, very acidic I’m guessing. I don’t see anything that will condition the hair except cetyl alcohol. Maybe that’s why it is #2? And the aloe vera juice (which is good) and sunflower oil.

Some of the ingredients are Organic. So what? Wouldn’t they have to be all Organic to make it worth even mentioning? Besides who can believe what is and isn’t organic today?

I’m trying to figure out why denatured alcohol is the fourth item on the list. Essentially rubbing alcohol. I have no clue why they are using this? If it was way down the list, it wouldn’t matter. but 4th???

This could be an exercise in futility. Only detail junkies like me would even care. I just find it real interesting.

Informational, Ingredient

Why Freshness Matters (with Cosmetics)

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In this day and age, being a budget conscious consumer has never been easier. Not only can you purchase products for dirt cheap prices at the supermarket but Frankenstein ingredients keep them “fresh” for years.

With a year past expiration these products often work just as “well” as when you purchased them. What does it say about a product that is as effective from Day 1 as it is in Year 2 or even 3?

The “fresh” label is thrown around a lot. Products made fresh create a fresh feel, freshy smell and makes your skin feel fresh! The problem? Most products on store shelves can’t be made fresh. The product turnover (rate they sit on the shelf) isn’t high enough. Even if the big companies could, they wouldn’t due to fear of margins.

Since skin care products are derived from plants and animals (though Carley’s avoids animal products) – their has to be a point where these ingredients lose effectiveness. This is where products that would otherwise go stale are pumped with ingredients to prolong lifespan. This is where that term “Frankenstein products” comes into play. Or if your a little more modern – think of the villain Bain that needed toxic chemicals to keep his powers.

The benefit of selling online is that product turnover is high. What is made in a lab one day can be packaged up the same day and ready to be shipped by the morning. Compared to products sitting on store shelves – that’s like comparing a fresh doughnut to a Twinkie!

What happens to ingredients when they go stale?
They become less effective. Most skin care products today are made in a pH acidic formula to take advantage of the long term preservatives (parabens). This is how big manufacturers get away with making millions of products at one time. Even if it takes years for them to be sold.

How long do you have before a product goes stale?
A typical retail product will have a shelf life of several years. It’s hard to know because there are no manufacture dates. Retail requires a long shelf life. We make everything in small bactches and ship fresh. We recommend you use within one year.

How can you prolong freshness?
Refrigerate – Products containing delicate ingredients such as the Eczema Cream, Eye Cream, Virgin Coconut Moisturizer, Lip Balm, Foot Balm, Tamanu Cream, Regeneration Cream and Rose Hip Cream are all stored in refrigeration. When not in use for a prolonged period, keep these products refrigerated. Don’t freeze them!

Keeping the products out of direct sunlight helps – FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Sun – Just like your own skin, the sun can damage products. Try and keep any product out direct sunlight. This means keeping your shower window sill clear.

Preservatives – The more preservatives, the longer a product lasts. More importantly, the more preservatives the higher likelihood of skin irritation. To last any time on your bathroom counter a product needs some preservatives. This is why we carefully choose which preservatives are used – usually just a trace amount (less than 0.4%) of Germall Plus. No “natural” preservative can really ward off any significant bacteria or staleness.

As a general rule of thumb, use products within a year. We date ours as such. If you aren’t finishing these in a year, you aren’t using them enough.

Products Mentioned:

Informational, Ingredient

An Oasis in the Desert: Morocco’s Argan Oil

When Moroccans think of liquid gold they aren’t thinking about petroleum oil. In the small region of Morocco, the thorny Argania Spinosa tree produces a fruit bearing one of the most lucrative oils in the world – Argan oil. This oil has been known to treat everything from discolored skin to improved elasticity and suppleness in skin.

A Berber village typically depends on this rare oil – FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Argan oil contains Vitamin E, Carotenes, Squalene and essentially fatty acids. These components heal scar tissue (especially acne scars), treat psoriasis, eczema and even helps undo UV damage to the skin. This oil is even used to improve conditioning in the hair.

As this recent article spotlights, the number of cosmetics that advertise the use of Argan oil has skyrocketed. Two in 2007 to 111 in 2011. The reason why I bold that? The amount this rare, exotic oil is used is usually nil. What’s more appealing than claiming to use a rare, expensive oil from an exotic location? Especially when they only need to (technically) put a few drops in. This is unlikely to demonstrate any of the real benefits of that Argan oil provides.

If a few drops are unlikely to do the trick pure Argan oil must be best, right? Wrong. The oils need a carrier to penetrate deep in the skin. That is what a proper moisturizer does (a silicone-based moisturizer will block most absorption). Choosing between a pure oil and a moisturizer with only a tiny amount is choosing between the lesser of evils. Carley’s Tamanu Cream uses about 5% Argan Oil. And we don’t even advertise the oil!

I first heard about Argan oil from a Mroccan friend that happened to import this oil. It took nothing but a quick pitch for me to have product ideas swirling through my head. Moroccans have used the oil for centuries to treat in particular damaged skin – How about a discoloration cream? An acne scarring cream? Maybe a hair product in the future?

In it’s purest form, the oil is semi-solid while refrigerated. Many oil importers dilute it with cheaper oils. We don’t touch these cheap variations. The Argania Spinosa tree is extracted by native Moroccan women by hand. By peeling the outer layer of the fruit and pounding the the center with a rock, the oil can be extracted from kernels. This is a major source of income for the Berber tribe in Southern Morocco where the income is redistributed – mostly among women. It is estimated that over three million people receive income from Argan oil extraction!

One of the most interesting things about this wonder oil is the tree that bears it’s fruit. Grown in the desert, goats are known to “climb” these trees to reach the precious fruit it bears. Don’t worry about the environmental footprint of this tree. This tree is farmed locally by villages and constantly regrown. No goats were harmed in the making of this post!

Informational, Ingredient

Is Dimethicone (Silicone) in your Store Bought Moisturizers?

“I am allergic to dimethicone and unfortunately it is in everything. I have oily skin that is prone to acne. However, sometimes I think it’s because I’m having a allergic reaction to my shampoo or conditioner or toothpaste. Like I said dimethicone is in everything. Do you have make up, moisturizers, sun screens, hair products and or toothpaste without dimethicone? Desperately seeking a great product without silicone in it, but I live in Hawaii. Is it still free shipping? Thank you in advance for responding to me.” -Debra N.

You along with many others, including me, are allergic to dimethicone, or silicone. it has many other names and is not even required to be listed on the label. it is  a menace. manufacturers (even small ones)use it because it makes filling bottles easy. no bubbles or foam. and in hair care it is used to make the hair ‘silky’ but seals the hair shaft and causes the hair to die. we do not use any silicones or dimethicones or anything associated with those chemicals.

Take a look at your store brand moisturizer and glance at the ingredients. Out of all of the unpronounceable names, look for Dimethicone. Also referred to as silicone, Dimethicone has a place in this world. Is that place in your moisturizer?

In order for a moisturizer to restore moisture to the skin it needs to enable the absorption of materials into the skin. Otherwise it’s just something that sits on the skin. Silicone smothers the skin and makes the moisturizer sit on the skin. The greasy feeling you get when you put on that moisturizer with silicone is actually the silicone particles sitting on your skin. If a silicone-based moisturizer is such a walking contradiction, why do companies use silicone?

A major ingredient of Gas-X is Dimethicone

Silicone is used for one reason – to treat bubbles and foam. Bubbles become a major problem when manufacturing in large quantities. Without silicone, that product of yours will come in the mail half full after all of the air bubbles popped. Now it makes sense why Gas-X would use this ingredient (it fights gas). A silicone-based moisturizer may also contain a more consistent feel. Some may experience side effects such as irritated skin including rash and stinging.

By appearance these store brand moisturizers look great. They may feel great at first. But they do little. Those precious oils you hear about on the labels don’t even go in the skin. We will never put silicone in our products for this very reason. That means hand topping off every product for getting rid of air bubbles. This also means more care is put into the manufacture. Only a few hundred bottles are made a time for this reason. Next time you put one of our moisturizers on your skin, notice how fast it absorbs into your skin. You’ll stay moisturized longer without it sitting on your skin. That’s a real moisturizer!

Informational, Ingredient

Straight from the Amazon Rainforest

One of our customers recently told us, that she would never buy anything from the Amazon Rainforest. She, of course, was afraid we were contributing to the deforestation. The opposite is true. The natives derive valuable income collecting fruit from these ancient Cupuaçu trees. Cupuaçu grows wild in the Amazon Rainforest. I repeat: No clear cut farming, these trees grow wild. Your purchase helps to support these indigenous people.

Same is true for most of the ingredients we use. We pay top price for the best ingredients. Whenever possible our ingredients are of the “raw” variety. This is much closer to the way nature intended it. Most companies turn seemingly exotic ingredients such as Shea butter into industrial paste using chemicals such as hexane. We purchase this same butter directly by indigenous tribes of Africa. You will notice each tribe provides their own signature color and method of extraction. The difference in quality in these types of seemingly common ingredients is striking. This is where environmental responsibility and a better product go hand-in-hand!