What's So Different About Terressentials?
Nowadays it seems like everybody’s selling you natural and organic body care. As you cruise the aisles of your big natural supermarket, or of your health food store, or the pages of your favorite “organic” or “natural” lifestyle magazine, or boutiques in the mall, what do you see? Scores of companies telling you, or implying, that their products are all-natural, organic, free from questionable or dangerous chemicals, good for you, good for the planet.
We hate to be the ones to break it to you, but most of them are trying to hoodwink you. Yes, even some of the ones that you may have grown to trust...the ones who seem to be so warm and fuzzy and earthy and caring. We’re going to let you in on all of the tricks of the trade. But first, we’ll tell you about Terressentials, since that’s what you came here for.
Terressentials’ co-founder, Diana, nearly died of cancer back in the 80’s—a type that’s been firmly linked to exposure to man-made chemicals. Her partner, Jim, the other co-founder, was with her every step of the way, in the chemotherapy ward, and at home. Diana’s okay now, but she really hates chemicals. Passionately.
That’s how Terressentials got its start. In the beginning, Diana and Jim discovered a startling fact: we absorb more toxins through our skin and via inhalation than through the food that we eat. They became determined to find safe personal care items and had a very hard time finding body care products that met their standards: no synthetic chemicals. They scrutinized every ingredient with a chemical dictionary in their hands. And they were shocked at what they found. In product after product, even the ones that claimed to be so wholesome, natural and even organic: synthetic chemicals. Detergents. Foam boosters. Thickeners. Emulsifiers. Preservatives. Chemical fragrance. Sunscreen chemicals. And on and on. But the manufacturers were very crafty. Unless you were an expert, you wouldn’t know that they were trying to put one over on you. Out of sheer desperation of the necessity for chemical-free body care products and avoiding a cancer recurrence, Diana and Jim immersed themselves in research, and developed their own line of products—ones that they could be proud of and feel good about using every day. Because they were truly natural—real and organic plant oils and extracts, clays, true castile soaps and pure distilled water.The bottom line is that you won’t find any ingredients in our own Terressentials handcrafted products that wouldn’t be allowed in the making of a certified organic food. We use certified organic cocoa butter and certified organic coconut oil, all certified organic essential oils. Why doesn’t everyone else? It all boils down to money. Yours. Other companies want to take as much of your money as possible, giving you as little of what you expect—true organic—as they can get away with. Take a look at our ingredients to see what we’re made of—and not made of.
Just so you know, there’s no law in the United States that defines the word "natural" or any law that says you can’t put chemicals in a body care product marketed as “organic.” There really should be. Even now, that the National Organic Program standards don’t apply to body care products. Most people aren’t aware of that. It's important to note that just as soon as the National Organic Program law creation process was started, lobbyists for personal care corporations, conventional personal care manufacturers and their ingredient suppliers and their retail partners gathered en masse. They didn’t want their personal care products to be held to the organic standard, to be truly organic—they just wanted to say they were organic. Together, the cosmetic industry successfully persuaded the USDA to go along with them and forgo the requirement of organic certification for personal care products and enforcement of organic rules in the personal care marketplace. Taking their position further, the personal care industry manufacturers and their coalition partners invented various "organic" and "natural" personal care standards of their own to suit the nature of their synthetic products and to collectively call their products "organic" (and "natural") in the domestic and international marketplace—without oversight. To this day, organic confusion reigns among consumers and across the personal care marketplace while profits from sales of "organic" not certified personal care products have soared, becoming an enormous, multi-billion dollar industry.
There was one company, though, that went to the offices of the USDA National Organic Program in Washington, to the media, to retailers and directly to consumers to demonstrate their total support for true organic integrity: Terressentials. So here we are today, nearly twenty years later, still fighting for organic integrity and working every day to educate folks about the environmental and personal health benefits of using real organic products. And, yes, after near 30 years, we still believe that, working together, we can make a difference! Please join our small company in protecting the health of our planet by using our artisan crafted, small batch organic products and sharing our articles and products with everyone everywhere!. Using real organic products every day means healthier water, soil and air for all!