Without water, some ingredients would be impossible to incorporate in our products. This means that without water, we would never have creams, serums, lotions, or any other liquid-based products. Active ingredients in creams and serums would not be possible. Active ingredients like hyaluronic acid, silk, aloe vera, collagen, keratin, plant extracts, caffeine, and salicylic acid are only some examples.
If you want to avoid all water-based preservatives in your bath and body routine, you can! Contact us for help, or simply avoid our products that contain any preservatives in their ingredients list. Most of our products have no water or preservatives and are shelf-stable, so this is pretty easy to do!
Why Use Any Preservatives in Water-Based Products?
Water is equivalent to life.
Water = Life. Wherever there is water, life will grow to fill the void. This includes harmful bacteria, mold, fungus, and yeast. To prevent this water-based growth during room-temperature storage over months or years, a preservative must be added. If a preservative is not added, a water-based product will be unsafe to use in a mere matter of days.
Non-preserved water-based products need to be refrigerated between uses and completely used up within a week.
For those who want their water-based products to last longer than a week and without refrigeration, preservatives are necessary.
Why Not Use “Natural” Preservatives
“Natural” is not a legally protected term.
Technically, we already do, as our preservatives are chemicals that are found in nature and derived from natural plants. We can simply call some of our preservatives “green tea extract” instead of “phenoxyethanol”, but is this fully honest? We don’t think so.
“Natural” is a term that is NOT legally protected. Any company can call a product “natural” without legal consequences, as everything originated from nature. At least, this is how it is in America when this article was written.
So, what’s our definition of “natural”?
We define “natural” as a substance of original form and availability found in nature which is untouched by mankind.
According to our definition, there is no such thing as a “natural” preservative. Preservatives are highly concentrated and unnatural substances. Preservatives are made by humans using what nature has to offer with various dramatic chemical processes. These chemical processes produce something that would never be naturally found in such concentrations and isolated availability.
Take alcohol for example, which can be used as a “natural” preservative. You can find a low concentration of natural alcohol inside fermented plant juices. But, this is not the same as a pure high proof spirit or cleaning alcohol. Producing something like an 8 oz bottle of 99% pure isopropyl alcohol takes extreme measures of chemical science to achieve. This is NOT something that we would consider natural. Even though the basic chemical compound of alcohol is something that is found in lower concentrations in nature.
Caution With “Extracts” as Preservatives
What is an “extract”, anyway?
We don’t change our ingredient names to make them sound “better” or “more natural”. We don’t make confusing claims like so many other companies do. The cunning dishonesty in other company’s marketing styles and ingredients lists are why we’ve had to create this article. It’s also another reason why we started this company: to be more honest than the rest.
Some companies use names like “fermented radish root extract” instead of their preservative’s real chemical name. This is to hide the true preservative chemical it is: Didecyldimethylammonium chloride (DDAC) (source). And this takes some major digging to find, even for someone who is familiar with the terminology!
“Fermented Radish Root Extract” is the legal term acceptable to hide the active ingredient DDAC, for patented technology reasons. If a name purposefully hides the patented chemical concoction it is, then maybe it’s not natural? Just a thought.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) lists DDAC (the active compound in “Fermented Radish Root Extract”) as a substance with alarming health concerns, citing potential for causing severe skin burns and eye damage. They give it a Failing grade on their safety scale, which is the lowest possible rating. https://www.ewg.org/cleaners/substances/152467-Didecyldimethylammoniumchloride/
This is why we use phenoxyethanol as our strongest preservative, as well as sharing the scientific name of the compound. We don’t hide it behind a crunchy name like “green tea extract” or whatever “extract” to pacify the masses.
If you have any other questions or concerns, please contact us or leave us a comment below! Thanks for reading 🙂
Poly-Unsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFAs) are types of fat found in ALL living organisms (including animals). They’re called essential because they’re necessary for the functioning of all life on Earth. This includes the health of your hair and skin.
The term essential fatty acids (EFAs) refers to polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) since they must be provided by foods. This is because these can’t be synthesized in the body and are necessary for life. There are two families of EFAs, omega-3 (ω-3) and omega-6 (ω-6). [source]
Are PUFAs “Bad”?
“PUFAs oxidize faster, and oxidation causes free radical damage! So, consuming PUFAs will cause cancer, aging, and inflammation!” is the new ‘word of advice’ touted by some natural health enthusiasts… but does it carry any truth? Yes and no… The answers will surprise you!! Let’s figure it out here and now with some well-balanced considerations.
Many of these so-called “experts” praise the benefits of Vitamin E, Conjugated Linoleic Acid, Gamma Linoleic Acid, and Linoleic Acid. All while hating “PUFA’s”… This is quite a cruel joke, because all of these are, or can only be derived from, what? You guessed it: PUFA’s!
Did You Know? All animal fats (yes, even 100% grass-fed) contain some PUFA’s because they are essential for the animal’s life and health.
So, before you toss away all the PUFA-containing products, let’s dust off our high school biology books. It’s time to dig into some well-established science, and rediscover some foundational truths about healthy body care.
Beauty Products With PUFA’s
Since it’s necessary for all life forms, technically we would not have any beauty products without PUFA’s. This is especially true for natural Vitamin E (d-alpha tocopherol), which is essential in any skin and hair product line. Vitamin E is naturally found only in omega-6 PUFA oils and fats. This is because Vitamin E can’t be created from saturated or mono-saturated fatty acids.
Vitamin E
Vitamin E is nature’s most powerful antioxidant and a great anti-inflammatory as well. This is why it is found in PUFA oils! Since PUFAs are more sensitive to oxidation. They are only inflammatory when low-quality PUFA’s are over-consumed. This means that fresh, well-preserved, low-processed, organic PUFA oils are very high in anti-oxidants, which fight free-radicals, aging, and inflammation! We can clearly see now why PUFAs can actually be very beneficial when used in the correct amounts.
We only use organic, natural Vitamin E derived strictly from sunflowers in our products. Petroleum-derived synthetic Vitamin E (alpha tocopherol) is no true substitute for the PUFA-rich source of natural Vitamin E (d-alpha tocopherol). This is because it is less than half as effective and much less usable by our bodies.
So, do high-quality PUFA’s – used in balanced ratios – cause aging, cancer, and inflammation? NO!
The fluid nature of polyunsaturated fatty acids make them easier for the skin to absorb and use their unique chemistry. This makes PUFAs very useful ingredients when blended with other vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids. It helps these nutrients become more bio-available through topical applications.
If you are still having misinformed doubts, check out these scientific studies as a couple of examples:
A study published by Oregon State University Micronutrient Information Center found that topically applied sunflower oil increased Linoleic Acid in the skin. LA is the most abundant naturally occurring fatty acid in the epidermis. LA helps to support skin barrier function. A deficiency of LA in the skin can lead to scaliness and excessive epidermal water loss. The research also stated that sunflower oil applied to skin normalized transepidermal water loss (TEWL). This helps to prevent damage to the skin barrier function, and reduced skin scaliness after two weeks of daily application.
Research published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences concluded that topically applied PUFA oils act synergistically with the skin. PUFA’s were found to support the skin barrier and antioxidant activity while promoting wound healing and anti-carcinogenic properties.
One of the biggest causes of skin aging is certainly excess sun exposure. Unhealthy epidermal cells exposed to UV (Ultraviolet) light create that damage, not high-quality PUFA’s on top of the skin. As much as 80% of facial aging is attributable simply to unhealthy cells that are damaged by UV exposure alone. UVA (Ultraviolet A) rays can penetrate deep into the living layers of skin and damage your DNA. Only avoiding excessive sun exposure and an unhealthy lifestyle prevents this damage.
By avoiding use of all PUFA oils, people are actually eliminating one of the key ways to repair the skin. This is because of PUFA’s high level of anti-oxidants.
PUFA’s for Health & Life
Because nutrients can be absorbed through the skin, we hear concerns about the effects of putting PUFAs on your skin. This goes along with “health experts” praising the benefits of Omega-3 fats, yet they say bad things about PUFA’s. Again, polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) include omega-3 AND omega-6 fats. It bears repeating that these are essential fatty acids (EFAs) that the body needs for brain function and cell growth. Our bodies do not make essential fatty acids (EFAs, including PUFAs), so you must get them from food. We’ve already talked about some omega-6 fatty acids like Vitamin E, Linoleic Acid, etc. Now let’s brush up on the Omega-3 fatty acids, which include ALA, EPA, and DHA. [source]
Sources of ALA, EPA and DHA
ALA
Alpha linolenic acid is abundant in flax seed, but also founds in oils like hemp and walnut oils (Hunter 1990). It is mostly found in the chloroplast of green leafy vegetables.
ALA is very sensitive to destruction by light, oxygen and heat. If not protected, it becomes toxic. It is destroyed five times faster than linoleic acid (LA, which is a type of omega-6 fat). Average intake of ω-3 fatty acids has decreased a whopping 80% compared to human diets 150 years ago. About 95–99 % of the population doesn’t get enough of this essential nutrient.
EPA
EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), an omega-3 fatty acid, is important for heart, eye, and brain health, immunity and reducing inflammation.
EPA helps promote skin hydration and reduce the risk of acne.
Fish oil is the richest source of this fatty acid, containing 39%-50% of EPA (Kinsella 1990). EPA is also found in other animal fats like Lard!
DHA
Also known as Docosahexaenoic Acid
Present in fish oil, red brown algae, and other animal fats.
Like EPA, it is a major brain ω-3 fatty acid and is also found in eye ball retinas. Brains are made up of about 65% fat, and out of this an astounding 50% is DHA alone.
The Misconception
“PUFAs are bad for you in any amount, whatsoever!” is a very misleading idea now being promoted by many so-called “health experts” on social media.
Know you know that Essential Fatty Acids like PUFA’s are necessary for life and basic biological functions, so what gives?
How Did ALL PUFA’s Get A Bad Reputation?
There has obviously been a huge misunderstanding around PUFA’s and their effects on human health. Somehow, ALL PUFAs have been demonized through unscientific claims or misconstrued claims by “health experts”.
These false claims put ALL PUFA oils as the main culprit for cancer, inflammation, aging, and more. These claims of free-radical damage are from the faster oxidation assumptions and inflammatory effects of over-consuming low-quality oils. They do not take into consideration the quantity consumed, nor the quality of the source!
Good PUFAs vs. Bad PUFAs
Highly-processed and genetically modified PUFA oils do indeed have ill-effects on human health. This is especially true when overconsumed. Our American lifestyles are notoriously saturated with highly processed omega-6 oils. (Sorry, I had to add a laugh somewhere in this article.)
BUT, this does not mean that ALL PUFA’s are bad!
A Logical Fallacy:
Saying “ALL PUFAs are bad since highly-processed GMO PUFA’s are bad” is like saying “ALL meat is bad since factory-farmed poor quality meat is bad”.
Instead of avoiding any and all PUFA’s, there needs to be a different approach. Consuming and using high-quality (organic, fresh, well-preserved, and less-processed) PUFAs in a well-balanced amount isn’t bad! This education should be the real focus of “health experts” and beauty companies.
We need to stop categorizing all PUFAs as “BAD”. Instead, let’s put a big bright spotlight on this essential ingredient for health and beauty from high-quality sources!
Conclusion
Choosing When & How To Include PUFA’s
Consider the anti-oxidant benefits of PUFA’s. Consider their necessity for healthy skin and hair. We now know that PUFA’s are essential at many levels of body care and beauty products.
Choose high quality ingredients in moderate to small amounts. Choose certified organic, well-preserved, cold-pressed oils. Steer clear of oils that are heavily processed and genetically modified. Examples include corn, canola, and soybean oils (we never use these oils in our products).
Yes, PUFA’s are less stable than saturated fats and oxidize more easily, but freshness is key to reap their benefits! There are easy ways to keep your fats fresher for longer and how to tell when a product has oxidized.
When you use oxidized (rancid) fats or oils on your skin, it leads to congestion of the skin. This is because rancid fats are more sticky. A bitter-smelling, thick rancid fat will not absorb well through pores. This can clog the skin due to its thicker texture, forming a non-absorbent film across the surface. This is why care should be taken to use skincare fats that are fresh and properly handled and stored.
Fats degrade when exposed to heat, light, and air. It’s best to keep oils in a cool, dark place and use clean hands when handling the product. Also, look for the best by dates on products and buy from reputable manufacturers.
Perma-Earth has information about the best by date on all of their product listings in their product tabs.
We hope this helps to clear up any misconceptions about PUFA’s! And explain why we would even dare to use them in the midst of these misunderstandings!
What Is Natural Soap? It’s not often what you see in the supermarkets!
Most of what people mistakenly call “soap” sitting pretty on store shelves *is technically not real soap*. Did that blow your mind? It should!
The term “soap” is an FDA-protected term. If it is not true soap, legally the manufacturer can’t call it “soap”. Instead of “soap” they must use other terms like: “wash”, “cleanser”, “bar”, “washing liquid”, “shampoo”, “body wash”, et cetera.
Only true, natural soap can legally be called “soap”. So, how does the FDA define soap?
The term SOAP is a legally protected and specifically defined term by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Food and Drug Administration.
To meet the definition of soap in FDA’s regulations, a product has to meet these three conditions:
What it’s made of: To be regulated as “soap,” the product must be “alkali salts of fatty acids.” This means the material you get when you combine fats or oils with an alkali, such as lye.
What ingredients cause its cleaning action: To be regulated as “soap,” those “alkali salts of fatty acids” must be the only material that results in the product’s cleaning action. If the product contains synthetic detergents, it’s a cosmetic, not a soap. The word “soap” can still be on the label in sneaky ways, but that’s what causes a lot of confusion.
How it’s intended to be used: To be regulated as soap, it must be labeled and marketed only for use as soap. If it is intended for purposes like: moisturizing the skin, making the user smell nice, or deodorizing the user’s body, it’s a cosmetic. Or, if the product is intended to treat or prevent disease, for killing germs, or treating skin conditions, it’s a drug. The word “soap” can still be used on the label in sneaky ways, but it’s not true soap.
You can read the entire regulation at 21 CFR 701.20.
This is why there’s a disclaimer on our entire website that states, “These statements are not approved by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat, mitigate, prevent, or cure any disease.”
How are traditional soaps and synthetic detergents different?
Ordinary soap is made by combining fats or oils and an alkali, like lye. The lye reacts with the fats or oils, turning what starts out as liquid into blocks of soap. When made correctly, no lye remains in the finished product. In the past, people commonly made their own soap using animal fats and lye that had been extracted from wood ashes, which was a very risky process that resulted in major variations. Today, precisely scientific soap-making tools and purer ingredients make the product much more reliable and consistent.
Today, there are very few true soaps on the major markets. Most body cleansers, both liquid and solid, are actually synthetic detergent products. Detergent cleansers are popular because they make suds effortlessly in water. Most detergents are liquid, making cleansing more convenient, faster, and less “messy”. Some of these detergent products are actually marketed as “soap” but are not true soap according to the regulatory definition of the word. We covered this above.
So, most of what you see on store shelves are detergents or “surfactants”, which is just another word for detergents.
Most of what you see on store shelves are just detergents or “surfactants”, which is just another word for detergents.
What Makes A Tear-Free Cleanser?
The answer lies in a few subtle formula changes for detergent manufacturers.
Adult and baby detergent shampoos contain surfactants(short for “surface active agents”). One end of the surfactant molecule is attracted to water, while the other is attracted to oily substances. This is like natural soap molecules, except the molecules are harsher and synthetic. Surfactants work by reducing the surface tension of a liquid, allowing the shampoo to spread and penetrate better, and remove the thin layer of oil known as sebum (the natural oils produced by scalp and skin) [source: Schwarcz].
Baby “tear-free” shampoos use detergents with longer chain surfactants, like sodium trideceth sulfate or nonionic polymers. These are less harsh than normal detergents. And manufacturers use only small amounts of these cleansers in their shampoos, reducing their efficiency. Baby “tear-free” shampoos are basically watered-down and less-effective detergent shampoos to put it plainly.
Tear-free formulas also leave out surfactants such sodium lauryl sulfate, which can be irritating to the eyes and scalp. This does create a trade-off, though. Sodium lauryl sulfates — formed in part from coconut fat or palm kernel oil — are the chemical agents in shampoos that get hair really clean (and give a nice lather) [source: Schwarcz]. Although tear-free shampoos can still clean hair, they don’t remove the oils as thoroughly. But since most babies don’t do more than look cute and occasionally smear food into their hair, this usually works out just fine. Most babies don’t produce oils on their skin and scalp like teenagers and adults do.
Natural soap for the body and hair will not permanently harm or damage the eyes. However, it may sting in the eyes and cause some mild irritation until it is rinsed off!
Can You Make Natural Soap Tear-Free?
Unfortunately, due to the chemistry of natural soap, the answer is a resounding NO. Because soap is naturally an alkali (this is how it cleanses) – it WILL irritate the eyes upon direct contact.
Can we make soap “less” alkali or “water it down”? Simply put, trying to make a soap more acidic or watered down would cause it to cease being soap. Soap molecules have a hydrophilic (water-attracting) side, the other half is hydrophobic (water-repelling). This is what makes it great at washing away dirt and grime when mixed with water! If we made soap with less alkali or added more water, it would cause an icky mess.
We add just the right amount of excess fats (acids) to not dry the skin and hair, and also the right amount of lye (alkali) to cleanse. This is a very fine balance called a “superfat” percentage, carefully measured with highly sensitive scales each time we make soaps.
The good news is, you can use natural soap safely with babies, children, and adults!
How To Use Soap Safely Around Eyes
Can you use soap safely around the eyes? Yes you can! You just have to be careful and patient, especially while washing a baby or toddler. Baths are the safest way to do this since you can dilute the soap in the bathwater first before applying it to the hair or skin around the face. Since babies rarely need a full shampoo cleanse like teenagers or adults do, this normally does the job well!
Leaning the infant back or asking a child to lean back while seated during the wash and rinse of their hair makes it much easier to avoid getting soap in their eyes. They can also use the edge of the bathtub or baby bathtub for better back and neck support during the wash and rinse. Use the edge of your thumb, palm, and index finger all pressed snugly against their eyebrow area to shield sensitive eyes from the soapy water when you wash and rinse their hair. This looks just like when you are shielding your eyes from the sunlight!
Make sure your hand is pressed tightly against the forehead so that no soapy water runs down the face and into the eyes.
Soap made for the body and hair will not permanently harm or damage the eyes, but it may sting and cause some irritation until it is fully rinsed out!
Keep this in mind: even most plain water — without the use of tear-free cleansers — still cause tears to sensitive eyes. It all depends on the pH level of the water. PH is a measurement of the free hydrogen and hydroxyl ions in the water. A pH level measures water on a scale of 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral. If the number drops below 7, the water is increasingly more acidic, which means it has a greater amount of free hydrogen ions. Above 7, and the water is increasingly less acidic (or more basic), which means it has a greater number of free hydroxyl ions. The comfortable pH range for human eyes is 6.5 to 7.6, with 7 being optimal.
Any variation from neutral may cause your eyes to tear, and it has little to do with the tear-free shampoo. In addition, any foreign objects (including water) may cause irritation to the eyes, even if pH neutral!
Thanks for reading our article about why we can’t claim to have a natural “tear-free” soap – If you have any questions, please leave us a comment below!
Milk soaps “Feed Your Hair And Skin From The Outside-In.®“
Soaps enriched with pure, raw, farm-fresh milk are creamier and more nourishing than those made with water or powdered milk. Milk’s natural abundance of fats, vitamins, minerals, and proteins give skin-renewing moisture and nourishment.
How Your Skin & Scalp Absorbs Nutrients
Have you ever seen a nicotine patch and wonder how they work for smokers trying to quit? Or how merely touching a toxic tree frog can lead to death? It’s because your skin and scalp can absorb what you put on them!
Your skin is your body’s largest organ by far, with a total average area of about 20 square feet! That’s a lot of avenues for nutrients to reach your body… or to get slowly poisoned by toxic body products. Perma-Earth offers many of the best body care products to “Feed Your Hair And Skin From The Outside-In.®“
Nutrients follow three pathways through the skin, according to the CDC.
The epic epidermis!
Intercellular pathways. There are spaces between your skin’s cells through which nutrients follow deeper into the skin. Along the way, your skin’s outer layer can absorb some of the nutrients. Like in our buttermilk soaps that contain Vitamin D3, Retinol-A, Hyaluronic Acid, Alpha-Hydroxy Protein Acids, and more beauty-promoting goodies!
Permeation. Nutrients can pass from cell to cell in your epidermis. When the outermost cells take on some nutrients, they pass some of those to the next innermost cells.
Hair follicles and glands. Nutrients that permeate slowly into your skin can reach the hair follicles or glands deeper into your skin’s layers. This is the most difficult way your skin can absorb nutrients because your follicles are much deeper in the skin.
Natural, wholesome ingredients are recognized as safe by the body, and can be absorbed much deeper and easier. The famously beautiful Queen Cleopatra knew this, as she bathed in buttermilk daily.
But Why Buttermilk?
We use traditional grass-fed buttermilk in our body products. Buttermilk is simply cultured raw milk straight from the animal, in our case, a grass-fed cow. Our grass-fed and pasture-raised jersey cow sources produce very high fat whole buttermilk, and an abundance of it! This is one reason why we choose grass-fed cow’s milk over goat’s, sheep, or any other milk.
Lactose intolerance does not affect the epidermis, this type of intolerance only affects the digestive system. Unless one has a topical allergy to dairy, it is safe for lactose-intolerant individuals to use our products externally.
Fresh milk on left, the thicker, cultured buttermilk on the right!
Fats are what protect the skin, keeping it nourished, healthy-looking, and moisturized. Many vitamins are only soluble with certain fats (called fat-soluble vitamins like A and D). This makes some nutrients completely useless without enough fats for your body to use them.
Full-fat buttermilk is not only high in fat-soluble vitamins, but particularly high in multiple different proteins too, like yogurt! Buttermilk and yogurt are similar, but farm-fresh raw buttermilk is higher in many different proteins versus store-bought buttermilk or yogurt. Store-bought yogurt or buttermilk sits is pasteurized and then cultured with only one or two different probiotics.
On the other hand, farm-fresh, raw cultured dairy products have dozens of naturally-occurring probiotics. Along with alpha-hydroxy acids like lactic acid and hyaluronic acid which promote cell renewal and rejuvenation. It improves beauty factors like brightness, tone, and complexion maintenance. Buttermilk is higher in lactic acid than any other milk – another reason why we choose this hand-cultured moo milk!
Cow’s Milk Vs…
Cow’s buttermilk is simply the one of the best!
These days, the dairy aisle is saturated with options—and we don’t just mean 2 percent or whole. There’s soy, almond, cashew, rice, oat, hemp, camel…you get the idea. In a world full of milks (and milk posers), it can be overwhelming to educate yourself on which is better?
As many have stated before, the original milk (real animal’s milk) is top tier in terms of nutrient profile perfection. This is because of the total nutrient density, quantity, and quality of complete proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals. Plant “mylks” (which contain anti-nutrients like phytic acid and oxalates that leach minerals and vitamins from the body) can’t compare.
Can’t you turn any raw animal’s milk into a cultured buttermilk? Yes you can, but let’s summarize!
Our local sources of grass-fed cow’s milk is higher in fat than any other local and freshly available milk. There is also an abundance of it for more reliable supplies and reasonable prices. This is important for skin and scalp health as well as nutrient absorption and utilization.
Buttermilk is higher in lactic acid than any other fresh milk due to the fermentation process. Acids help lower the pH of products – making them more gentle and beneficial for the skin and scalp.
Nutrient Profiles of Milks
You know the saying that milk is the near-perfect food? They weren’t lying.
Milk is a “complete protein,” containing all nine essential amino acids necessary for life and health. Not to mention all of the essential Omega 3, 6, & 9 fatty acids in balanced proportions.
And buttermilk is even better!
Nutrient Profile of Whole Buttermilk in 1 cup (8 fl oz):
Fats: 8 grams
Omegas 3, 6, 9
Proteins: 8 grams
Tryptophan
Threonine
Isoleucine
Leucine
Lysine
Methionine
Phenylalanine
Valine
Histidine
Retinol-A (Vitamin A): 115 UG, 17% of the Daily Value (DV)
Calcium: 282 mg, 28% DV
Sodium: 257 mg, 17% DV
Riboflavin (B2): 38% DV
Vitamin B12: 22% DV
Pantothenic acid (B5): 13% DV
Potassium: 331 mg, 14% DV
Vitamin D3: 127 UG, 26% DV
Vitamin C: 4% DV
Phosphorous: 208 mg, 30% DV
Niacin (B3): 2% DV
Vitamin E: 1% DV
Vitamin K: 1% DV
Copper: 5% DV
Folate (B9): 3% DV
Vitamin B6: 7%
Magnesium: 25 mg, 8% DV
Zinc: 12% DV
Thiamine (B1): 11% DV
Selenium: 17% DV
Manganese: 1%
In summary, you just can’t beat whole buttermilk’s nutrient profile compared to other milks!
What about goat’s milk?
Many people have “herd” that goat milk has more benefits than cow’s, so we dug deeper for the answer. It turns out, neither milk is healthier or more nutritious than the other. This is because the nutrition content is almost the same (depending on the source, season, diet, processing, etc.) But goat milk can be a better choice for the digestive system as it has less lactose. However, this doesn’t pertain to the integumentary system (hair, skin, nails, etc.) In other words, don’t worry about milk soaps or lotions reaching your digestive system if you are lactose intolerant! So this one benefit is useless in terms of topical products, unless one is allergic to cows in particular.
What are the nutritional stats of goat milk vs. cow milk?
When doing research, one must take into consideration that source is everything. For instance, the USDA says that most goat’s milk on average has very slightly (1%) more fat than cow’s milk. But this is not the case from our own experience in farming and using farm-fresh raw milks. Our source of grass-fed cow’s milk has a LOT more fat/cream than other local pasture-raised goat’s milk. How do we know? We can taste and see the difference, which is negligible anyway.
Considering all of this, we can take what the USDA and other nutrient science says with a grain of salt. This is because we don’t know what their sources were for comparison. However, we can compare our own sources and know.
According to the USDA, goat milk and cow milk are almost identical in macronutrients. The USDA states that goat milk has more protein and cholesterol by a mere 1 gram per cup. This is also a questionable difference and dependent upon their sources of milks.
And as far as vitamins and minerals go, both milks have a lot to offer, just in different amounts. Goat milk has more calcium, potassium and vitamin A than cow milk. But, cow milk has more vitamin B12, selenium and folic acid than goat milk.
Therefore, the nutritional benefits of cow’s milk vs. goat’s milk are negligible and nearly identical. Both can be made into their own buttermilk, which would in turn have very minor nutritional differences. We do now offer goat’s milk soaps for those who wish to feel the difference!
Availability
Farm-fresh, raw, grass-fed goat’s milk is also difficult for us to find in our specific locality in consistently sufficient amounts. On average, the largest milking goat breed produces 1/4 to 1/2 gallon of milk per day, while full-size dairy cows produce 3-5 gallons per day. For instance, we typically use 1.5 gallons of milk to produce 288 oz of lotion, or 192 soap bars. This translates to a significantly different cost if the goat milk is twice the cost of cow’s milk per ounce.
Dairy cows usually have more than enough milk to spare. It is more difficult to get goat’s milk than cow’s milk in consistence and abundance.
Environmental Reasons
Is grass-fed cow’s buttermilk eco-friendly? Cows are much more efficient at producing consistent quantity and quality milk than any other animal. Cows are more gentle on the environment since they are strict ruminants (grazing animals). Cows can’t over-graze ecosystems as easily as goats or sheep can due to their unique mouth structure. If properly rotated, grass-fed cows’ grazing actually improves soil, air, and water quality over time (source).
Cow’s milk is also the most wasted milk produced, but buttermilk body products are the perfect solution to the over-abundance!
We choose to use local, raw, pasture-raised, and grass-fed milk our bath and body products. This makes our sourcing the most environmental of any milk products! This insures the least amount of travel, containment, and processing waste possible.
Cow’s are easier on the land when managed properly as they are more gentle ruminants. Cow’s can’t strip the ground of plant matter since they rely on their tongues and not their teeth for grazing.
Lactose Intolerance, Acne, and Other Concerns
For those concerned about lactose intolerance: Milk used in soap or other topical products has no direct relation to lactose-intolerance. This is because the dairy product is topically applied to the skin and not ingested into the stomach. Lactose-intolerance has to do solely with how the digestive system handles lactose poorly. The digestive system is separate from the integumentary system – which is hair, skin, nails, etc.
However, if a topical milk allergy has been diagnosed by licensed health practitioners, please do not use any milk products. We have had many success stories even with those who are diagnosed as lactose-intolerant. This risk is up to your and your healthcare provider to decide.
Many of our customers experience an improvement in skin health and a decline in acne symptoms with milk products.
What about dairy and acne? Dermatologists and doctors reveal that a dairy-acne connection stems from digestion of the milk triggering a hormonal acne outbreak. That cascade is not triggered by applying milk products to the skin.
If you have any other questions or concerns about this topic, please leave us a comment below or contact us!
Lye is a strongly alkaline (basic pH) solution, a white odorless solid that is used for washing or cleansing purposes. The scientific name for the two different kinds of lye is “sodium hydroxide” or “potassium hydroxide”. When properly made, there is no free-floating lye left after soap is made.
Archaeologists have found lye soap dated back to 2800 BC in Babylon. When animal fat and ash mixed in water made lye-based soaps. This was thousands of years before pure lye by chemical process was available. Primitive peoples made their lye the old-fashioned way by leaching water through wood ashes layered in a barrel. Our forefathers discovered lye by running water through wood ash. By doing this they extracted the lye from the potash.
Today, lye is commercially manufactured using a membrane cellchloralkali process. It is supplied in various forms: as flakes, pellets, beads, coarse powder or a solution. Lye has traditionally been used as a major ingredient in soap-making.
Is Lye Natural?
Lye can be found in nature, even without human intervention. Lye is a natural substance since it was originally discovered from rainwater filtering through hardwood ashes. However, this natural process produces inconsistent purity levels.
For modern purposes, lye is now manufactured in mass-scale production factories. The 99% purity level of manufactured lye is extremely important for making consistent and safer soap products!
Is Lye Necessary In Soap?
Lye is an absolutely necessary part of making soap bars. Without lye or another highly alkaline solution, we can’t ever make soap! Soap needs the saponification process – or else it would just be a bar of pure fat! Saponification means turning fats into soap. Saponification is a chemical impossibility without a strong alkali!
Without lye, you only have fats and oils, not soap!
“Soap” is an FDA-protected term that is restricted to only real soap products. According to the FDA: “soap is a product in which most of the non-volatile matter consists of an alkali salt of fatty acids and whose cleansing properties are due to these alkali-fatty acid compounds.” This definition was specifically written for the purposes of excluding soap from being FDA regulated as a cosmetic product.
The History of Lye Soap
Lye soap goes back as early as Babylonian times. They discovered a crude form of soap through melted animal fats mixed with ashes and water over a cooking fire. Archaeologists say that this probably happened by accident the first time it was discovered!
After the Babylonians found natural soap over 5,000 years ago, they began making soap for washing purposes. [SOURCE]
Is Lye Soap Dangerous?
If made correctly, lye soap is completely safe as there’s NO LYE left in the soap after it cures! Think of soap like concrete: dangerous when not cured, but safe when cured! A well-made body soap that is cured for several weeks is very safe and beneficial. Soap is simply saponified fats and most formulas have excess free-floating fats to nourish the skin while cleansing. We always cure our cold-process lye soaps for 4+ weeks before it gets into the hands of our customers! This ensures a mild, well-lathering bar of soap that lasts a long time.
Lye soap only becomes dangerous when it’s made wrong with too much lye. Lye soap has gotten a bad reputation from poor formulations from the unprofessional, inexperienced, or improperly equipped soap-maker. Soap can only be dangerous because of ignorance or improper formulations.
Soap-making is a scientific profession, just like baking or any other important job that has a level of hazardous risk. It often takes a year or more of research and daily experimentation to even scratch the surface of basic soap-making.
BUT there is an easy way to test for a lye-heavy soap! Inspect the soap. Is the soap crumbly, super hard, and shows large white spots? If your tongue touches the soap, does it “zap” your tongue like a small electrical shock? When mixed with some water, does it read higher than a 10 pH on a pH test strip? And finally, is the soap very drying and almost “burns” when you use it? If yes to all of these, then you have a lye-heavy soap that should not be used on the body! If this happens, soak your skin in plain vinegar to help neutralize the lye.
Are Detergents Better Than Lye Soap?
There are only 2 effective cleansers that foam and lift dirt away from surfaces: lye soap or detergents. “Effective cleansers” have hydrophillic (water-loving) and hydrophobic (water-repelling) sides to their molecules. These molecules help dirt, oil, and water all wash away from surfaces very well – resulting in an effective cleanse!
But detergents (this includes “naturally-derived” surfactants) are cheaply manufactured unnatural chemicals. Detergents only mimic the cleansing and nourishing qualities of real, natural soap… and there is a downside to convenient and cheap detergents.
Detergents strip the skin, scalp, and hair much more harshly than real soap. They also destroy the microbiome of the skin and scalp’s acid mantle (even “pH balanced” cleansers). Detergents weaken the hair and scalp, making hair more susceptible to damage despite the synthetically achieved pH level. If you are concerned about the pH effects of using any cleanser, always use a moisturizer or conditioner afterwards!
Simply put, if natural soap was worse than detergents, people wouldn’t be seeing such drastic benefits to using natural soaps. Especially since most people now have only ever used detergents all their life. We wouldn’t hear daily testimonials from customers. We’ve heard thousands of times, “Switching from detergents to real natural soap saved my hair and skin!” We just wouldn’t ever hear of that, but we do!
Soap has an average pH of 9-10, about the same as highly alkaline water or sea water. If you don’t want to disrupt the skin’s acid mantle, then technically we shouldn’t even be bathing with pure water.
There’s good news, too! The skin’s acid mantle resets only minutes after using natural soap or washing with water. But the skin can be permanently disrupted or altered with detergents because of the chemical harshness.
Cold-process bar soaps are very nourishing. They have an almost lotion-like feel compared to using detergents. This is because well-made natural soap bars have tons of free-floating fats that the skin sucks right up – yuuuummy!
Could your skin benefit from acidic products after a soap cleanse? We encourage oily skin types to try our acidic toners and/or then apply our moisturizers afterward. Dry or combination skin types can leave out the toners to not dry out their skin more.
In conclusion, are detergents better than lye soap? Well, your body isn’t a pile of dirty dishes or laundry! So we don’t think you need to treat it as such. 😉
There are a few reasons why we won’t offer liquid soaps, even though most people prefer the convenience… Let’s dive into why!
Bar Soaps vs. Liquid Soaps
To clarify, we are talking about pure, real soap. “Soap” is an FDA protected term! Some people assume surfactants or detergents are soap, but they’re NOT! Those are defined by the FDA as cosmetics. If it isn’t traditional, real soap it must be labeled differently. Other names of detergents include “wash”, “bar”. Some brands even have their brand name with “soap” in it to make it seem like a real soap product. This is very misleading. Most liquid “soaps” on the market are not technically soaps, but in fact detergents.
When we are talking about liquid vs. bar soaps in this article we are only referring to REAL soaps!
Soap-making involves chemistry, so here’s some scientific terms! Chemically speaking, liquid soaps need a different alkali (a highly basic pH substance) than bar soaps. This is to complete the saponification process. The saponification process turns oils to soap with an alkali (lye). Read our Why Lye Soap Article.
To recap, you can’t make any real soap without lye or another strong alkali substance. Lye is a natural product made from hardwood ashes filtered with water!
There are 2 forms of alkalis (lyes):
Sodium Hydroxide forms bar soap using the cold process method (how we make soap) or the hot process method (explained below)
Potassium Hydroxide forms liquid soap only using the hot process method – prolonged heat applied for several hours or more.
So, how does this change the nourishment quality, moisturization content, expense, and more?
Cold Process Bar Soaps Are More Nourishing
As mentioned above, liquid soap-making requires the hot process method – heating for hours at a time.
Hot process soap requires several hours of heating soap between 200-220°F!
Some soap-makers use the hot process method for the faster cure time. Curing time for cold-process soap takes 4-8 weeks, while hot-process soap takes 2-3 weeks. This makes hot-process soap is great for quicker sales, but it’s not beneficial for the nourishing content and quality.
If you aren’t familiar with heat factors and nutrient content: prolonged heat above 118°F destroys vitamins and proteins. This isn’t good for the nourishing aspect of our main soap ingredients: buttermilk and animal fats!
Make sure your bar soaps are made using the COLD process method (what we make). The cold process method only requires enough heat to melt the fats for a very short period of time.
Freezing Freshly Cultured Raw Buttermilk
Bar Soaps Are More Moisturizing
“Superfat” is a term used by soapmakers to describe the excess, free-floating fats in a soap recipe. Superfats are what makes the soap moisturizing and nourishing! Usually described as a percentage, the superfat amount can range in the negatives (very lye-heavy industrial soap) to 0% and higher for body use (and up to 25% with certain fats).
A huge difference in liquid vs. bar soaps is the maximum amount of “superfat” allowed in the formulas.
Bar soaps have a maximum superfat averaging around 10% – WOW! Our animal fat soap bars average around 6-7%. This percentage is not too moisturizing that it melts in your shower, but never too drying!
Liquid soaps have a max superfat of 0%-3% depending on the type of fats used, which is quite drying. This range is recommended to prevent separation of free-floating fats and cloudiness. Too much superfat in liquid soap clogs the pump and makes a chunky soup instead of a smooth liquid soap. This is quite a difference in moisturization quality from bar soaps.
To “neutralize” the lack of fats in liquid soaps, borax or another chemical is added after the hot process method. However, this still does not increase the moisturization content. Instead these chemicals mask the dry feeling, which in-turn makes the user need to apply moisturizers more often.
To summarize, liquid soaps will never be as moisturizing or as nourishing as bar soaps. This is because of the chemical differences – how disappointing!
Liquid soaps usually require a plastic dispenser.
Bar Soaps Are Less Wasteful
Obviously, bar soaps need little to no packaging. Common examples are: a label with shrink-wrap, paper wrapping, paper boxes, or they can be simply naked – Oh-la-la!!
Liquid soaps require a container (whether glass or plastic) and usually a plastic pump for easy access. Bottles and pumps are not very sustainable, and neither is the extra shipping weight and space.
It takes a lot more energy, time, and materials to make liquid soap. As described in the hot process method, the liquid soap is constantly for several hours during the creation. This increases energy, space, time, equipment, and labor costs.
Weight of bar vs. liquid doesn’t equal final volume of soap use.
12 oz of liquid soap equals to about 3 oz of bar soap – that’s only 1/4 of the weight!
Liquid soap is like watered down bar soap and has much more difficult lathering. It takes much more effort to clean and build up a good lather with liquid soap, if you even can. If you have a plastic foaming head pump for the container, this gives a temporary lather with liquid soap.
Lathering naturally is much easier with bar soap, when one is familiar with the process.
Lathering with bar soap!
Bar Soaps Are Less Expensive
Along with wasting materials unnecessarily: why waste money too? The bottles, pumps, and extra shipping weight/volume of liquid soaps are not cheap. The costs of bottles, pumps, and waterproof labels can double or triple the price of liquid soap. Let’s explain!
Labor and production costs are always a factor in pricing. The cost of a product includes labor, space, equipment, and time expenses to produce all of these extra components. This means it’s multiplied, the cost isn’t just added on dollar-for-dollar.
If a soap-maker needs more controlled space for making and storing, extra equipment, more ingredients, more energy, and more time to make liquid soap, all those costs will translate to the final product. Bar soaps take much less space, equipment, energy, and time, so are a more affordable price for small scale soap-makers.
MORE WASTE = MORE EXPENSIVE
The final price of liquid soap is at least 2-3 times more than bar soap considering all of the factors described above. Please keep in mind that this is only true for small scale soap-makers.
Since a 12 oz bottle of liquid soap has the same life as a 3 oz bar of soap, why wash your hard-earned money down the drain with all the unnecessary extras and none of the benefits?
A simple soap dish can make all the difference in the life of your bars!
Thanks for reading our short little article about why we abstain from making liquid soap! Liquid soap works for some people – and that’s great! We just don’t see a need to make it for our customers.
If you have any questions or concerns around this topic, feel free to contact us! We’re always happy to help.
We would be out of business long before we ever started if real natural soap damaged hair! This is a common myth *eh-um* marketing misinformation tool… perpetuated by detergent-based shampoo companies. Still aren’t convinced by the thousands of testimonials of how real soap has helped all hair types (hair-dressers included)? Then read this article to bust that lye-ing myth: https://perma-earth.com/why-lye-soap/
Before the 20th Century, people used soap bars to wash themselves – including their hair. The Victorian women had beautiful, long, flowing locks of hair, even in old age.
How did these women get such long, flowing locks of hair without all of the “innovative” modern hair care concoctions? Which never seem to follow through with their grand claims?
It was soap they used to cleanse – pure, plain soap. Castile (olive oil) soap or lard (pig fat) soap were mainly used to cleanse the body and hair. They also conditioned their hair with plain oils or animal fats.
Articles in magazines and books were written about how to properly wash one’s huge mane with a soap bar. It was recommended to wash once per week, but more often was ideal. Most of the time it involved an hour or more of washing the hair section-by-section. Since modern plumbing was not available to most, it took women much longer to wash their incredibly long, thick hair. With today’s plumbing, experienced users of shampoo bar soaps now only need at least 5 minutes to wash their hair!
If you are interested in learning about how to wash your hair with our shampoo soap bars, click here.
Now, this isn’t to say that soap was the only factor contributing to those waterfalls of hairy waves. These people were also restricted to eat locally and in-season without all the modern-day conveniences. This means that a lot of meats and fats and other fresh seasonal foods were consumed. These natural and densely nutritious foods further nourished their hair and scalp.
So, don’t expect to grow locks like your great-great-great grandmother simply from using soap. You haven’t lived like a Victorian for one reason. Plus, consider the common practice of using chemical detergents on one’s hair and skin from birth!
Detergents Vs. Soaps
Detergent Shampoos
Detergents are often sold as liquids, but also can be found in shampoo bars too. This new eco-trend is called “syndet” (synthetic detergent) bars. Bars do not need plastic, but do little else for the environment… or your hair.
Detergents are synthetically made “surfactants” (cleansers activated by water) that act like soap, but actually strip the hair and skin of everything good and kill the microbiome of your skin and hair (and so do naturally-derived surfactants). Foaming agents, waxes, silicones, sulfates, emulsifiers, esters, and other additives are often thrown into these chemical cocktails to make them work like original soap with a lot less effort… And your hair becomes dependent upon these chemicals instead of your natural microbiome.
Detergents also affect the sulfide bonds in your hair (whether or not they are “sulfate-free”), this weakens the sulfide bonds and causes your hair to go flat, or lack body and curl. This causes you to need more haircare products to fix what the detergents broke!
We cover the process of your hair’s transition from drugstore shampoos, click here to learn more!
“99% of us have been using detergents as shampoos all of our lives.” Even if the shampoo was claimed to be “natural” or “organic”, just research ALL of the ingredients you couldn’t pronounce. Spoiler alert: “naturally-derived surfactants” are another word for detergents! We encourage you to challenge us if you think what you have been using is truly not a surfactant or detergent…
It would take another article to list and define all of the surfactants and detergents companies use. Because there are literally hundreds of different chemicals are commonly used . They are often cleverly hidden in online listings or with additional natural-sounding names such as “cleanser derived from plants” or they are omitted completely from sight!!
Don’t worry – it’s easy to become a conscious consumer with a computer at your fingertips 24/7. Type the confusing-sounding ingredients into your search engine and see what pops up. Or highlight the word on your device, tap and hold it, and select “web search” from the pop-up options.
Shampoo Soaps
You always want to use solid shampoo soap bars as opposed to liquid soap – explained below!
It’s easy to know if a shampoo is truly natural or not – it needs to be 100% pure soap.
Saponified fats or “Sodium (fat or oil)-ate” are the common ingredients naming what soap is. Make sure no other surfactants or detergents are mixed in though!
Unfortunately, liquid soap will never hold as much moisture and nutrients as cold process soap bars do. This is just for reasons of chemistry. Pure and true liquid soap does not and will never hold a candle to cold process soap bars in hair care for 3 main reasons:
Liquid soap is only stable if it has less than HALF the moisturizing super-fats as cold process soap!
Liquid soap-making requires many hours of high heat, destroying a lot of vitamins and nutrients!
Liquid soap does not lather like bar soap, which makes hair-washing extremely difficult.
Customers report new hair growth as soon as 1 month of using shampoo soap bars exclusively and consistently. Consistent use is considered to be washing daily or every other day.
Many customers report markedly faster hair growth after only a few months. Which means more frequent visits to your salon for hair cuts!
Body & Texture
Customers report improvements in hair body and texture!
Most people only know their hair after being stripped with detergents all their life. They don’t know how much natural body and texture their hair really has until they start using shampoo soap.
Detergents stifle many beautiful genetic expressions of hair that shampoo soaps allow to develop.
Less Split-Ends
Another plus to using shampoo soaps is not needing as many hair cuts due to lack of split ends!
Shampoo soaps are so much more nourishing and moisturizing than detergents are. Your hair’s strength and integrity is kept in tact for much longer. Which leads us to our next advantage…
More Moisture
Since shampoo soap doesn’t strip the hair like detergents, hair is much more moisturized and strengthened.
Soap provides literally hundreds of times the amount of naturally nourishing ingredients than regular shampoos.
We use about 25% raw grass-fed buttermilk in all of our shampoo soaps! This is nothing like the powdered milk or extracts in other shampoo soaps.
Colored Hair
Shampoo soap bar users report more time between full permanent dye treatments – unless their roots grow faster! We even get “complaints” of customers dye their roots more often due to faster hair growth. But yet, their older dyed hair retains the permanent color longer.
Customers with light blonde or gray hair also report less issues with brassy tones!
We don’t recommend using shampoo soap bars with semi-permanent dyes. Shampoo soap needs more massaging during the lathering process. This more vigorous washing method can rub the semi-permanent dyes off of the hair shafts faster.
Less Products
We’re so happy to hear when a customer says they’ve eliminated most of the hair products they used before.
Detergents are the cause of so many cosmetic hair issues. These issues include lack of body, lack of definition, lack of texture, lack of color, etc. Most people don’t need as many care products after getting rid of detergents from their hair routine.
This also reduces your exposure to more chemicals.
Environmental Benefits
No Plastic
This one is pretty obvious, but it can’t never be understated. The early 21st century is swimming in plastic: polluting our ecosystems at alarming rates and wrecking havoc upon our health. Using shampoo soaps is another way to get rid of plastic from your life and future generations – for good.
Less Transport
Imagine an oddly shaped 12 oz plastic bottle of liquid shampoo condensing into a 4 oz rectangular solid soap bar. Then imagine how much less effort it would be to transport the same amount of cleansing power is! The transportation implications are massive when switching from liquid to bar.
This ultimately results in reducing transportation waste by at least 66%, or more if you buy directly from the manufacturer. That means 66% less gas being used and 66% less trucks on the highways.
Then consider all the other hair products eliminated from being transported due to the hair benefits of shampoo soaps! That leads us to our next point.
Less Products
You consume less hair products due to the benefits of shampoo soap. And if you consume less products, you cut out a lot of waste.
From transportation wastes, to plastic waste, to the wastes of manufacturing and sourcing production. All of those are eliminated when you stop using the unnecessary products.
Did you know the beauty-care industry is considered by some economic circles to be the top-grossing in the world? That’s a LOT of stuff being produced and consumed!
Local & Natural Ingredients
90%-100% of our ingredients are completely natural. 50%-99% of our ingredients are local. Many of our ingredients are certified organic.
All of these factors can make a gigantic environmental impact – imagine if everyone used locally produced body care!
If you can think of any other benefits and reasons why to use shampoo soap bars, or if you have any questions or concerns – please let us know! We’re always happy to help.
Lard (or “pig tallow”) is the rendered fat from a hog.
“Rendered” fat means that the raw pig fat is cooked and filtered from the meat.
The final rendered lard is shown above.
TALLOW
Tallow is the rendered fat from bovine animals.
Tallow is the rendered cow’s fat from bovine.
“Rendered” fat means that the raw cow fat is cooked and filtered from the meat.
The final rendered tallow is shown above – it is much harder than lard due to the fatty acid profiles listed below
Many people also use the word “tallow” to describe other rendered animal fats. To lessen confusion, we refer to pig tallow as “lard“, which is it’s true definition. Other animal fat types also have unique name descriptions. For instance: organ fats from cows are called “suet tallow“, while organ fats from pigs are called “leaf lard“. Another random example is that sheep tallow is referred to as “mutton fat”. These names are helpful to distinguish between different types of rendered animal fats. Nevertheless, when we refer to “tallow” or “suet tallow” on a label, we are only referring to rendered cow fats.
History of Uses
LARD
FOOD: Humans have eaten the fats of wild animals, including hogs and pigs for a very long time. Lard has extensive uses in baking as a natural, healthy shortening. Lard helps provide a flaky, hearty and delicious crust or bread.
SOAP: Animal fat soaps were the original soaps, likely discovered by accident! A crude form of soap developed from the fat drippings over a primitive fire. These fats mixed with a natural lye from the wood ash filtered with rainwater. This all resulted in a soapy substance, a natural science!
SKINCARE: Lard easily migrated its way over to the beauty counter with it’s extensive history in the kitchen. Lard is most akin to the composition of human skin’s natural sebum (skin oil). This makes it a suitable moisturizer for individuals who have sensitivities or allergies to commercial moisturizers.
HAIRCARE: Since medieval times women have used pig fat to help regrow hair with success. Women also used to set and condition their hair with lard. The combination of lard and natural starches produced rigid curls and stiff hair styles. This was a very popular styling product for women and men in the 17th and 18th centuries.
While lard is wonderful for skincare and haircare, there are stability issues that prevent it from mainstream commercialization. Lard does not always have a consistent color, appearance, and odor from batch-to-batch. This is based on the seasonal diet and environmental exposures of the pigs.
TALLOW
FOOD: For a very long time, humans have eaten the fats of ruminants (grazing animals), including bovine (cow).
SOAP: Animal fat soaps were the original soaps, likely discovered by accident! A crude form of soap developed from the fat drippings over a primitive fire. These fats mixed with a natural lye from the wood ash filtered with rainwater. This all resulted in a soapy substance, a natural science!
BEAUTY: Tallow has a long history in humanity of being used to soothe and moisturize skin. It’s only in recent times that plant oils and petroleum based products have taken the place of tallow in skincare.
The composition of the tallow oil is like the composition of human skin’s natural sebum. This often makes it a more suitable moisturizer for individuals who have sensitivities to commercial moisturizers.
While tallow is great for body care, there are stability issues that prevent it from mainstream commercialization. Tallow does not always have a consistent color, appearance, and odor from batch-to-batch. This is based on the seasonal diet and environmental exposures of the cows.
CANDLES: Tallow once was widely used to make candles before more convenient (and cheaper) wax varieties became available. The “tallow dip” was a reed or strip of burning cloth dipped in tallow. Such a candle was often simply called a “dip”. Or because of its low cost, a “farthing dip” or “penny dip”.
Our Sources – Where Do We Get Our Lard and Tallow?
The source of fat we use is extremely important to us, as source affects many nutritional factors of lard and tallow:
Pasture-Raised, Grass-Fed fats are very important to keep the most natural, balanced, and nutritious fatty acid profiles. This contributes to the effectiveness of our claims (described in more detail below). For instance, the animals’ sunlight exposure is absolutely crucial for the development of Vitamin D3 levels in the animals’ fats. The varieties of fresh, seasonal foods creates more natural health and vitality in the animals. This makes them richer in other beneficial nutrients as well.
Hand-Rendered fats are important to make sure no additives were unnecessarily mixed into the final product. This include nitrates, BHT, chemical bleaches, chemical preservatives, etc. Hand-rendering also insures that the temperatures were never raised to hot levels for long periods of time. Long heat exposure destroys vitamins and other nutrients.
Farm-Fresh, Local fats are very important to insure the provision of the freshest, most nutrient-dense fats available.
Fatty Acid & Nutrient Profiles – Lard and Tallow Are Chemically Different!
Fatty Acids
Fatty acids are the building blocks of fat, these fats are necessary for all life forms on Earth. All 3 categories of fats contained in animal fats are essential. Essential means that they are for basic biological functions (including basic skin and hair care) in their proper proportions. These three fats are known as Saturated and the 2-in-1 Unsaturated (Monounsaturated and Polyunsaturated).
Fatty Acids
Lard
Tallow
Saturated Fats
43%
46%
Palmitic Acid Stearic Acid Myristic
28% 14% 1%
26% 17% 3%
Unsaturated Fats (Mono & Poly)
57%
54%
Monounsaturated Oleic Acid Palmitoleic Acid
47% 44% 3%
50% 47% 3%
Polyunsaturated Linoleic Acid Linolenic Acid
10% 10% 0%
4% 3% 1%
Lard and tallow are both affected by their diet, lard more-so than tallow. Pasture-raised and grass-fed fats have higher saturated fatty acids and lower unsaturated fatty acids. The table above is a round average estimate.
As you can see, the differences in fatty profiles vary, but are still very similar! The main difference in tallow from lard is a mere 3% more saturated fats and an extra polyunsaturated fatty acid called Linolenic Acid. All of these minute chemical differences causes us to treat them differently, though. We have to make products in various ways depending upon the fat we choose to use and their applications.
We also take into great consideration the different nutrients that (pasture-raised) lard and tallow offer, see chart below.
Other Nutrients
Nutrients
Lard (per 1 Tbsp)
Tallow (per 1 Tbsp)
Vit. D3 Retinol-A Choline Vit. E Zinc Selenium
13 IU 5 IU 6.4mg 0.08mg 0.01mg 0.03mg
4 IU 0 IU 0 mg 0.35mg 0 mg 0.03mg
These numbers are according to educational and scientifically verified nutritional sources. You can do your own research – remember to look for scientific sources! Vitamin D3 levels are greatly affected by sunlight exposure – this is another reason why pasture-raised is so important! Did you know that Lard is the 2nd most concentrated Vitamin D3 food-source in the world? This is second only to Cod Live Oil!
Due to lard’s larger nutrient profile and fatty acids, it’s more useful for certain applications than tallow… Let’s dive deeper into that!
Various Uses Based On Differences
Both Have Their Proper Places!
Lard’s Best Uses for Us
Hair Products: Pasture-raised lard is lighter and softer in texture, higher in unsaturated fatty acids, and higher in nutrients like Vitamin D3. This makes a perfect fat to use as a base for our shampoo soaps, conditioners, and hair oil!
Liquid Lotions: Since lard is lighter and softer in texture, it makes a perfect fat to use as a base for our liquid lotions. This insures better stability for varying temperatures.
Soap Products: Since lard is low (0-2) on the comedogenic scale (Max rating is 5. Coconut and palm oils are a 4!) it’s less likely to clog pores – great forfacial soaps! Since it is higher in unsaturated fatty acids, it provides more bubbly lather and a squeakier cleanse, which is essential for our shampoo soaps. A pure lard soap designed for the skin even cleanses and nourishes hair quite well – unlike pure tallow soap. We usually do NOT recommend tallow soaps for hair as they are harder to clean with and give a heavier, waxier feel.
Bath Bombs: Since lard is softer at lower temperatures, it is great for fatty bath bombs – Insuring well-nourished skin and cleaner drains that won’t clog up as easily!
Tallow’s Best Uses For Us
Moisturizers: Since tallow is heavier and harder in texture, higher in saturated fatty acids, and higher in Vitamin E (also more shelf-stable) – it makes a perfect fat to use as the main base for our body buttersand butter balms!
Soap Products: Since tallow is a heavier and harder fat, higher in saturated fatty acids and low (0-2) on the comedogenic scale (maximum being a 5, coconut and palm oils are a 4) it makes a good, moisturizing soap. Tallow soap has a creamy but flat lather, making it perfect for a hand/body soap!
NOT recommended for hair, although with some practice and patience it is usable, although it tends to weigh down hair easily and causes more of a waxy texture.
Deodorants: Tallow makes a great fat base for our deodorants since it is hard enough to be stable, yet soft enough to apply and absorb easily on the skin.
Candles & Wax Melts: Since tallow is a harder fat, higher in saturated fatty acids – it makes a very useful candle fuel and wax melts. When mixed with beeswax in the correct proportions, tallow helps to create a brighter candle flame and softer wax melt for healthier scent distributions that need lower temperatures.
Have More Questions?
Feel free to reach out to us! We are happy to help you learn more about this fascinating topic!
Thank you for learning more about Perma-Earth Bath + Body products. Also for your health and the health of our ecosystems. For a quick FAQ answer when finding this article, jump to “Why Do You Use Fragrances In Some Products?”
Our fragrances are derived from scientifically-processed natural sources. They are certified as safe to use by the FDA, INCI (Personal Care Products Council). They are acknowledged by the IFRA’s 48th Amendment Standards (International Fragrance Association). The IFRA standards are based on safety assessments from RIFM (Research Institute for Fragrance Materials).
We offer products scented exclusively with 100% natural scents that have passed their GC/MS reports (Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry). This is to offer more natural alternatives to fragrances. No need to worry, we keep everything very separate during production in our single 1,600 sq ft facility. We also categorize the different scent types on our website when shopping online. We clean all equipment thoroughly between uses and we use different equipment for fragrances, essential oils, and unscented products. We also make the distinction between fragranced and/or essential oil scented products quite clear on our website listings and categories. We use different manufacturing tools depending on if the product is fragranced or not as well. We like offering the best of both worlds for customers who seek the highest quality products in their favorite scents!
The Scents We Use
Perma-Earth Bath + Body only uses certified safe, phthalate-free and paraben-free fragrance oils, naturally-derived fragrances, essential oils, or no scent at all. See our UNSCENTED shop category for everything unscented. We specify the ingredients in every product with a full list, sharing absolutely everything we know in terms of ingredients!
We clearly separate fragrances and essential oils, but for a slight few formulations we blend the two. In blended cases, we automatically categorize the product as “Fragranced”, also listing the specific essential oils used in the formulation. For products categorized as “Essential Oil” we exclusively use only essential oils in those products.
Fragrances
For fragrances, we always consider the recommended amount for every application according to the specifications of each fragrance regulated by the IFRA (International Fragrance Association) and approved by the INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients), which is directed by the Personal Care Products Council. These are the experts who test and certify the fragrances for multiple cosmetic uses. This can also change over time as more research is done. This can go for essential oils as well!
Fragrance ingredients in cosmetics must meet the same safety requirements as other cosmetic ingredients. Fragrances must be considered “safe for consumers” (in FDA’s standards) when they are used according to labeled directions, or as people customarily use them. www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetic-ingredients/fragrances-cosmetics More information about fragrances are detailed below.
Essential Oils
Essential oils are quite different from fragrances because there are no official recommended usage rates (by the FDA or otherwise). We usually follow recommended usage rates from the essential oil companies themselves. which are questionable in their own right. All essential oil companies are regulated by their own scientists when this article was written. Therefore, each and every essential oil company claim is their own and they are not regulated by any other party. This includes claims of “therapeutic-grade”, “medicinal”, “edible”, “scientist-approved”, etc.
Our stance is that we do not consider any essential oil to be safely edible.
The owner of Perma-Earth has worked with essential oils for over a decade at the time of this writing. “I know how to properly test essential oils myself and I have personally compared dozens of different essential oil companies. I make myself aware of their origins and testing. We only use 100% pure, therapeutic-grade (non-diluted, properly extracted, responsibly sourced) essential oils in our products.”
More information about essential oils are detailed below.
Phthalates, Parabens, and Certifications
We do not use phthalates or parabens in our products. As mentioned above, we use certified phthalate-free, paraben-free fragrances according to the INCI and Personal Care Products Council. Please click the links on name button links in the section above to learn more.
What Are Phthalates?
Phthalates are defined as a salt or ester of phthalic acid.
Why Are Phthalates Used In Most Fragrances?
Phthalates are used in fragrances as solvents, to strengthen the scent and help it linger much longer. Again, Perma-Earth chooses never to use fragrances which contain phthalates!
Why Are Phthalates Considered Dangerous?
Phthalates are linked to cancers¹, metabolic syndromes² (such as diabetes), and hormonal imbalances³. Many people also associate headaches and migraine triggers while inhaling “phthalated” fragrances.
Where Else Are Phthalates Found?
Mainly in plastics to increase durability. This is just another reason why we attempt to avoid choosing plastics as much as possible.
What Are Parabens?
Parabens are a class of widely used preservatives in cosmetic and pharmaceutical products. Chemically, they are a series of parahydroxybenzoates or esters of parahydroxybenzoic acid.
Why Are Parabens Used In Some Fragrances?
Parabens are in fragrances to act as a preservative, help the scent last for much longer, and also increase the strength.
Mainly in the cosmetics industry. This is ironic considering how irritating it can be for many.
Naturally-Derived Fragrances
Perma-Earth also uses naturally-derived fragrances in some products, which are defined as “naturally-derived fragrances” in the ingredients list.
What Are Naturally-Derived Fragrances?
In summary, natural aromatics are made by physically extracting specific volatile fractions from plants without chemically altering them. Natural fragrances are complex fragrance compounds made exclusively from natural aromatics as defined by IFRA (the International Fragrance Association). The ingredients used in natural fragrances can be essential oils, oleoresins, distillates, fractions, concretes, extracts, absolutes, etc.
Why Not Use ONLY Natural Fragrances?
Natural fragrances, similar to essential oils, are very limited in scope of scent variety (not many choices). Of these limited choices, very few hold up to the standard that many are conditioned to know from fragrances. These include: strength, durability, and “true-ness” to scent ideals.
In short, they are very similar to essential oils, but often less potent and easily broken down by environmental factors. These factors include sunlight, air-exposure, age, etc. Therefore, synthetically made fragrances surpass all of these factors over 99% of the time during testing.
Synthetic Fragrances
Perma-Earth Bath + Body uses phthalate-free, paraben-free, third-party regulated, and dermatology certified-safe fragrances oils synthesized from nature. Abstaining from phthalates and parabens often eliminates many issues people have with fragrances in general. Read more information about phthalates and parabens above in this article.
“We know that fragrance oils can be a mix of processed and purified essential oils, synthetic aromatic chemicals, and resins. We know that a perfumist must use the proper solvents to dissolve powder and crystalline ingredients into the fragrance oil. A perfumist can either duplicate an aroma by use of gas chromatographic – mass spectrometric (GC-MS) (which shows him the ingredients contained in a fragrance), or he can create a unique fragrance oil by combining the right combinations of top, middle, and base notes.”
The Fair Packaging and Labeling Act requires a product marketed to consumers include a list of ingredients. The product must also be labeled with its net contents, the identity of the item and the name or place of business of the products’ manufacturer, packer or distributor.
Under U.S. regulations, fragrance ingredients can simply be listed as “Fragrance” as they are legally protected trade-secrets. People with questions about allergic reactions to a fragrance can contact the product manufacturer for more information. Learn more about this subject here: Trade Secrets – Safe Cosmetics
We, as non-producers of the fragrance, do not have access to what exactly constitutes each and every fragrance. HOWEVER, if you have questions about a fragrance we use in a specific product, we’ll provide the information we know. This includes specific answers to your questions found on our source‘s INCI and SDS information sheets.
Why Use Synthetic Fragrances In Any Product?
After years of feedback, we have concluded that fragrances are safer for those seeking their favorite scents in healthier alternatives. Since our sources do not contain phthalates or parabens, this is much safer. Our fragrances are very similar chemicals mimicking natural scents, except synthetically created. Think of a lab-made diamond versus a naturally-mined diamond for example: they are both essentially the same, but made differently! This is a similar circumstance with synthetic fragrances vs. natural scents.
Essential oils can cause many issues… Some essential oils shouldn’t be used if you have certain health conditions like pregnancy, nursing, kidney problems, etc. Some essential oils have negative and irritating effects, no matter how diluted they are. These include but are not limited to: cinnamon, peppermint, eucalyptus, lemongrass, and more. While it won’t irritate some, it can irritate others. This is especially noticeable in leave-on products. Some essential oils actually cause photosensitivity when used on skin exposed to sunlight… We’re looking at YOU, citrus essential oils!!
Fragrances actually cause LESS cases of irritations than essential oils in our experience.We actually have many MORE reports of essential oil sensitivity in comparison to our phthalate-free, paraben-free fragrance oils! Meaning: essential oils actually cause more irritations than the fragrances we use – according to our customers! We only use 100% pure essential oils or absolutes! Nothing else is added to cause this reaction and it has happened even with the most well-known brands!
Eco-Friendly! SAY WHAT?? Environmentally speaking, synthetic fragrances are much less of a burden on the ecosystem… let us explain. It takes 60,000 rose blooms to produce a single 1 oz of rose essential oil. It takes nearly 16 pounds of lavender buds to produce a single 1 oz of lavender essential oil. To put this in perspective, we use approximately 1 oz of essential oil per 5 bars of soap… That’s at least 3.2 oz of the plant’s flowers alone to scent each soap bar! That’s a LOT of farming and processing just for scenting a few bars of soap! And this is exactly why some of our essential oil products are pricier than their fragranced versions.
The sky’s the limit! Some of our favorite scents like fruits (apples, pumpkins, peaches, etc.), flowers (like lilies, wildflowers, and more), musks, citruses, clean scents, etc. can’t be produced naturally with an ideal outcome or even at all for some body care products. The saponification process alone in cold-process soaps renders many natural fragrances and essential oils worthless. In the end, they are completely void of scent (citruses for example).
Fragrances perform to most people’s ideals. We want to get nourishing body care products into as many hands as possible. We want to appeal to those who won’t even try the more natural products otherwise. We choose to cater to our customers. Therefore, we offer completely naturally-scented (or unscented) products in every category. We also offer what most want as well: strong, safe, and creative scents in a large variety with familiar fragrances.
In the beginning we used ONLY 100% natural fragrances and essential oils. We still do use them! But guess what? Most people weren’t happy – they didn’t stick around for very long either because they missed their old fragrances… So we listened to our customers and fixed that issue! Yes, it’s a completely superficial reason why people want synthetic fragrances. But, humans are creatures of habit and this is backed by science. Scents are strongly connected to feelings of nostalgia in the brain. The olfactory (nasal) system in humans is directly linked to the memory bank of the brain. Many people feel very unhappy, or even lost, without the scents linked with positive memories in their lifetime. This is especially true for during their formative years.
We will always offer 100% natural fragrances and essential oils as well. No need to panic, we keep everything quite separate and we clean all equipment thoroughly between uses. We pride ourselves in offering the best of both worlds to the most quality-seeking customers!
Where do we source our phthalate-free, paraben-free synthetic fragrances?
We consider our source brands to be trade secrets. But, we’ll answer any specific questions about what we can find in our fragrance’s SDS (safety data sheet).
Essential Oils
Our major concern with essential oils are the purity levels, which is reported in each essential oil’s GC/MS reports. We only use PURE natural essential oils according to these scientific tests.
Our stance is that we do not consider any essential oil to be safely edible.
The owner of Perma-Earth has worked with essential oils for over a decade. She has compared dozens of essential oil companies for personal and professional use. She curates only 100% pure, therapeutic-grade (non-diluted, properly extracted, responsibly sourced) essential oils to be used in our products.
What Are Essential Oils?
An essential oil is a natural oil typically obtained by distillation or pressing and having the characteristic smell of the plant or other source from which it is extracted. Essential oils are considered volatile since they readily evaporate when not contained. Essential oils only contain the volatile organic compounds of a plant. Essential oils are often used in aromatherapy or topical therapy. They are said to evoke natural biological responses in the human body when exposed to these organic chemical compounds.
Essential oils are quite different from fragrances in that there are no official recommended usage rates (by the FDA or otherwise). We usually follow recommended usage rates from the essential oil companies themselves. All essential oil company claims are regulated by their own scientists when this article was written. Therefore, each and every essential oil company claim is their own and they are not regulated by any other party. This includes claims of “therapeutic-grade”, “medicinal”, “edible”, “scientist-approved”, etc.
Where Do We Source Our Essential Oils?
We consider our source brands to be trade secrets. But, we will answer any questions you have about the qualities or growing origins of our essential oils.
Do you only use certain brands of essential oils? No worries, make your own concoctions with our base of unscented products in our Unscented category!
We leave this entirely up to the consumer’s discretion, but here are some clues!
We break our products up into “Fragranced”, “Essential Oil”, and “Unscented” in our main product categories. We always suggest to check all of the ingredients listed in the product tab called “INGREDIENTS”.
Do you have a sensitivity to all scents and fragrances? Stick with our unscented selections in our Unscented product category!
Do you only use certain brands of essential oils? No worries, make your own concoctions with our base of unscented products in our Unscented category!
Have a history of fragrance sensitivity, but still want to try something that is phthalate-free and paraben-free? Request a fragranced sample in your order note (randomly available) or try a product to see how that does you!
Don’t see something you want? Contact us and let us know what we can do to improve your experience!
Thank you again for taking the time and initiative to learn more about Perma-Earth Bath + Body products. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns!
written by Mariah Campbell, owner/founder of Perma-Earth LLC
Here’s how to turn your old unsightly lampshade into a whimsical, romantic, and naturally charming light!
I adore our guinea fowl, not only are they a bit of comedic relief, but they are good security alarms, tick & insect hunters, and the females lay eggs. I also love their feathers! I had been collecting them in hopes of finding something to do with them on a rainy day, and did I ever!
I picked up this vintage lamp at an antique store a while back and thought it was simply charming, except the stained shade, which I had intended to replace long ago… Then, Voilá! I had an idea!
What I thought would take me a couple of hours ended up taking me around 4-5 hours of straight work by myself (set-up and clean-up included). So, this is definitely something for a rainy day with a friend and no distracting television, especially if you want it to look decent.
This is also a simple and easy project for you and (older) children to do! I’d say from 12+ years could do this with no problem. Any younger and they might be getting bored too quickly and be too messy with it for a professional look.
Get ready! You will need:
MATERIALS
1. A lamp with a cleaned lampshade, preferably a light or white colored shade that isn’t in too shabby of shape. You don’t want to put these beautiful feathers on a crumbling structure. Have fun picking out your lamp from a yard sale, consignment shop, antique store, or your storage closet!
2. Tacky glue. Any will do, but make sure you get the sturdy crafting kind.
3. An iron with ironing board (I’ll explain later).
4. FEATHERS!!! We want feathers with a backbone (wing feathers) in this particular project. If you want to use downy feathers, that is fine too, but you might want to use a brush to “paint” the glue on the lampshade instead of putting it down in globs, which will block out more light than necessary and might alter your design when the lamp is lit.
5. Some spare paper like newspaper or anything that you don’t mind getting glue all over to cover your workspace.
6. Strong scissors for cutting the feathers.
All set? Let’s get creative in making our own décor!
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Set out the paper or covering material on your workspace, preferably a cleared table with plenty of room for you to spread out your iron (plus access to a socket to plug it in), ironing board, glue, feathers, scissors, and lampshade. If you don’t have access to a table, don’t feel bad, you can also do all of this on the floor, which is where I ended up!
2. Decide what kind of design you want to put on your lampshade. I could visualize it in my mind because mine was a simple design to look like a bird’s wing, but if yours is more complicated, then might I suggest you draw it out to make sure that is what you want before committing?
Before Cut
After Cut
3. Cut your feathers to your liking. I cut my feathers’ “stems” off so that they wouldn’t get in the way and to prevent a wavy texture from fuddling up the gluing process.
Before Iron
After Iron
4. Iron all of your feathers. If you have a buddy, you can get them to iron the feathers while you glue the finished pieces on. It doesn’t take very long, but every feather is different. Do some timed tests to figure out the most efficient way to iron your feathers, whether you need to only iron them for 20 seconds on each side or one minute on one side, or something else entirely. I heated my iron up all the way on high heat and ironed them for at least one minute on both sides (my feathers were sturdy). You can always run a test by ironing one of your least favorite feathers and making sure it doesn’t burn while it is flattening. Yes, that’s why we need an iron! If the feathers aren’t perfectly level with the shade, the feather will have more chances to come unglued and then your lamp will look a little haywire… Unless you’re going for that style of course!
Glue
Paste
Paste Layer
Finished!
5. Put some glue on your feather or on the lampshade, one feather at a time or one space at a time, whichever way feels best for you. I put the glue on my feathers first and then pressed them onto the lampshade. Make sure you do the ones you want to cover up FIRST and then glue on the ones you want to cover the ones under it. Sound confusing? Make sure you glue them in the order you want! For instance, I wanted the bigger parts of the flight feathers to be covered up by the softer feathers to make it look more wing-like, so I started from the bottom and glued the big flight feathers on first, then worked my way around in one direction and then up in sections.
6. You can finish with some hairspray if you prefer or just leave it as-is (that’s what I did)! Put it back on your lamp base and place it somewhere beautiful! I tend to like feather lamps in a bedroom or living room. Feather lamps can give these rooms a sense of whimsical, romantic, and natural charm!
Check out another project made with Guinea Fowl Feathers:
This “Yin & Yang” Chinese Dreamcatcher is what my husband and I made to match our lamp!
COMMENT BELOW: Let us know how you did and don’t forget to share pictures of your masterpiece!
