Farm-to-skin

The bounty of Sacramento Valley region’s agricultural wellspring is rich and plentiful, nestled between the glacial beauty of the Sierra Nevada and the fertile wetlands of the Delta waterways. The area supplies 80 percent of the world’s almond harvests and also produces a massive rice crop. No surprise, then, that it’s been dubbed the nation’s farm-to-fork capital.

And while area farmers, chefs and foodies have been enjoying such abundance for decades, local entrepreneurs are also shopping the harvest to transform it into a new crop of beauty products derived from natural sources rather than questionable or potentially dangerous chemical compounds.

Think of it as a kinder, gentler, nontoxic quest for beauty, says Emily Rose, founder of the Backyard Soapsmith.

“When I started doing research and realizing what kind of ingredients were in commercial beauty products, I was a bit appalled,” Rose says. “So, I started to think to myself, as a consumer, I should have a choice of what goes in the products that I put on my body.”

Rose, who uses Etsy to market and sell her line of all-natural soaps, face scrubs, lip balms and body butters that she whips up in her Sacramento home kitchen, isn’t alone in questioning what she was putting onto her body. The entrepreneur is part of a wave of other regional DIYers opening up shop to satisfy a market that puts health first.

Pat Rogers of Folsom started her company, Babbling Brook Soap, after becoming certified in aromatherapy as a means to alleviate stress. It was then that she discovered that even the most innocuous-sounding ingredients could pose a health concern. And although laws have been passed in California to address concerns about, among other things, the presence of phthalates—a group of industrial chemicals linked to birth defects in men—business owners such as Rogers say making their own products ensures a personal understanding of the risks and benefits of every ingredient used.

Rogers’ products include handcrafted soaps, lotions, lip balms, body and massage oils, perfume oils, room sprays, body butters and bath salts made with locally harvested natural ingredients. She crafts her beauty supplies to exceed California standards put in place after laws were passed requiring better business transparency.

In 2005, the state passed the California Safe Cosmetics act, which mandates the disclosure and explanation of any known carcinogens or other potentially dangerous ingredients found in cosmetics. There’s even a database where consumers can investigate the ingredients in products living in their medicine cabinets and vanity tables.

“It is kind of scary. I learned about essential oils and a lot of synthetic compounds, too,” Rogers explains. “And [with] synthetic compounds, the molecules are so very much smaller than natural compounds that they will even get into your bloodstream, and you can find evidence of some of these things in your liver.”

The idea of using natural ingredients in beauty products isn’t a new concept: The ancient Greeks used the pigment extracted from crushed mulberries to adorn lips and cheeks. Egyptians used barley flour and butter to soothe and relieve irritated skin. The original mean girl, Cleopatra, implemented an elixir comprised of almond oils, apple cider vinegar, Dead Sea salts, honey and milk to abate the signs of age.

If natural products worked for the ancients, why does the modern beauty industry look to parabens, phthalates, preservatives and ammonia to take care of the largest organ in the human body—the skin?

That question may be unanswerable—at least, from an ethical standpoint—but it’s certainly a motivating factor for DIY entrepreneurs.

Shawn Baird was looking to put a natural stamp on her own experience in the beauty industry when she started cooking soap in her Sacramento kitchen and launched EnoughBody on Etsy in 2014. She’d had enough of not being able to understand what ingredients were going into the products she and her family were using, she says. Now, as her business has expanded into boutiques in Folsom and art galleries in Roseville, Baird’s product line includes shea lip balm, body wash gel, natural deodorant, perfume oil, body lotions and butters, liquid hand soap and exfoliating sugar scrubs.

“I have sensitive skin and one of my kids has really sensitive skin, so that’s kind of where it came from to begin with,” she says. “When she was really little, she just had horrible rashes and so I started doing natural stuff for her just because it seemed less irritating for her skin [and] it kind of just grew from there.”

Since Elizabeth Arden, who opened the first modern beauty salon in 1910, took cosmetics out of the kitchen and into the lab, beauty has evolved into a billion-dollar industry with few signs of slowing down. And as more information emerges to warn of possible dangers in products, beauty is starting in the kitchen once again.

“I’m a bit Type A, I’m a bit crafty and I’m a bit mad-science lover, so it’s kind of the best of all of the worlds because I can exercise complete and total control over what goes into my [products],” Rose explains. “I don’t have to put anything in it that I don’t like, so it makes it very easy for me create a custom blend.”

Honey and milk baths may sound exotic, but these procurers of the farm-to-face movement know that going natural is as easy as going to a farmers market.

“I [source] from a couple of different places—there are certain additives that I use in some of my products that I try and get here locally in Sacramento,” Rose explains. “I do have an avocado soap and I usually try to get my avocados from the farmers market, if they’re available. I have one that uses honey and beeswax that I buy [there] as well.”

As much as science has advanced over the years, the ancients may have been on to something when it comes to the beauty products we put on, and essentially, in our bodies.

“People should be able to choose what they’re putting on their bodies, and that is very important to me,” Rose says. “I’m not the only one in the city making this kind of stuff. There’s a little niche group of us who feel the same way about products and are doing the same thing. And you’ll notice a difference: It brings you closer to the earth.”