Cosmetics

This category contains products for external use. Here you'll find balm, massage oil, cream, tiger balm, skin oil, body lotion, pet balm, castor balm and coconut balm. These are cosmetic products you apply to the skin and do not ingest. They differ mainly in the base from which they are built up, in the ratio between fat and water and in the thickness of the end product. Below you'll read what to look out for when comparing labels and jars.

Balm, cream and lotion

The names resemble each other, but they are different compositions.

• A balm has a fatty base, for example plant oil with beeswax, and contains little or no water. This makes a balm thick and it stays on top of the skin.
• A cream is an emulsion. Oil and water are mixed into one whole with an emulsifier. A cream feels less greasy, but because of the water phase it does contain a preservative system.
• A lotion, such as body lotion, is a thinner emulsion with more water. It is fluid enough to pour from a bottle.
• Tiger balm is a balm, a solid fat base in which essential oils such as menthol, camphor and eucalyptus oil are incorporated. Balms contain no water and come in a closed jar or tin.

The base oils

Coconut oil is pressed from the white flesh of the coconut. That oil consists mainly of saturated fatty acids, including lauric acid, and is solid at room temperature and liquid around twenty-four degrees. Castor oil comes from the seeds of the castor plant, Ricinus communis. Castor oil is notably thick, colourless to light yellow, and consists largely of ricinoleic acid. Massage oil and skin oil usually contain thinner plant oils, such as sweet almond oil, sunflower oil or jojoba. Pet balm is a fat-based balm composed for external use on animals.

Packaging and shelf life

Plant oils react to light, oxygen and heat and can therefore change in smell and colour. Dark glass blocks part of the light and a closed jar or bottle with a cap limits contact with air. Store cosmetics cool and dry and take balm out of the jar with a clean spatula. On the packaging there is a PAO symbol, an open jar with for example 6M or 12M. That number indicates how many months the product remains usable after opening. Products with a shelf life shorter than thirty months instead carry a date with the wording best before.

A laboratory analysis is made of every batch. Every package carries a batch number. Give us that number and we'll send the corresponding report.