Autumn’s Blog

25 Random Things… About Us!

25 Random Things... About Organix-South

The owner of our company actually dropped out of law school to make Neem Oil Pet Shampoo in her back bedroom.
We put real calendula petals in our TheraNeem Maximum Strength Sweet Orange & Ylang Ylang Soap ("calendula" is just a fancy name for marigold).
Our soap curing facility is just a glorified refrigerated truck trailer with state-of-the-art solar panels.
Within 3 months of moving into our new facility, we outgrew it.
Our Operations Manager calms herself down by sticking her nose in a 5-gallon drum of Bergamot Essential Oil and breathing deeply.
Our main office is actually run by 4 Shi-Tzus and 1 Jack Russell Terrier.
Our CFO is the only guy in the front office.
The owner of our company is only 33 years old.
We co-own an Eco-cert certified organic farm in India called Umbari Farms.
All employees are required to bite into an incredibly bitter Supercritical CO2 Neem Capsule at least once during their employment.
Most of the women in our employ take our Male Vitality Formula on a regular basis.
We have an organic community food garden at our facility.
The owner of our company has a small Neem Tree plantation (150 trees) at her house.
The formulator of the TheraVeda supplement line is a 4th generation Ayurvedic physician.
Our Key Accounts and Marketing Manager gives Joint Support to her aging Boxer, with noticable results.
We regularly break to do yoga at our National Sales Meetings.
Our favorite restaurant in town is an Irish Pub - and we almost always break down and order the fries with curry gravy... thereby honoring our Indian & Irish roots.
We decorate the Neem Tree outside our office every Christmas.
In the spring, we open our windows wide to inhale the luscious fragrance of orange blossoms from the orange grove across the street.
We are one of the largest employers in our small town, and are happily appropriating the good staff from the local Wal-Mart.
We save old broken-down pallets for a bonfire at the boss' house once every few months.
Our Herbal Outdoor Spray used to be called "Shoo!" but the EPA didn’t like our intentions.
We currently have a list of over 50 tried-and-true uses for our "NeemStick Lip Therape" including mohawk sculpting and tingly love balm.
We sustain our energy at trade shows by eating lots of kumquats.
Our sales team and brokers are the best in the industry!

Soap Sweeps Past Shaving Cream in Safety, Eco-Savings

For most men, shaving is just something they do, probably before their minds are awake enough to consider the potential impact that their everyday habits have on either their health or the health of our planet.

A closer look, however, makes it clear that some choices are better than others. As a chemist specializing in developing ecofriendly products made with Neem, I’ll avoid the controversy over wet shaving vs. electric razors, and focus on why soap is better than shaving cream.

First, take a look at the list of ingredients on your shaving cream. Water is almost always the top ingredient -- not a problem except for the environmental impact of shipping it across the country. Further down the list, you’ll probably see chemicals like triethanolamine, associated with cancer, allergies and immune system toxicity, and sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS), a foaming agent that is a known skin irritant. Aerosol propellants vary from product to product but you’ll probably see ingredients like butane, isobutane, and propane – all fossil fuels that contribute to global warming.

Finally, you’ll see the generic term “fragrance,” a chemical concoction with ingredients that are usually considered to be trade secrets but may contain phthalates or other strong chemicals that may cause allergic or immune system reactions.

Now, compare that to an all-natural shaving soap like our new TheraNeem Men’s Shaving and Complexion Bar, which has been formulated to provide the ultimate shaving experience. Made with 90% certified-organic ingredients, including 10% organic Neem oil, this bar soothes skin rather than irritates it. In fact, every man who has tried our shaving bar prefers it to shaving cream – even before counting in the environmental benefits.

For instance, shaving soaps aren’t made with chemicals that are likely to persist in the environment and wrappings are usually made with recycled ingredients and 100% recyclable. Rather than shipping water and chemical propellants in tin cans, shaving bars are highly concentrated so most last for months. Our hand-crafted soap is made using the old-fashioned “cold process” method that creates a superior bar but is energy-intensive. To counter the massive amount of energy required to cure organic soap, we built a solar drying and cooling systems and set up a solar hot water system to serve our entire factory.

The final result: a product that’s good for the skin and good for the planet! So next time you are buying your shaving products, consider the environment and try an organic shaving soap.

Contributed by Autumn Blum, CEO and chief formulator, Organix-South, Inc.

Why are there are some ‘chemicals’ in our products?

Before my customer service team decided that I shouldn't talk to customers anymore, I used to get asked frequently if there were any 'chemicals' in our products. My answer was always a resounding YES! Because, we are all made up of chemicals. Chemicals are every where. The air we breathe, the food we eat, the cosmetics we use... Now, the appropriate question is...are there any harmful chemicals in our products?

Whenever a big brand (like Bronners) decides to sue other big brands (like Kiss My Face), it tends to generate A LOT of publicity, which happened recently. Some of the issues I agree with, some I do not. I'd like to share with you an email I received from a customer, and my reply. Its a good thing the customer service staff hasn't banned me from email or blogging yet!

Q: I'd like very much to support your company as your philosophy seems to be so health and organic-minded and customer oriented. But I wish to bring to your attention that there are some toxic ingredients in a number of your products. Many contain PEG, which can give off the by-product of 1,4 dioxane. Refer to the link below to learn more about this ingredient, as well as others. I hope that you will work towards reformulating your products so they are truly safe for humans and the environment. Thank you for publishing the complete list of your product ingredients so that I can make an informed purchasing decision.

Sincerely, Potential Neem Customer

From: Autumn Blum
Subject: RE: Your product ingredients

Dear Potential Customer,

Thank you for your email! I’m always honored when a customer or potential customer takes the time to question what we are doing or is just doing their own research. The current ingredient issue is a dilemma we are all trying to work through. Two of our products (shampoo and conditioner) are currently being reformulated based on the 1,4-dioxane debate. This chemical is a known by-product of the ethoxylation process, but high quality manufacturers ‘scrub’ the ingredient, removing all detectable traces. Our manufactures (the ingredients are made in the USA, rather than the less expensive ones available from China) have stated that ours are free from the contaminant. But now that we and our customers are all more educated on this, we are going to err on the side of caution and remove the PEG ingredients. It is a bit unfortunate, as they are quite gentle and do give our products a very nice feel…

Regarding the preservatives, that is another issue. I have often said that if I was formulating a line of products for people with beautiful, healthy skin, it would be no problem to make a 100% all natural formula. The challenge is that our products are formulated for people with troubled skin or current skin issues. With this in mind, I have to be very mindful of our formulation strategy. We are in our tenth year in business, and at this point, only have a small handful of complaints of mild skin reactions. This is truly unique in our industry!

Acceptable limits for bacteria and mold are actually quite high according to the FDA. Our standards are much stricter, as I feel that someone dealing with psoriasis or another skin problem can receive immediate harm from the bacterial levels in some ‘acceptable’ cosmetics. You can reduce the bacteria in a cosmetic several ways: 1) You can add a significant amount of alcohol to the formulation. This is what Dr. Bronners does with their brand of lotion. To me, this is a bit counter-intuitive for a lotion as alcohol is quite drying. It would be a great hand sanitizer, but not my best choice for a moisturizer for someone with troubled skin. It is organic and all natural though. 2) Adjust the pH down to more acidic levels. I believe this is what Aubrey Organics does quite a bit of, although I haven’t checked theirs for several years. This is an effective strategy if your customer has great skin and wants to keep it. Most skin can handle pH levels down to about 4.5 without any irritation, and bacteria does not flourish as easily in acidic conditions. Someone with eczema, on the other hand, can get an awful reaction. 3) Use preservatives. There are many preservatives out there, both synthetic and natural, and my job is to pick the appropriate one to reduce bacteria, prevent future contamination growth and minimize reactions while ensuring my customer’s safety. Many natural preservatives are actually much harsher to the skin in the usage concentrations than some of the synthetics. When we first started, the research on parabens and cancer was not known. I optimized our formulas using friendly skin pH levels and natural anti-bacterial ingredients to minimize the amount of parabens necessary, and sourced natural parabens rather than synthetic. At that point, most of our formulas had less than 0.25% parabens in them. When the research was published, we replaced the parabens with other ingredients, some natural, some not, but I chose the ones with the lowest potential to cause reactions in our customers. As technology increases (and it is rapidly due to consumer demand – thanks so much), we are presented with more natural options to formulate with. I offer the promise to my customers to not become stagnant. I will always strive to offer the best possible products for their skin, keeping up with current research and ingredients.

I have not yet been able to stabilize the mud masque (the nature of the formula makes it very prone to growth) without the use of parabens, although it is a very small percentage. I discontinued the product, as I wanted to have a paraben-free line, but with near death threats from people who rely on this product to keep their skin clear, I put it back on the market…with full disclosure. As you pointed out, I do believe in informed choice and full disclosure. This is why I voluntarily uploaded all our ingredients to the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics Database (http://www.cosmeticdatabase.com) and list all of our ingredients on our website. You have the right to know what is in a product, even if it would make our lives easier to not tell you. I hope you understand what I mean by this. It is said with full respect for your and all my customer’s intelligence.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Best of health,

Autumn Blum
Formulator & CEO
Organix-South, Inc

http://www.organixsouth.com
phone: 727-213-9889
fax: 727-213-9890
toll-free: 888-989-6336

Save paper...think before you print!

This is our soapbox! And we don’t lie about lye…

Soap-Making 101: To make soap, you must start with a fat - animal or vegetable (of course, we prefer vegetable), add a caustic agent (not an agnostic agent, although I’ve heard they do make nice soap). When a caustic is added to a fat, it creates heat, glycerin and soap in a process known as “saponification.” Some soaps (like ours) leave all the moisturizing glycerin in, some precipitate the glycerin out and sell it on the industrial market. And that’s the simple version of how soap is made.

Traditionally, the caustic used to make soap came from wood ashes (potassium carbonate) until the late 1700s when sodium hydroxide became the favored caustic of the soap-maker. Sodium hydroxide is commonly referred as ‘lye.’ An alternate caustic is potassium hydroxide (potash lye) – but potassium hydroxide doesn’t create a “hard” soap initially and the process is longer and more complicated. Potassium hydroxide is what castile soap is made with.

All caustics by themselves can irritate and burn the skin, causing allergic reactions and other nasty results. But during the saponification process, the caustic reacts with the beautiful organic vegetable oils, and after curing, is no longer harmful to the skin. A lot of soap manufacturers get around listing the caustic – sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide - on their labels by either saying “saponified oils of olive, coconut…” or even “sodium olivate or sodium cocoate”. This doesn’t mean that they aren’t using a caustic, like lye, they are just glossing over the fact.

Consider this analogy, if you were a baker you would add yeast to water, flour and sugar to make bread. During the baking process, the yeast is converted into “fermentable sugars” and is not found in the finished product. However, every good loaf of bread has yeast on their ingredient list, not fermentable sugars. Why should an ingredient list on a bar of soap be any different?

Which brings us to the next question, why don’t soap manufacturers list “sodium hydroxide” or “potassium hydroxide” on their labels? Who villafied lye? Sadly, that answer is Grandma – who made her own soap & didn’t have the sophisticated measuring devices most hand-crafted soap makers use to ensure they are adding just the right amount of lye! And, oh boy, did Grandma’s soap burn!

Simply put, unless you have a synthetic detergent bar soap, it was made with lye. A soap maker can get fancy and ‘superfat’ their bar soap, meaning they put extra oils in to make sure all the caustic is used up, yielding a safer, more moisturizing bar soap. And yes, we are fancy and do superfat at Organix-South. We are proud of our hand-crafted, slow process, organic neem soaps and we also believe in full disclosure – you have a right to know what is in the products you use - so you won’t find us lying about using lye.

Best of Health,
Autumn Blum
Founder & CEO

Story of Organix-South, Inc.

In 1997, I met a man at a lab auction who asked if I could make him a natural shampoo with neem oil. “Sure,” I said. 'By the way, what's neem?' Although I didn't know it at the time, my life was about to change! I was fresh out of school, working as a cosmetic chemist for a natural products company, soaking it all up like a sponge. It was fun -I was learning to formulate and run large-scale production, working with a really sharp botanist who was helping me to discover the power of herbs. At the time, if you had asked me to make you a shampoo with jojoba or tea tree, I could have run into the lab and come out a few hours later with a pretty decent product. But not with neem! Neem has some very complex components, and it took the better of six months to come up with a great formula. By then, Mr. Lab Man was nowhere to be found... and I was in love with the little known neem tree.

Obviously, I no longer work for that other natural products company. Years have passed, and we now have 24 TheraNeem products and thousands of customers around the world devoted to them. TheraNeem is made with both certified organic neem leaf and most recently, certified organic neem oil. Sourcing is very important to me, and for this reason, we do not buy from brokers - instead we purchase all neem raw materials directly from the farm suppliers in India and Mexico... which leads to another life changing experience I had in 2004, when I traveled to India to inspect our neem supply. Turn to page 11, and I’ll share with you the story of TheraVeda! I hope you enjoy it, because I've sure enjoyed developing these products, working with a great group of people and being in this fantastic industry.

By the way, it is always wonderful getting a call or email from someone who has fought a skin condition, tried different natural or pharmaceutical products, and finally found relief with TheraNeem! Please keep the feedback rolling - we all appreciate it!

Best of Health,
Autumn Blum
Founder & CEO
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)