Home / Past Newsletters / February 2015
February 2015
We've been busy unpacking fresh stock of many essential oils and carrier oils, including favourites such as NZ hazelnut and walnut oils. It's always a thrill opening crates and boxes (and gourds and tubs) from all over the world.
In this issue:
:
Totarol Liquid K7
It’s not often that an entirely new product comes along – but this is an exciting development in preserving cosmetic products. It’s a top-end liquid preservative made in New Zealand from waste totara timber – think gnarled and ancient fence posts or battered wharf piles that have been there since the first European settlers.
Totara timber is amazingly resilient, shrugging off the microorganisms that cause most timber to rot when it touches the ground. The compound that protects the timber has been isolated and is called totarol. (If you’re interested in the chemistry, see the Wikipedia article on totarol.)
Totarol K7 is added to creams when they have cooled below 40°C – similar to our Geogard 221 and Microcare DB. It’s used at 1% (eg 1ml in 100ml of cream.)
Totarol K7 is Biogro certified, so is ideal for those of you making organic products with high-quality local ingredients.
It has been comprehensively tested and has a broad-spectrum effect on bacteria, yeasts and moulds – all the nasties that can
contaminate skincare preparations.
It’s non-sensitising and non-irritating, and can help improve skin moisture content.
We’re delighted to offer you a high-quality NZ-made preservative for your creams and gels.
Rapeseed oil
Our rapeseed oil is another high-quality New Zealand-grown product. It is GMO free, and the oil is carefully cold pressed. In Europe, GMO-free rapeseed is a common crop, but American rapeseed is often genetically modified and heavily processed, which has undermined the reputation of this useful crop.
We have been using it in the soap we make for ourselves, and it is great. Rapeseed oil has the same SAP value as olive oil, so you can simply swap pomace olive oil in your recipes for rapeseed oil. You'd be replacing a highly refined overseas product with a high-quality natural NZ oil, and - an added bonus - your soap will cost less! It will also have a pale golden colour.
I'm going to try it in creams and moisturisers. Think broccoli on the skin... I'm sure my dry legs will be thrilled to have a helping of broccoli!
Organic lemongrass essential oil
We're delighted with this organic essential oil from the Philippines - it has a beautiful perfume, mellower than other lemongrasses. The oil is produced by a Philippine social enterprise that started farming lemongrass organically in 2006, and now involves five upland communities.
Hydrosols: Manuka, Wild Carrot
Two recent New Zealand-made additions to our range of hydrosols:
- Manuka hydrosol joins kanuka hydrosol as a soothing and gently antibacterial liquid with many uses.
- Wild carrot hydrosol is spray free. It stimulates skin renewal and has antifungal properties.
Both of these hydrosols are special (along with our kawakawa, rose, and lemon verbena ones) in that no essential oils are collected when they are made, leaving the volatile oils in the hydrosol.
Hydrosols are created during the steam distillation process used to isolate essential oils from plant material. Some plant compounds dissolve in water, creating a hydrosol, while others are dissolved in the plant's oils and become part of the essential oil. Hydrosols can be used on sensitive skin, and have a gentle but powerful therapeutic action.
All our hydrosols are 100% pure, and can be used undiluted in creams as part of the water phase.
Bath bomb moulds
We needed a new supplier of bath bomb moulds, and we are very pleased with the moulds just arrived. They are a little bigger and more solid than before - good to use.
Valentine's Day
It's not too late to create something special for your beloved! A handmade gift shows how much you value someone - enough to enjoy spending time making something unique.
Click here for melt & pour soap ideas, or here for hints on blending your own massage oil...
Recipes: Clean Green Skincare's e-book
Worked your way through Go Native's recipes and feel like some fresh inspiration for your natural skincare creations?
Jamie Geurtjens has put together more than 30 of her favourite recipes in this attractive e-book. Simple ingredients and clear instructions make this appealing to both beginners and experienced skincare makers.
http://www.cleangreenskincare.co.nz/product-category/ebook/
Go Native Brassica Soap:
Enter the draw!
We are giving away four cakes of "brassica soap", made with NZ cold-pressed rapeseed oil.
Handmade soap is kind to skin - even troubled skin benefits from gentle cleansing with real soap. It contains all the glycerin that is formed during the saponification process (it's removed from commercially produced soap). And handmade soap is good for your skin in other ways, as many of the properties of the oils used remain in the soap (an extreme example: neem soap is effective for discouraging nasty little insects).
If you are vegetarian or vegan, you will want to avoid animal byproducts - and "supermarket soap" often contains animal fats (tallow).
If you'd like to know more about commercial soapmaking in New Zealand, check out this informative pdf:
http://nzic.org.nz/ChemProcesses/detergents/11A.pdf
Back to the draw!
Overseas, there is a trend towards using a single essential oil in a product, for fragrance and for its therapeutic effects.
We would love to know about your experiences.
To enter the draw, email two things:
- the name of a single essential oil that you have used in a product
- what kind of product it is - moisturiser, soap, balm, etc.
Add your name and postal address, and send to jacqui@gonative.co.nz
Entries close at midnight on Sunday 8 February and the winners will be drawn on Wednesday 11 February. If you are a winner, we will email you and send your cake of brassica soap.
And if Lady Luck doesn't smile upon you, our website has a wealth of resources to help you successfully make your own soap, from a picture guide to explanations and recipes.
The small print: By entering, you are agreeing that Go Native may make your response available on its website or Facebook page.
In this issue:
- New:
Totarol Liquid K7 - a totally new preservative
Rapeseed oil - NZ grown, GMO free, ideal for soapmaking
Organic lemongrass essential oil - exquisite aroma
Manuka and Wild Carrot hydrosols
Bath bomb moulds - What is Totarol Liquid K7?
- Valentine's Day - Saturday February 14
- New recipes: Clean Green Skincare's e-book
- What does it mean? "Refined"
- Chelsea's good fortune
- Photos: Totara - a New Zealand icon
:Totarol Liquid K7
It’s not often that an entirely new product comes along – but this is an exciting development in preserving cosmetic products. It’s a top-end liquid preservative made in New Zealand from waste totara timber – think gnarled and ancient fence posts or battered wharf piles that have been there since the first European settlers.
Totara timber is amazingly resilient, shrugging off the microorganisms that cause most timber to rot when it touches the ground. The compound that protects the timber has been isolated and is called totarol. (If you’re interested in the chemistry, see the Wikipedia article on totarol.)
Totarol K7 is added to creams when they have cooled below 40°C – similar to our Geogard 221 and Microcare DB. It’s used at 1% (eg 1ml in 100ml of cream.)
Totarol K7 is Biogro certified, so is ideal for those of you making organic products with high-quality local ingredients.
It has been comprehensively tested and has a broad-spectrum effect on bacteria, yeasts and moulds – all the nasties that can
contaminate skincare preparations.It’s non-sensitising and non-irritating, and can help improve skin moisture content.
We’re delighted to offer you a high-quality NZ-made preservative for your creams and gels.
Rapeseed oil
Our rapeseed oil is another high-quality New Zealand-grown product. It is GMO free, and the oil is carefully cold pressed. In Europe, GMO-free rapeseed is a common crop, but American rapeseed is often genetically modified and heavily processed, which has undermined the reputation of this useful crop.
We have been using it in the soap we make for ourselves, and it is great. Rapeseed oil has the same SAP value as olive oil, so you can simply swap pomace olive oil in your recipes for rapeseed oil. You'd be replacing a highly refined overseas product with a high-quality natural NZ oil, and - an added bonus - your soap will cost less! It will also have a pale golden colour.
I'm going to try it in creams and moisturisers. Think broccoli on the skin... I'm sure my dry legs will be thrilled to have a helping of broccoli!
Organic lemongrass essential oil
We're delighted with this organic essential oil from the Philippines - it has a beautiful perfume, mellower than other lemongrasses. The oil is produced by a Philippine social enterprise that started farming lemongrass organically in 2006, and now involves five upland communities.
Hydrosols: Manuka, Wild Carrot
Two recent New Zealand-made additions to our range of hydrosols:
- Manuka hydrosol joins kanuka hydrosol as a soothing and gently antibacterial liquid with many uses.
- Wild carrot hydrosol is spray free. It stimulates skin renewal and has antifungal properties.
Both of these hydrosols are special (along with our kawakawa, rose, and lemon verbena ones) in that no essential oils are collected when they are made, leaving the volatile oils in the hydrosol.
Hydrosols are created during the steam distillation process used to isolate essential oils from plant material. Some plant compounds dissolve in water, creating a hydrosol, while others are dissolved in the plant's oils and become part of the essential oil. Hydrosols can be used on sensitive skin, and have a gentle but powerful therapeutic action.
All our hydrosols are 100% pure, and can be used undiluted in creams as part of the water phase.
Bath bomb moulds
We needed a new supplier of bath bomb moulds, and we are very pleased with the moulds just arrived. They are a little bigger and more solid than before - good to use.
Valentine's Day
It's not too late to create something special for your beloved! A handmade gift shows how much you value someone - enough to enjoy spending time making something unique.
Click here for melt & pour soap ideas, or here for hints on blending your own massage oil...
Recipes: Clean Green Skincare's e-bookWorked your way through Go Native's recipes and feel like some fresh inspiration for your natural skincare creations?
Jamie Geurtjens has put together more than 30 of her favourite recipes in this attractive e-book. Simple ingredients and clear instructions make this appealing to both beginners and experienced skincare makers.
http://www.cleangreenskincare.co.nz/product-category/ebook/
Go Native Brassica Soap:
Enter the draw!
We are giving away four cakes of "brassica soap", made with NZ cold-pressed rapeseed oil.
Handmade soap is kind to skin - even troubled skin benefits from gentle cleansing with real soap. It contains all the glycerin that is formed during the saponification process (it's removed from commercially produced soap). And handmade soap is good for your skin in other ways, as many of the properties of the oils used remain in the soap (an extreme example: neem soap is effective for discouraging nasty little insects).
If you are vegetarian or vegan, you will want to avoid animal byproducts - and "supermarket soap" often contains animal fats (tallow).
If you'd like to know more about commercial soapmaking in New Zealand, check out this informative pdf:
http://nzic.org.nz/ChemProcesses/detergents/11A.pdf
Back to the draw!
Overseas, there is a trend towards using a single essential oil in a product, for fragrance and for its therapeutic effects.
We would love to know about your experiences.
To enter the draw, email two things:
- the name of a single essential oil that you have used in a product
- what kind of product it is - moisturiser, soap, balm, etc.
Add your name and postal address, and send to jacqui@gonative.co.nz
Entries close at midnight on Sunday 8 February and the winners will be drawn on Wednesday 11 February. If you are a winner, we will email you and send your cake of brassica soap.
And if Lady Luck doesn't smile upon you, our website has a wealth of resources to help you successfully make your own soap, from a picture guide to explanations and recipes.
The small print: By entering, you are agreeing that Go Native may make your response available on its website or Facebook page.
What does it mean?
Refined oil
Many of Go Native's vegetable oils are organically grown and lightly processed - nuts or seeds are cold pressed, and the oil that's released is filtered.
But oils made with this kind of care are expensive, and there's a huge world demand for low-priced oils produced in big factories for economies of scale. Some aspects of the process are quite benign, while others are more questionable - there are a multitude of techniques and processses in use around the world. The result is generally a cheap oil that's not going to cause immediate harm to health.
Here's a diagram based on info from the WellnessMama website and elsewhere - the aim is just to give you a feel for what's likely to happen after a refined oil is extracted.
Some "refined" oils are carefully treated, using processes that don't affect the integrity of the oil. Refined cold-pressed oils are generally of high quality.
Chelsea's good fortune
Chelsea has been part of Go Native from its inception, packing your orders with great efficiency as well as doing whatever needed to be done to keep things ticking over smoothly.
But she has jumped at the chance to fulfil some of her dreams this year, made possible when she made the most of the chance to win a brand-new car!
We'll miss her wit, her music and her entertaining podcasts while we work.
The exciting part starts 2 mins 50s in on this link:
http://www.3news.co.nz/Paul-Henrys-winning-9-in-10-Chelsea-at-the-Basement-Theatre/tabid/1837/articleID/347472/Default.aspx
Photo gallery - Totara, a New Zealand icon
An awe-inspiring tree.
Click here for more totara photos...
Kind regards
Elinor & Jacqui
Join us on Facebook
Refined oil
Many of Go Native's vegetable oils are organically grown and lightly processed - nuts or seeds are cold pressed, and the oil that's released is filtered.
But oils made with this kind of care are expensive, and there's a huge world demand for low-priced oils produced in big factories for economies of scale. Some aspects of the process are quite benign, while others are more questionable - there are a multitude of techniques and processses in use around the world. The result is generally a cheap oil that's not going to cause immediate harm to health.
Here's a diagram based on info from the WellnessMama website and elsewhere - the aim is just to give you a feel for what's likely to happen after a refined oil is extracted.
Some "refined" oils are carefully treated, using processes that don't affect the integrity of the oil. Refined cold-pressed oils are generally of high quality.
Chelsea's good fortune
Chelsea has been part of Go Native from its inception, packing your orders with great efficiency as well as doing whatever needed to be done to keep things ticking over smoothly.
But she has jumped at the chance to fulfil some of her dreams this year, made possible when she made the most of the chance to win a brand-new car!
We'll miss her wit, her music and her entertaining podcasts while we work.
The exciting part starts 2 mins 50s in on this link:
http://www.3news.co.nz/Paul-Henrys-winning-9-in-10-Chelsea-at-the-Basement-Theatre/tabid/1837/articleID/347472/Default.aspx
Photo gallery - Totara, a New Zealand icon
An awe-inspiring tree.
Click here for more totara photos...
Kind regards
Elinor & Jacqui
Join us on Facebook