The Raw Revolution

Embracing the natural in skin care products

Melanee Tessler

With cooling temperatures come a need for skin care products to fight the effects of winter on skin, but not everything available on store shelves is ideal.

Jasmine Lozenski and Milena Lye – founders of Make Time Products and Just The Goods (JTG), respectively – began their independent companies with the same politics in mind: creating a harmless, all natural and affordable skin care line.

“Ditch the petrochemicals,” Lye says. “That stuff isn’t adding value to your body. If anything, it’s pulling it right out.”

Make Time was created in 2013 after Lozenski discovered a trend of ambiguity in the ingredients of her favourite beauty products. Her line takes inspiration from using all things in your own kitchen and pantry.

“I know a lot about nutrition because my cousins are nutritionists, so I would talk to them all the time,” Lozenski says. “I was like ‘OK, if you can eat this then you can put this on your skin.’ I started mixing coconut oil, vitamin E and peppermint for my face, and it would fill my pores and do all these cool things. My friends were always asking me to make them moisturizers.”

We’re all concerned about our health and well being, which means that it is important that we’re also proactive in choosing products that are good for us.

“It’s like iceberg lettuce vs. spinach. Spinach is actually giving you nutrients like iron whereas iceberg lettuce is a green but it’s just sitting in your body, it’s not giving you ultra benefits. I think that’s how a lot of my products differentiate from others,” Lozenski says.

Similarly, JTG launched in 2009 after Lye became frustrated that multi-national, non-eco-friendly corporations funded her favourite brands. Her commitment towards environmental and animal ethics is what sparked her desire to create a line using 100 per cent plant- and mineral-based ingredients.

“We already are exposed to a lot of different toxins in the environment and at the end of the day you get a sense of what your body is being put through. Why make it harder?” Lye says.

With JTG now shipping to 36 countries worldwide, Lye also stresses the importance of keeping a transparent labeling system in her line.

“I do include the nomenclature system in my labels so that I’m fully transparent about what’s in there and I always make sure the English translations are there so it’s fully accessible to everyone that way,” Lye says.

Lye is also working to make her products as minimalistic as possible.

“It’s a lot of work for one person but I really prefer to keep it that way, because my objective is to keep my product pricing as low as possible.”

Mother Nature has a cure for almost everything, and you can take comfort in knowing that these small-scale local companies use either organic ingredients or a mix of natural and organic ingredients.

Published in Volume 70, Number 5 of The Uniter (October 8, 2015)

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