Organic, Natural, Wild-Harvested – The Story Behind AP Skin Care (Part 2)

By Apricot Power
Skin Care

This is part 2 of our interview with Leah Palmer, Found of Her Purdy Cosmetic Laboratories. AP: Besides the 3-step skin care combo and our face scrub, we also created a sunblock product and two lip care products. Since the summer season will soon be upon us, let’s talk a little bit about our sunblock? Leah: Sure, but before I get into it  I want you to know sunblock isn’t just for summer. UV rays are always present even on cloudy days. (Editor’s Note: Please see the blue comments below for more insight on this.) Anyway, the AP sunblock is based on my strongest daycare provider formula. It’s safe, effective, and time-tested. It is for people that are out in the sun. It leaves a slight white coating on the skin, but it will eventually absorb. The key here is this is a “sunblock”, not a sunscreen. If you’re going to be out in the sun for over 2 hours, you may be overexposing yourself and your skin will burn unless you have a good tan and your skin is ready for longer exposure. When people first hit the beach during the summer season, it’s best to take the sun in gradual increasing amounts of time. Sunblocks are especially good for this because when they are applied, the skin is instantly protected against UV. You need to keep in mind that there are dangerous, adverse effects to overexposing your skin to UV – sun-related health problems. Our AP Anti-Aging B17 Sunblock formula has lots of good things in it to not only protect the skin but to nourish it as well. It has organic coconut oil in it, which has natural sun blocking qualities. Plus, it smells amazing and feels wonderful on the skin! Our sunblock also has a lot of zinc oxide in it, which is a natural, non-toxic sunblock. That’s why it initially leaves you a little white, but ultimately it will absorb into the skin. We formulated Aloe Vera Juice in it, which contains 75 potentially active vitamins, enzymes, minerals, sugars, lignin, saponins, salicylic acids, and amino acids. Of course, the healing properties of Aloe Vera are well known. And, since it shares some of the same ingredients found in our AP Anti-Aging Skin Cream, the skin will get moisturized and nourished. What should I choose, “sunblock” and a “sunscreen”? Many confuse these two types of products. While both can be effective, choosing the right product for you is something you need to think about. How long will you be exposed to the sun? Will you be going in and out of the water? What is your skin tone/type? Do you have a tan or are you just building one? As you begin gradually exposing yourself to the sun to build your tan, (small, increasing increments of exposure time) it is a good idea to apply a sunblock to stop potential overexposure until your skin gradually gets used to the UV exposure. This is especially important for those with fair or sensitive skin. There is a big difference between a sunblock and a sunscreen. Sunscreens come in various SPF strengths and protect against UVA rays that penetrate deep into the dermis and contribute to some types of sun damage. Some sunscreens are chemical sunscreens that may create skin burn (or a chemical burn) if left on the skin too long, especially on those individuals who have fair or sensitive skin. Sunblocks protect against UV (the sun’s rays) by completely blocking it. They do not come in SPF strengths because again, they block the sun’s rays instead of letting various amounts of sun through. There are two main types of UV – UVA, and UVB. UVA rays penetrate more deeply into the skin. Unprotected exposure can lead to premature skin aging and photoaging (wrinkling). UVA can also suppress the immune system. UVB can burn the superficial layers of skin leading to skin problems down the road. (Unprotected skin can burn in as little as 15 minutes.) UVB rays can also damage the skin’s cellular DNA, potentially causing genetic mutations. Full spectrum sunblocks such as our AP Anti-Aging Sunblock, protect against UVA and UVB rays. Sunblock isn’t just for the summer season! Snow reflects 80% of UV rays. Snow skiing, snowboarding, shoveling snow…just about any outdoor activity when the sun’s shining, no matter what the season, can expose the skin to UV rays. Even on a cloudy day, up to 80% of the sun’s UV rays can pass through the clouds and to your skin. We need sun because it helps our bodies produce Vitamin D. (Of course, you can also take Vitamin D supplements to help your body get Vitamin D.) Going outside to get a healthy dose of Vitamin D is necessary, just use some common sense and the right sort of sun protection product for the conditions and your needs.  AP: We also created a lip care line that includes an Anti-Aging B17 Lip Scrub and an Anti-Aging B17 Lip and Cheek Rescue product. When you first told me about the lip scrub, I thought you were joking, until I found out what it actually did. Soon after you told me about the idea of creating a lip scrub formula, I had an experience with a lip scrub that had an enzyme in it that numbed my lips. That sensation lasted for almost 40 minutes. Leah: Let me tell, people are overstimulated. They’re flooded with emotional messages and products. I can’t even check my email without some new product popping up. I’m constantly being bombarded by these items. Because we are all in a world that overstimulates us, we want the next “best thing”. We don’t want the same old product. Apricot Power is taking you backward. The entire AP line is taking you backward, in a good way. The organic, natural, and wild-harvested ingredients we use in our line are a back-to-nature approach to skin health. No chemicals needed. Our lip scrub is very simple and effective. Put it on, lightly scrub, and wipe it off (or you can lick it off). We scrub off all that dead skin that we got from dehydrating ourselves and drying our lips out leaving them soft and smooth. Really, all we want to do give our lips a light scrub allowing that new skin underneath to come out, so the lips feel nice and soft. We’re just refinishing the lips while leaving a nice light coating of beeswax on them and leaving behind essential oil to absorb into the skin. (Editor’s Note: When dead skin has been removed, not only are the lips smoother, but lipstick stays on longer.) AP: We also decided to create a Lip and Cheek Rescue. When you first mentioned that product I had to wrap my arms around something that could work on lips and cheeks, and for that matter many other areas of the skin, but your explanation made sense to me. Why do we call this “lip rescue”? Leah: I wanted to create something that wasn’t like a common lip balm. When your lips hurt, and you need some relief, some lip balms don’t always provide that. Some of them are flavored and that may sting and hurt when applied. Plus, they don’t always necessarily have healing benefits in them. They may just have a maintenance benefit and keep your skin soft, but won’t do anything to heal it up quickly. That’s not good when you have a cracked lip or something like that. We formulated Lip and Cheek Rescue with zinc oxide in. Zinc oxide is very healing for the skin and it makes a nice coat over things to make it stick and get in those cracks that are wounded. It will also help create a barrier between you and a food you eat that may sting and hurt, or get further exposure to the wind and sun. Lip and Cheek Rescue can be used on your cheeks and other areas of the skin. We didn’t put a sweetener in the formula. Instead, we put in a vegetable glycerin, which is a very good thing for your body. It’s also good for your skin because it is a humectant like the castor oil that’s in it, so it will attract water from your body and attract water from the air. It will also help to keep you nice and hydrated (retain and preserve moisture) plus it will help heal you at the same time. When you’re skiing you can put it on your nose, it can be placed on minor cuts or sores, chapped skin, and even on the inside of your nose when it is so dry that you get a bloody nose. It’s more than a lip and cheek rescue, it’s really an overall body salve! It’s very inert and doesn’t have anything in it that will cause stinging or an adverse reaction. The coconut oil, apricot oil, castor oil, beeswax, candelilla wax, Vitamin E, and zinc oxide are all very safe and neutral oils. You can use them on dry cuticles, inside your gardening gloves, and all sorts of places. And again, because I use food-grade ingredients in my formulas, the lip products we created are perfectly safe to use without compromising one’s reproduction system or introducing carcinogens into the body. AP: I want to circle back to the Anti-Aging B17 Face Scrub that we talked about for a bit. Leah: Right, let’s talk some more about what it does and it benefits. Removing the dead skin cells is really important because they trap in oil, which eventually causes your skin to breakout. People may think they are breaking out because of the product, but that’s probably not the case. What’s happening is they are drawing out built up oils that are surfacing on the face. Sometimes it takes a few days or even longer for this to happen. The skin scrub is necessary for those with oily skin, but even those with fair, less oily skin can just do it every month. AP: It’s more than just a face scrub, right? Leah: Yes. It’s also a cleanser that will deep clean the skin and loosen dead skin cells. There are ingredients in it that will also tighten up and brighten the skin and do so many other wonderful healthy things. AP: I have one last question. We call our products organic, natural, and wild-harvested. Why can’t we just call them organic since many of the ingredients we use are certified organic?  Leah: Without getting into organic farming, you can’t state that a product is “organic” unless it is grown. For a product to be called organic, every ingredient in it would have to be organic and some necessary ingredients simply aren’t organic. A product that is wild-harvested is, wild-harvested. Period. If it is a product that is farmed and didn’t use any chemicals on it that are against the organic seal of approval, then it can be considered organic. Zinc oxide and Candelilla wax are wild-harvested and can’t be considered “organic” because they are not grown. But beeswax can be certified organic because they can track where and how far the bees fly from their hive. The salt we use in our toner (Hawaiian Black Lava Salt) is natural because it’s never been altered from its original state, but it isn’t considered organic. AP: Well that clears that up. Thank you for taking the time to sit with us and discuss your background, our skin care products, and all things skincare. I hope we get a chance to do this again in the future, perhaps when we are ready to introduce some more skin care products. Leah: Thanks. I look forward to discussing skin care more in the future. I also look forward to exploring some new ways we can introduce B17 into other skin care products. Feel free to contact Apricot Power if you have comments about AP Anti-Aging Skin Care products or would like to see us introduce additional skin care products. We would love to hear from you.