Meadowfoam

I got some emails from a few of you about my products after I did the post about Burt’s Bees. I don’t normally talk about what I do, or make, or sell on the blog because I don’t want the blog to be a sales or promotional blog. However since so many of you asked I do produce a line of lip balms, and a hand and foot balm that actually puts an end to dry cracking skin. People also use it as a moisturizer.

The reason my stuff is different is mostly because it is simple with only two or three ingredients; two if unscented and three if it is scented or flavored. Most moisturizers, even the ones for sale at the Sunday Market are loaded with ingredients; many unpronounceable.

My main ingredient is meadowfoam seed oil. This is an incredible oil which is extremely stable for cosmetic manufacturing. I previously used grape seed oil which degraded quickly giving my products a shelf life of only a year. I have some meadowfoam products that I made three years ago and it is still as good as the day I made them.

I am not a chemist, but if you are interested you can get a lot of information about the history, the uses, the chemistry and biology of this remarkable seed crop that was developed and grown here in Oregon.
The website is http://www.meadowfoam.com/

Meadowfoam seed oil is pretty costly. The refined oil I use cost nearly $150 a gallon with shipping. The cold pressed oil cost nearly $350 a gallon.

My other ingredient is natural bees wax. Yes, I am a beekeeper and beeswax is one of the by-products of the hives. I don’t use any chemicals or medications in my hives. This is important because honey is hydroscopic and will absorb just about anything that it comes in contact with. The wax, which is a lipid substance will also absorb anything it comes in contact with. I feel confident that my wax and honey is about as pure as it can possibly be. I haven’t gone for organic certification, mostly because I think most organic certification is bull shit and my apiary is organically cleaner than most “organic colonies” I’ve seen. However, I cannot guarantee that some of the bees haven’t visited a neighbors flowers that received a dose of miracle grow. Honey bees fly over two miles to gather nectar and pollen. Drawing a circle two miles around any hive would mean patrolling 8042.5 acres for non organic food sources. That’s a lot of land and I doubt any certifier would bother going over every acre unless there were a toxic dump within a two mile boundary.

Rich, mentioned in a comment his doubt that Africa, where Burt’s Bees gets their wax, is as pure as they claim in regards to pesticide use. One never really knows. I am pretty familiar with the flight path of my bees and I feel I can attest that I have a pretty pure product. I feel good about it and the testimonials of those that use it are more than positive about the results they achieve.