THE PRESERVATIVE CONUNDRUM
We can all agree that preservatives act to prolong shelf life and fight contaminants like bacteria and mold. But conventional chemical preservatives can be toxic, irritating to the skin and frankly, used excessively to cover up low-quality ingredients and bad manufacturing practices.
At California Baby, we wanted to look at the challenge from a totally different perspective. Since we’re all about green, we were determined to use a natural and gentle preservative.
HOW WE DID IT: RELENTLESS PURSUIT OF PURITY
We created what we call a “green system” – a controlled environment that simply doesn’t allow bacteria to grow. We start by purifying our water, blasting it with UV light twice to kill bacteria, then pasteurizing it, creating a super-clean base that’s unprecedented in the industry.
We also worked closely with our suppliers to develop a proprietary preservative blend that is tailored to each product. It is a combination of nature-identical organic acids that show great skin compatibility, for a drastic decrease in skin irritation.
This patented, greener, next-generation combination of ingredients also reduces the amount of energy required to produce emulsions and offers gentle, self-preserving properties as well. It’s a win-win, enhancing the product and conserving energy at the same time. The result is an overall reduction in the amount of preservatives needed that no one else can match.
Finally, we test the system’s effectiveness by bombarding it with millions of bacteria, much more than the product would encounter in a real life setting. It has to pass with flying colors to make it into the bottle.
EVEN MORE MOISTURIZING AND SOOTHING
As we continue to examine and enhance every product, we’ve uncovered a few more nooks and crannies to improve our formulas.
Now that our calendula is organically grown under our watchful eye and processed in-house, we end up with a super-concentrated extract that wasn’t possible before, giving you more of the soothing benefits of calendula in every bottle. We’ve also added sustainable Safflower Oil for its emollient and skin-conditioning properties to further soothe sensitive skin and evening primrose, a rich source of essential fatty acids for skin conditioning.
In the end, we now have a higher percentage of moisturizing ingredients in every bottle. And of course, it’s always pH balanced to suit even very sensitive and allergy-prone skin.
Note that any changes in the order on the ingredient listing is to due to increased concentration of the material; we use a smaller % but receive increased activity.
OUR BELOVED CALENDULA PRODUCTS HAVE GOTTEN EVEN BETTER
We’ve created our own organic calendula flower infusion using the highest quality certified organic flowers, slowly bathed in hot water to create a super-concentrated base which is then additionally enriched with our certified organic calendula extract. The result is a richer, more emollient cream from this trusted flower that’s been used to soothe the skin for centuries.
At California Baby®, we love calendula so much that we scrutinized every step of our process to make it even better and more functional. For years we relied on a trusted supplier of this beloved pot marigold flower, but we were frustrated that they could not provide a us with a NOP certified organic extract. As we are known to do, we took the matter into our own hands! I found an organic farmer willing to grow the flower just for us and we put in place a process to extract calendula in our certified organic facility. Next, by slowing the process down we found that we could achieve a much higher concentration of certified organic calendula flower extract! California Baby® Calendula products now have even more calendula in them due to extreme concentration, which results in higher actives at a lower use %. Trust that we continue to improve the quality of our products and we would NEVER try to cut corners. Our mission is to produce the highest quality natural and organic products possible, and we always adhere to our strict ingredient standards. Next steps – organic calendula flowers from our very own certified organic growing field!