Jessie's Cosmic Garden
Cosmic Skin Food
… naturally formulated, fresh and affordable care
and feeding of your one-and-only birthday suit!
The Cosmic Garden Skin Care Story
[skip ahead to make your purchase]
Like many of you, I one day found myself caught between a rock and a hard place on a number of levels when confronted with the astronomical cost of the skin care products I have always loved. The rock was financial and the hard place was moral. Extricating myself from the situation required a combination of elevating consciousness and moving energy to arrive at a solution to this increasingly common dilemma, and not just for good skin care. Do I take care of my skin or pay the mortgage?
My skin was as hungry as I was, actually so dry it often cried out painfully for moisture. A little dab of the high priced solution didn’t cover the problem and I was rapidly going the way of hardened western ranching women – sort of a Georgia O’Keefe-Robert Redford hybrid. The other side of the picture was the reduction of income caused by our ongoing recession (ring a bell?). As I began searching for solutions I realized a good many things. Firstly, good skin care ingredients are very costly and highly perishable. Retail skin products with necessary shelf life have a good many additives to make them stable and resistant to contamination over long periods of time. Soaps are filled with chemicals that harden, color, suds, lather, and scent.
Secondly, a more sustainable model would surely have me making my own creams, lotions and cleansers, which was not far-fetched due to years of work in the laboratory and a pile of degrees in biological/biochemical related areas of research. Finally, and most importantly, the moral ramifications of buying a product from Switzerland that prided itself for sourcing ingredients worldwide (and wonderful they are) hit home as the hard place. That, when I am trying to source all my food locally!
I began researching the possibilities, and though it would be hard to make anything totally local, I could cut shipping to a minimum by sourcing mostly USA small company ingredients — and our region whenever possible. If push came to shove we could slather ourselves with local almond or olive oil, but we’d be lacking a good many nutrients needed to make the skin the thriving, functioning organ of respiration (inhale and exhale) that it was meant to be. On top of that, we live in a gorgeous place with half-yearly rainfall, at best, and spend that half of the year indoors with drying heat sources.
As the research began to organize itself around my capabilities, I came up with a basic starter selection of skin care products as well as healthy soaps for the bath, shower, heads and hands – and likely more to come. The beauty of this line and its limitation is that they are made to your order, fresh, alive, and perishable. I have added natural preservatives but they have a limit. I create them for you in sterility and pass the responsibility for preservation to you when you receive them. Those in a jar come with a spatula, which should always be the means of dispensing, and those in bottles come with pump dispensers, which should not touch your hand and be wiped frequently with a tissue to avoid contamination.
Look at the list of ingredients ... carefully. If you are allergic to anything in the product it can be reformulated for you to eliminate the allergen. I will keep your specific needs on file for future orders. Furthermore, if you want to take the risk, the Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) or vitamin E Oil (natural preservatives) can be left out of your order. They do help extend shelf life, but are no guarantee in the case of unhygienic usage. If you would rather not have the minute amount of sodium borate (cosmetic grade borax, natural and highly purified) in the emulsified products, it can also be left out because your product is being made just for you. In the former case, I suggest refrigeration and in the latter, you will likely need to whip the product up when oils separate out (a minor thing in any case). The same is true for requesting unscented products. When I say, “Think Food, Not Cosmetic”, it is a reminder to treat these products like food, doing all you can to avoid contamination, keeping them covered and refrigerated if not used regularly.
The last of this story, thus far, involves the costs. To make what my skin wanted to eat, I was looking at a staggering investment, as you would if you wanted to do this yourself. I began thinking that the way we can serve each other best is to make the things we love to make and market them without distributors and retail sellers to make them affordable. This saves everyone having to make the staggering investment and subsequent heroic efforts to keep the base ingredients from spoiling before you use them up. Oils do go rancid and some of them in short order. That perfectly stable looking 5-year old bottle of lotion in your cupboard ought to provide pause for thought.
Making the products locally, or sending them to you quickly, allows us to leave out stabilizing chemicals. For example, the retail price of the moisturizer I am offering would be upwards of $45. Look no further than the shelves of your nearest natural grocery to find a few high quality products that might compare — except for their long shelf life. With the products I am offering we have the highest quality live food for our skin at half the price. What if this start up takes off and grows beyond my capabilities? I imagine a worker-owned cooperative. Let’s make it happen.
My own skin is in recovery from 15 years in a dry climate and years of global air traveling without adequate nourishment. Currently, I wash with the almond cleanser twice daily, apply the Gypsy Elixer toner after patting skin dry, and follow with the mature skin moisturizer when the elixir has evaporated. Soon, I will change the night regime of cleansing by turning to the Savon Saveur bar soap, follow up with the Gypsy Elixer, and leave it at that. The Savon Saveur bar (see soap page) has all the healing oils of the moisturizer built in and will provide enough nourishment for a normal evening regime and not be lost on the pillowcase.
Mount Shasta locals, who are Local Grub Club members, can order products by leaving a filled-out order form in an envelope with your payment (if a check, made to Heart of the Sun) in our Cosmic Garden drop box on our temporary club shelf above the seeds (also my order drop-off location), or the payment can be mailed to or dropped off at my house, or you can come here at the online store and order via Paypal using the ‘local pickup’ buttons. Prepayment is required for all custom-made products. You’ll be picking your order up at the club (members only) or at my house (others)or they will be mailed to you on a Tuesday or a Friday, depending on your ‘order in’ day. I’ll let you know by email. Fill in all contact information on the order submission slip so you can be contacted. Paypal customers need to pay attention to contact information and instructions to the merchant. Inquiries by email are welcome (contact us).
Cheers!
Jessie
My most complex formulas are soufflé-weight creams for normal, healthy skin and mature, dry or stressed skin. Here we have super-food for the most expressive area of our largest organ, the skin. Let’s get in the habit of “thinking food, not cosmetic”. The word cosmetic sounds industrial and mysterious. The needs of our skin are no mystery. They are the same nutritional needs of our body but the mode of uptake and digestion differ. These needs are reflected in the complex list of ingredients and the basic chemistry of emulsifying water and oil. Applying straight oils to the skin offers limited nutrition, no hydration and often acts as an undesirable block to respiration. We need sufficient amounts of both hydration and nutrition in a lightweight formula to properly care for our skin — and that applies to lotions and body butter as well as moisturizers.
Basic Ingredients: Distilled water, Aloe Vera, Coconut Oil, Beeswax, Olive Oil, Apricot Kernel Oil, Avocado Oil, Almond Oil, Jojoba Oil, Rosewater, Castor Oil, Glycerin, Kukui Oil, Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter, Cosmetic-Grade Sodium Borate (stabilizes emulsion), GSE, Vitamin E, Organic Lychee Fragrance Oil, Rosehip Oil, Borage Oil, and Carrot Seed Oil.
Ingredients in Mature Skin Formula: Basic ingredients with increased Kukui Oil and added Argan Oil.
A different scent or essential oil can be requested or scent can be eliminated, as can Sodium Borate and GSE (with risk to stabilization and preservation). Use Paypal's Instructions to Merchant to specify these preferences if you have them.
Note: In all formulas, beeswax (a solid oil) and honey are products of Jessie’s Cosmic Garden or are procured from local natural beekeepers.
2 oz. sterile glass jar with spatula
Mature, Dry and Stressed Skin Formula: $26 [2 oz. refill $25 for locals. Requires return of clean jar]
Normal Skin Formula: $25 [2 oz refill $24. Requires return of clean jar]
Mail Order Customers: Read this pop up page first about shipping.
Nourishing Body Lotion
With this formulation I’ve created all over body food in a convenient pump bottle. A refined combination of saturated and unsaturated oils is combined in lotion form with soothing hydrators. Some of the oils are rare, some of them have preservative qualities and all of them provide good nutrition for the skin. Use any time during the day, or after your shower or bath, applying liberally to your skin. Serves as an excellent everyday hand lotion as well.
Ingredients: Distilled Water, Aloe Vera, Almond Oil, Apricot Kernel Oil, Coconut Oil, Olive Oil, Avocado Oil, Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter, Rosewater. Beeswax, Jojoba Oil, Kukui Oil, GSE, Vitamin E Oil, Cosmetic Grade Sodium Borate, organic Lychee Fragrance Oil.
A different scent or essential oil can be requested or scent can be eliminated, as can Sodium Borate and GSE (with risk to stabilization and preservation).
Note: In all formulas, beeswax (a solid oil) and honey are products of Jessie’s Cosmic Garden or are procured from local beekeepers.
An 8 oz. sterile glass bottle with pump
$21.50 [8 oz. refill $20.50. Requires return of clean bottle]
Mail Order Customers: Read this pop up page first about shipping.
Luscious Body Butter
A real treat for the skin, this luscious body butter should be applied after a hot shower or bath to skin that is patted dry but still moist. If you are left with an oily residue, you have used too much. That is the simple gauge of application balance. I suggest regular use on rough skin, elbows, knees, feet and hands, all over for spa days though skip the face and use your normal routine there. The high content of cocoa butter precludes the need for scent, with comforting hints of childhood hot chocolates after a good play in the snow.
Ingredients: Distilled water, coconut oil, Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter, Almond Oil, Beeswax, Apricot Kernel Oil, Jojoba Oil, Avocado Oil, Glycerin, GSE, Vitamin E oil, Cosmetic Grade Sodium Borate. No added scent as cocoa prevails.
Sodium Borate and GSE can be eliminated at your request (with risk to stabilization and preservation).
Note: In all formulas, beeswax (a solid and magical oil) and honey are products of Jessie’s Cosmic Garden or are procured from local beekeepers.
An 8 oz. sterile, squat Mason jar with lid and spatula.
$28 [8 oz. refill $26. Requires return of clean jar]
Mail Order Customers: Read this pop up page first about shipping.
Almond Facial Cleanser
This was where it all started for me — my quest to replicate my favorite gently exfoliating cleanser from Switzerland. Voila! It has happened and it’s even gentler. I am really happy with this simple cleanser because it actually adds live nutrition while it cleanses.
Ingredients: Organic Rolled Oats, Alvarado Local Almonds, Local Honey, Almond Oil, Jessie’s Cosmic Garden Liquid Castile Soap, GSE, Vitamin E, Almond and Honey Scent.
This product is more perishable than oil-based creams. It is pure fresh food. Therefore I package it in a 2 oz glass jar which can be refrigerated or frozen. Accompanying it is a 1 oz jar in which a small aliquot can be used at the sink with spatula only. It's worth it to your skin, but if that is too difficult for you, let me recommend the Savon Saveur bar soap, described below and on the soap store webpage, as an luxurious alternative.
Sold as a 2 oz glass jar with spatula with 1 oz dispensing jar [local refills of 2 oz jar are $14].
Mail Order Customers: Read this pop up page first about shipping.
Let me also clue you into my non-exfoliating facial cleanser or special occasion bath and shower soap in the Cosmic Garden soap store. It is called Savon Saveur and is so rich in all the nourishing oils for your face that using it to cleanse at night can replace moisturizer in most cases.
Gypsy Elixer Facial Toner
I have taken a 12th Century herbal formula [said to have been favored by the Queen of Hungary] and added extraction options for the sensitive amongst us, as well as herbal additions to the original formulation. All but the lemon and elder flowers are local — so local, in fact, that they are growing in my Cosmic Herb Garden. I could forage the elder flower but then we wouldn’t have the elderberries, so choose to order them in from Frontier Herbs. This could be a totally local product.
The herbs were traditionally extracted in Apple Cider Vinegar. Apple cider vinegar, with the mother, adds enormous healing qualities to the elixir – if you can tolerate the momentary inspiration of vinegar fumes during application. Alternatively, I offer the extraction option of Witch Hazel, which is famously soothing to sensitive skin, though more costly as an extraction fluid. Both extracts are diluted in rose water, which adds balance and further healing.
Apply to the face after cleansing with Almond Facial Cleanser.
Ingredients: Apple Cider Vinegar or Witch Hazel, Rose Water, Melissae, Chamomile Flowers, Rose Petals, Lavender, Calendula Flowers, Comfrey Leaf, Clary Sage Leaf, Rosemary, Sage, Peppermint, Elder Flowers, Helichrysum Flowers, Rose Absolute Essential Oil.
4 oz toner extracted in Cider Vinegar in glass bottle with pump: $18.60 [refill $17]
4 oz toner extracted in Witch Hazel in glass bottle with pump: $20 [refill $18.50]
Mail Order Customers: Read this pop up page first about shipping.
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