In the beauty industry a movement is happening, a movement towards natural ingredients and away from harmful toxins as consumers become more informed of the potential health dangers of many of the common ingredients used in every day beauty items. Large cosmetic manufactures are reporting a downturn in sales, but increases are being reported in the organic and natural beauty market.
While synthetic ingredients are, in many cases, cheaper, a study done by the University of California has revealed how a short break from certain shampoos and lotions made with chemical ingredients can result in a significant drop in levels of people’s hormone-disrupting chemicals.
The benefits of going chemical-free has never been more popular and possible than ever before.
“It’s always a great idea to feed your skin rather than treat your skin.”
One Namibian woman, in the process of providing natural alternatives for skincare has developed her own range of natural beauty products, Earth Essence
“I created the Earth Essence range a few months ago. I pride myself in using only 100% natural ingredients in all my products. Absolutely nothing harmful or toxic. I want to create something amazing for the home, skin, body and environment.” Explains Caroline Pajewski, the brains behind the Earth Essence Range.
While the range has grown, currently it includes soy wax melts to burn in your oil burner, body butter massage candles and 30SPF Sunscreen for sensitive skin. Caroline is in process of developing new natural items to add to the range. “We are still perfecting our Face Balm, Healing Face Mask, then in the pipeline we have bath fizzy’s, shower fizzy’s, toilet fizzy’s, Deodorant, toothpaste, and who knows what else, we’ll see as time goes on.”
“All products are 100% natural and hand made by me. We only use 100% pure essential oils to give the products their fragrance, absolutely no fragrance oils, and we use pure vitamin E oil in the body products to give it a slightly longer shelf life. I also have beautifully hand crafted oil burners made by a local potter and my husband and I make designer ceramic and wooden burners too. I only use biodegradable packaging, keeping absolutely everything eco friendly.”
“It’s always a great idea to feed your skin rather than treat your skin. I test all my products on my own skin and a few willing friends who don’t mind being my Guinea pigs, so absolutely no testing on animals.”
Explaining the premise behind using soy wax in her candles, Caroline notes, “Soy wax is a vegetable wax derived from soybean oil, whereas paraffin wax is derived from petroleum (a refined a gasoline product). It’s biodegradable and cleans up with plain old soap and water. They also have lower melting point than paraffin wax and because of this, soy candles will burn slower or longer than paraffin candles. It burns with zero petro-soot unlike it paraffin friend, and it ‘throws well’. Which means the fragrance will fill the entire room.”
When asking where you can find her range, Caroline explains, “I stock my Soy Wax Melts and Body Butter massage candles at Trendy Hair in Henties Bay, and you can also find the Melts at In Touch Day Spa in Swakop. Otherwise all products are available at Recline Yoga Studio, or directly from me. I make special orders too and all items can be couriered to anywhere. You can find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/earthessencenam/ All products are listed there, and it’s the first place I post when there’s a new product available.”