Interested in learning how to make your own Natural Homemade Beauty Products?
I discovered an Amazing place in Montreal called Coop Coco located on Saint Zotique, where you can find all the raw natural ingredients to DYI- Do Your Own, Natural Products. The majority of raw materials, such as oils, and wax are certified organic. Everything you need to make your products from scratch is right here at your fingertips! From Candles, to Shampoos, moisturizers, to your own Soaps. They even offer a wide arrange of classes if your new to making your own products or are curious to explore it more.
I came across this shop because I’ve been in the process of exploring some different recipes for some new natural products I am creating for the Back To Eden Holistic Herbs Collection. This week i was experimenting with different Natural Face Moisturizers, under eye cream and wrinkle cream. Its a definite process coming up with the right ratio and consistency to have a final product that feels and works beautiful on your skin. Natural creams will often be more greasy, because of all the natural oils, and not all skin types can handles excess oil, so the fun /challenge is experimenting and finding the perfect formula. Soon to come!
Here is some more info on the founder, mission and products of Coop Coco. I think this a beautiful concept that encourages not only creativity, but for us to use healthier more natural products, and be an active part in that creation.
Founder
Alysia Melnychuk founded Le Savon Populaire during the winter of 2002-2003 as The St-Henri Soap Kitchen. Her initiative was to make beautiful gifts for her family and friends for the holiday season. She had such positive feedback from the adventure, she then went into full production. Continued positive feedback, along with a few botched recipes, have prompted Alysia to research, develop, test, and basically get down and dirty learning the art and alchemy of soap making. Alysia is supported by her friends through sound marketing advice, research and development (they’ve been really, really clean in the past years!), and encouragement.
Natural, Vegetable-based Products
The majority of our soaps are vegan (the exception being the Goat’s Milk Scrub), and all of our products use only vegetable ingredients with the exception of a small amount of beeswax appearing in our lip and body butters. It is important to us to use ingredients that are renewable, don’t take a heavy toll on the environment (either in their creation or consumption), and offer the simplest, most down-to-earth option. In our search to produce accessible products, we carefully balance cost with quality, choosing organic, fairly traded ingredients, supporting local merchants, and using the highest quality, unrefined ingredients available to us.
Accessibility
We believe that in the current consumer world, quality products are often beyond the reach of people with little disposable income. People are often forced to sacrifice quality for affordability – from everything from food, housing, clothing and health care. While we can do little to help this situation apart from being active in our communities and advocating for change, we can strive to make our products accessible to those with lower incomes. For the average person, using handmade soap won’t revolutionise her life, but it may help reduce her suffering from common skin problems such as eczema, or reduce the need to buy unneccessary products to counteract the drying effects of commercial soaps. Handmade soaps are simply better for everyone and therefore we believe they should be accessible to everyone.
Respecting the Environment
We are dedicated to making excellent skin care products available at reasonable prices, while not sacrificing their quality or the environment. We make every effort to keep our packaging to a minimum, offering reusable or recyclable containers when possible. We only use natural products derived from vegetables and plants, creating a biodegradable product that is also environmentally friendly.
Quality & Animal Rights
All of our products go through rigorous testing and development. We never test on animals – only our willing neighbours and friends. Our products are made with care and detail and only go to market once we are completely satisfied with the results.
Sustainable Growth
Our interests are in remaining in business – not exponential growth. Likewise, we are not interested in any get rich schemes. Our goal is to create a loyal customer base that continues to come back because of the quality of our products, and for the care we put into our service.
Business Politics
Our methods of operation are simple. We: -offer quality products at a fair price; -respect the environment at every oppurtunity; -work respectfully with others in the same industry to foster a sense of cooperation rather than competition, which benefits the consumer as well as the producer; -support our local communities; and -try to live simply so others may simply live.
For more info on Coop Coco: www.coopcoco.ca
