Have you heard the one about the house and the butterfly?
If you follow along on social media, you may have noticed that I try to avoid using the word ‘natural’. This doesn’t mean that I don’t make products with natural ingredients.
The word ‘natural’ just means so many different things to so many different people, and I don’t feel like it gives enough information. If you know anything about Perry Creek, you know that one of our main goals is educating our family of followers. I want you to understand the important parts about homemade bath and body products so you can spend your money wisely.
For me to regularly use a word like ‘natural’ (that seemingly has millions of different definitions) just seems far away from my goal of clear communication and transparency.
So, let’s talk about Perry Creek ingredients – What do we mean when we do say ‘natural’ and how do you know if it’s ‘natural’?
Homestead Collection - Our version of ‘natural’
When you see the happy little house on the label, you know that all colors and fragrances are derived from nature. They are extracted from nature and go through some type of purification process. We choose ingredients that are purified using natural processes as well, like cold pressing of olive oil and the use of clay to deodorize ingredients over other chemical deodorization methods.
Products from the Homestead Collection are colored using plant material (herb and spice powders, for example), fruit and vegetable purees, and clay. Or we simply leave the color out.
Fragrances in the Homestead Collection are always essential oil blends. The label will say ‘fragrance’ because we label all of our products according to FDA cosmetic regulations. However, you’ll notice the list of essential oils in parenthesis next to the word fragrance.
We put every ingredient on the label, so you know exactly what you are buying for your family.
Rave Collection – just as good, but at least one thing isn’t ‘natural’
When you see the colorful little butterfly on the label, you know that at least one ingredient is not derived from nature. It may be a fragrance, a color, or some other ingredient we needed to put into the recipe to make a good product or to keep it safe (a preservative in a water-based product, for example).
All of our ingredient bases are what we consider natural. It’s the extras that aren’t always derived from nature. Even though we love ingredients that are nature derived, we find that there is a place for safe, ethically sourced, high-quality ingredients that are not 100% nature derived.
We love bold colors, and it is very difficult to achieve the bright shades and different colors available with clays and plant pigments.
Nature also doesn’t make some of the complex fragrances that we love – like the amazing aroma of our Berries & Cream soap or our Black Tie soap which became best sellers within a month of launching them.
Berries & Cream is made with an artificial fragrance and mica pigments. Mica itself is natural, but the natural mining of mica comes with some complicated human rights issues. The dyes and pigments used to color mica are not usually found in nature. We use lab created mica pigments, which we consider 'not natural'. Berries & Cream fits into our Rave Collection.
Black Tie is made with activated charcoal (a nature derived colorant) and a synthetic fragrance. Every other ingredient is nature derived, but the fragrance isn’t. It belongs in our Rave Collection.
So, which Collection is better?
It really depends on what kind of product you are looking for. We find that most customers purchase a mix. They may find us because we offer the Homestead products they are looking for but get drawn into the bright colors of their favorite Rave product. Or they find us when a Rave product piques their interest on a scroll by, and they add a Homestead product because they like that fragrance.
At the end of the day, a significant proportion of the ingredients in both collections are nature derived, and in most cases, less than 5 – 8% of the recipe for a Rave Collection product is something not derived from nature.
We could call them all natural, and some handcrafted makers do, but we feel like this is a bit misleading.
If you’re looking for something with 100% of the ingredients derived from nature – shop the Homestead Collection.
If gorgeous colors that draw the eye and unique fragrances are more important to you – shop the Rave Collection.
And remember, everything we make can also be made without the fragrance and/or without the color. If you don’t find exactly what you’re looking for, let us make something just for you!