SUMMER EDITION 2009 the tale of fragrant trees and dancing bees organic trends for global cosmetics industry opportunity to expand your product range
THIS ISSUE summer SUMMER EDITION 2009 Natural and organic products are the hottest topics of discussion in the cosmetics industry around the world. Seminar speakers at the major expos throughout Asia, Europe and USA are dissecting and analysing the growth of this niche from every possible angle. We are now seeing the development of sub-niche terms such as, inspired by nature, truly natural, made with organic and certified organic. Standards in most regions are being reviewed and updated to bring in stricter regulations for label claims and allowable ingredients. Ingredient suppliers are investing their resources into developing new natural ingredients with more advanced technologies and efficacies. Manufacturers are responding to client demands for more natural product lines. And consumers are becoming savvier by the day. Since 1997, SEOC has proudly supplied you with natural and organic ingredients. Our commitment to our industry continues and we hope you enjoy some of the new products we are releasing in this issue of Oily. Eliza McGivern, Editor
Summer cover: Sunflower Helianthus annuus. Australian-grown cold-pressed sunflower oil is moisturising, emollient, high in essential fatty acids, and high in vitamins A & E. It regenerates and adds sheen to the skin. It is an excellent choice for nail & cuticle treatments, and for products targeting eye/neck areas. Available in Certified Organic or Conventional. Visit www.seoc.com.au for more information. 04 Product Launch: Organic bases are here Four new Certified Organic bases. 06 Harvest: The tale of fragrant trees and dancing bees Certified Organic Beeswax. 14 SME Forum: Ultimate in clean and green How your business can use our new certified organic bases. 20 News: Latest products from SEOC Get a copy of Edition II of The List and User Guide. 22 Product Specification: Certified Organic Beeswax Specification for manufacturers. 23 Formulation: Organic Solid Perfume 99% organic, featuring Certified Organic Beeswax.
PRODUCT LAUNCH Organic bases are here After an intensive 2 year development process, we are proud to announce the arrival of Sydney Essential Oil Co. s four new Certified Organic Bases. Each product has been meticulously crafted and manufactured in our new purpose-built facility. Throughout our development process we worked closely with Australian Certified Organic (ACO) to ensure we met our goal of attaining the highest certification level possible. This meant that we took no shortcuts in our research and as a result this makes them unlike most other bases on the market. 1. ALOE VERA GEL BASE Certified Organic Enhanced with rose hydrosol. Light-weight and cooling on application. Absorbs quickly leaving skin silky and hydrated. Great for all skin types. Soothing on irritated skin or burns and excellent for after-sun care. (rose-vanilla-almond notes) 2. EXTRA-HYDRATING CREAM BASE Certified Organic Enriched with shea nut butter. Luscious, rich, thick cream. Soft and buttery on application. Penetrates well, providing longlasting hydration. Ideal for premium night creams, body butter or rich foot products. (vanilla-almond notes) dry and babies. 3. HYDRATING CREAM BASE Certified Organic Rich in nourishing oils, waxes and shea nut butter. Moisturising cream. Soft and smooth on application. Penetrates well, providing excellent lasting hydration. Ideal for premium face and body creams. (vanilla-almond notes) normal, sensitive, babies. 4. LOTION BASE Certified Organic The lightest of our 3 creams, yet still rich in wonderful skin-nutrient oils with a touch of shea nut butter. Nourishing lotion. Velvet soft on application. Penetrates well, providing great hydration. Ideal for face, body and hand & nail products. (vanilla-almond notes) skin types. 4
THINGS YOU MUST KNOW highest level of ACO organic certification truly natural no animal testing available in 5L airless packs * In original packaging. 5
HARVEST The tale of fragrant trees and dancing bees Certified Organic Australian Beeswax A dancing bee in eucalypt-rich bushland tells a story that only a beekeeper can interpret. Harmony and productivity or restlessness and hunger is indicated by their unique signals that to the untrained eye appear as random movements rather than complex conversations. Certified organic beeswax production requires an in-depth understanding of these remarkable insects and is undertaken with complete dedication to this growing industry. Sydney Essential Oil Co. s Certified Organic Beeswax supply partner harvests from 5,000 licensed hives located in 700 unique locations. Global positioning satellite (GPS) systems are used to keep track of hive sites that are situated throughout northern New South Wales in areas such as Dubbo, Nabiac, Tottenham and Hungerford on the QLD border. Whilst some of the hive sites are on private property, the majority are on NSW Government Crown land. Whilst using Crown land does present complex issues relating to specific licensing, it also enables full traceability of all plant species that are involved in production. As bees are naturally attracted to their closest food source, beekeepers control the locations of the hives therefore > 6
Bees on comb: Bees build wax into perfectly shaped hexagonal comb. The honey comb serves several purposes including housing new eggs as they develop into bees and also for storage of their precious honey. 7
HARVEST influencing the species from which the bees collect their pollen and nectar. In this case, Stringy bark, Yellow box, Red gum and Blue gum Eucalyptus trees guarantee a rich pollen and nectar supply throughout the season and the hive sites are rotated to work in with the staggered flowering patterns of the different varieties. This mobile harvesting continues for ten months of the year from spring until the weather turns colder in winter. Busy Bees Inside each hive, a single queen bee is the centre of attention for approximately 40 thousand bees that inhabit that hive. The queen is the sole reproducer, so her fertility and health is crucial to the success of the hive. Typically she mates with the drones whilst in flight. Then during spring and summer she can lay up to 1,500 eggs a day. In an average 3-4 year life span this equates to hundreds of thousands of new bees. Each egg is laid into a single cell of honeycomb and new larvae will hatch three to fours days later. The non-reproductive female Worker bees, then step in to feed the larvae for nine days until they pupate. They then cap the cells and the pupa is allowed to develop for 16, 21 or 24 days respectively to produce a new queen, worker or drone. Worker bees account for about 99% of the colony s population and during their short six week life span they earn their reputation of being busy. Along with feeding the larvae, their additional duties include: gathering nectar, pollen and water; making honey and wax; building and repairing the honeycomb; defending and cleaning the hive and regulating hive temperature to maintain incubation of new eggs. > 8
Clockwise from top: Hives strategically placed in areas with ample eucalyptus trees in bloom. Bees require water in their diet. Therefore in drier locations beekeepers will pump bore water into drums to ensure there is a fresh supply. Water is also used to regulate the temperature in the hive. The worker bees will fan small water droplets with their wings to cool everything down. Hives ready for harvesting. Bees heavily laden with pollen and nectar almost equivalent to their body weight, struggle to reach the top, so therefore enter at the base of the hive. Eucalyptus in bloom. Centre image: Hive full of honey and wax, ready for harvesting. 9
HARVEST To produce wax, the workers eat fresh honey and after approximately 24 hours their special glands convert the honey s natural sugar into beeswax. This wax is excreted in liquid form from glands on the bee s abdomen. As soon as this liquid makes contact with air it solidifies into flakes. The bee then chews, softens and moulds the wax into honeycomb. One single kilo of beeswax requires approximately 7kg of ingested honey. Interpreting the Dance To optimise honey and wax production, commercial harvesting s delicate operation ensures the correct balance between the number of hives and their strategic placement near plentiful supplies of flowering fragrant trees. Every two days, beekeepers inspect, monitor and interpret the dance-like communications of the bees and react accordingly. A circular motion dance indicates the bees are happy. The surrounding trees are producing enough nectar and pollen, thus all is well in the hive. A zigzag motion or waggle dance indicates food supply is too low for the number of hives in the area and as bees will not compete with each other for food, this leads to inactivity in the hive. The beekeeper will respond quickly by relocating the hives overnight to a fresh new site with ample flowering trees. The third dance to watch out for is swarming. If this occurs it indicates the population is too high and the hives too few. The beekeeper responds by adding more hives to prevent the bees from moving on in search of a new larger home. While each hive is busy building itself and growing in numbers, the harvest of honey and wax can continue almost indefinitely. > 10
Clockwise from top: Each hive contains a series of frames that bees use to build their honeycomb. Frames full of wax & honey are replaced with a clean empty one to keep the cycle going. Once washed, the wax is poured into moulds to set ready for quality assessment. When the cleaning cycle is complete, wax blocks go into storage until sold. Wax awaiting quality inspection. The darker blocks indicate the hive was probably subjected to a dust storms therefore fine dust particles still remain. These blocks are sent back for further cleaning until they meet quality standards. Raw wax prior to cleaning. Centre image: Liquid wax is washed in boiling water to remove any dust, debris or dirt. 11
HARVEST Full frames inside the hives are removed and replaced with clean empty ones on which the bees will then begin again to produce more beeswax filled honeycomb. Extracting the Honey & Wax Honeycomb laden frames are removed from the hives and transported to the factory where the comb is cut away using a thin metal wire. The waxy combs are transferred to large tanks where they are gently heated to first extract the honey. Once the honey has been removed the remaining wax is then thoroughly cleaned by dropping it into boiling water. After the water evaporates, the clean liquid wax is poured into moulds. When set, the wax is demoulded and assessed. This washing process may occur multiple times depending on the cleanliness of the wax and the grade of wax being produced. Sydney Essential Oil Co. s supply partner produces around 10-12 tonnes of wax annually. They are fully certified by Australian Certified Organic (ACO) and all their sites are inspected regularly to ensure the highest standards are maintained. After the Harvest We are proud to offer this wonderful Australian Certified Organic ingredient as part of our range and we invite you to try it today. Its rich colour and honey-aroma provides an extra dimension to your formulations. In cosmetics, beeswax is a highly valuable ingredient that offers protective and humecant properties that can soothe and soften the effects of dry skin. It is an excellent addition to your natural and organic balms, body butters and creams. 12
Sydney Essential Oil Co. s Certified Organic Beeswax. Versatile beeswax has applications in many industries. Natural Cosmetics utilise beeswax as a thickener, humectant and skin protective ingredient. It is also widely used for candles, surfboard wax, furniture polish, as an industrial lubricant, food manufacturing and even art. 13
SME FORUM Something special has been brewing in the SEOC laboratory for over two years. And we are now ready to invite you to embark on a journey of truly natural and truly organic base products that are suitable to use from your head to your toes. Experience the all-new textures, high-performance and green-ingredient profiles of the finest organic base products in Australia. Growing consumer concerns about chemicals in cosmetics and toiletries has encouraged the specialist sector of natural and organic cosmetics to emerge at a growing rate. It is reported that the global natural and organic Trends are seeing cosmetic manufacturers replace synthetic chemicals with traceable, ethically harvested, natural and certified organic ingredients. There is also more crossover into using food ingredients for cosmetics as many consumers believe if it s good enough to eat its also good for the skin. CERTIFICATION Currently, there is no universal standard that applies to natural product manufacture. So this means, quality within the sector can vary greatly. Even in the case of Organic cosmetics, the manufacturer may select which regional standard they will follow for their particular range. Each standard then offers the manufacturer a choice of certification symbols and logos that allow different levels of organic content in the product. These complexities can confuse consumers who are looking for truly organic products. So for this reason our key objective from the outset was to create base products containing the highest level of organic content possible. Our certifier of choice was Australian Certified Organic (ACO), as we share many synergies in our quality ethics. ACO is the largest and most recognised Australian organic certifier, and they hold a reputation for allowing only the highest quality organic products to carry their logo. It is certainly a logo that consumers can trust. > Ultimate in New Certified Organic Base Products 14
The perfect summertime companion. Certified Organic Aloe Vera Gel has arrived just in time for the Australian summer. Fridge-chilling your product will amplify the cooling effect on dry or sunburned skin, help keep the product in optimum condition and uphold shelf life. See our new User Guide Edition II for a full ingredient listing on this and all of our new Certified Organic Bases. clean & green 15
Akiko Nicholls, ACO Managing Director says, For Consumers, navigating the different certifications can be tricky & confusing. Many other certifiers don t offer such a vigilant and strict auditing and assessment of their members, thus quality is not equal amongst the various bodies. To carry the highly regarded BUD logo labelled Certified Organic or organic ingredients. (Please refer to the AOS Standard for further detail.) All of the bases in our new Certified Organic GUIDE TO CUSTOMISING ORGANIC BASES FOR YOUR BUSINESS Due to the high organic requirement, our formulation team was challenged to be creative to achieve a compliant product. We ultimately developed a complex and exclusive manufacturing methods to get the best result for the ingredient selection. The new creams offer high levels of nutrient rich oils and butters for lasting skin hydration, a natural preserving system to minimise skin sensitivities, luxurious textures to enhance end-user enjoyment, and a light aroma that will please the olfactory system. Actives may be added to the bases to customise for your own products. However, customising methods will require more care than with our other base products. Whilst the organic bases do tolerate an assortment of add-ins, you will find they respond and perform in their own unique way. Please note that if you wish to maintain organic certification once you have modified these bases this will be subject to specific criteria eg. the manufacturing facility must be certified, and the add-in ingedients must also be certified organic. CUSTOMISING SUGGESTIONS After extensive bench testing, we have prepared this guideline on the physical capabilities of the new base products and their tolerance to add-ins. Whilst all listed items are classed as natural, some will not comply to Certified Organic criteria, please Texture & Product Performance Creams to increase viscosity, thickness and moisturisation. adjust the slip and penetration rate of the product. colorants or light mask action. develop scrubs for face or body. Aloe Vera for targeted skin solutions and active benefits. Aloe Vera to lower viscosity and for mild aroma. sunscreen effect. Aroma 16
SME FORUM Trends are seeing cosmetic manufacturers replace synthetic chemicals with traceable, ethically harvested, natural and certified organic ingredients. aromatherapeutic benefits and to adjust odour of final product. almond aroma you can choose to leave the natural fragrance as is or modify it with essential oils. Our experimentation has discovered that oils such as Vanilla, Benzoin, Peru Balsam and Lemon Myrtle complement and enhance the aroma well. Soft citrus oils such as Mandarin or Orange are as not detectable. Peppermint, Ylang slight odour modifications. And oils such as Patchouli seem to balance and neutralise the aroma. Try out other oils with similar constituents until you find the aroma combinations that work for you. Of course essential oils can also be added for their therapeutic benefits, they do not necessarily need to feature in the final aroma. TIPS TO ENSURE SHELF-LIFE IS MAINTAINED Certified Organic Bases require special handling to maintain their optimum condition. Prior to customising or repacking the organic bases we recommend, that is temperature controlled avoiding extreme highs and lows or humidity packaging such as airless systems, to protect the product from contamination by the end-user Once customising is complete, we also recommend undertaking additional laboratory testing to determine the revised shelf life of your product and stability of your modified formulation. FURTHER SUPPORT As compliance and certification criteria is too complex to detail here, if you require further assistance in integrating SEOC s Certified Organic Base products into your business, please do not hesitate to contact our Sales or Marketing departments. DISCLAIMER Customising Suggestions are illustrative examples only. Whilst all care has been taken in presenting these examples, Sydney Essential Oil Co. accepts no responsibility concerning any products modified using such suggestions. The responsibility for stability, performance, marketing and label claims of any product prior to sale lies with the manufacturer thereof. FOR ORGANIC INDUSTRY INFORMATION VISIT; Australian Certified Organic magazine. Australian 17
SME FORUM Quick checklist to choose the base product for you INGREDIENTS Certified Organic Not tested on animals No Alcohol No Artificial Colours No Artificial Fragrance No Mineral Oil No Parabens Preservative - natural Preservative - synthetic Made in Australia Recyclable packaging TYPICAL SHELF LIFE 18 months 2 years 3 years PERFORMANCE Customisation suits minimal Customisation suits moderate to complex Customisation suits complex Odour light natural fragrance Odour low to no Skin hydration long lasting Skin hydration moderate Skin hydration light Skin penetration rapid Skin penetration moderate 18
Extra hydrating cream certified organic Body butter paraben-free Body butter premium Hydrating cream certified organic Cream paraben-free Cream premium Lotion certified organic Lotion paraben-free Lotion premium Aloe vera gel certified organic Aloe vera gel paraben-free 19
NEWS Updated price list Find all our products and current pricing here. New releases are clearly identified and the corresponding User Guide is a great supplementary tool. THE LIST EDITION II NOW OUT Effective Monday 2 November 2009, supersedes 25 March 2009 edition. THE LIST (our wholesale product and price list) contains a comprehensive selection of essential oils, carrier oils and raw materials. Certified Organic and all except a small handful of items are genuine natural or naturally-derived ingredients. Our pricing and pack sizes are geared for wholesale purchasing and business application. Our commitment to maintaining complete traceability ensures our product authenticity is guaranteed and that our quality is unparalleled. THE LIST Edition II is available in hard-copy, or soft-copy PDF downloadable from our website. USER GUIDE EDITION II NOW OUT Effective Monday 2 November 2009, supersedes 25 March 2009 edition. The USER GUIDE is a quick reference guide our carrier oils and raw materials; a formulation guide to assist you in choosing ingredients for a variety of cosmetic applications according to skin type; and ingredient lists for each of our base products. USER GUIDE Edition II is only available in soft-copy PDF downloadable from our website. New Certified Organic Bases New Natural Anti-oxidant 20
AUSTRALIAN GROWN. CERTIFIED ORGANIC CALENDULA Calendula officinalus Grown on the mid-north coast of NSW, Australia. Calendula is known for its skin protective properties. It helps to soothe the irritation of dry skin, relieves itching and refreshes. Sydney Essential Oil Co. offers Calendula as an Extract, Infused oil and as dried flowers. For an index of all our Australian grown products see pages 32 and 33 of The List Edition II out now. 21
PRODUCT SPECIFICATION Product Beeswax Certified Organic Cera alba Certified Organic Australia Solid wax Characteristic Yellow to brown wax Characteristics Melting range C 61 66 17 22 87 102 70 80 max. 65 max. 5 max. 0.5 Absent None detected None detected None detected Other Information as required For more information, contact Sydney Essential Oil Co. +61 2 9565 2828. 22
FORMULATION Organic Solid Perfume Performance: long lasting perfume designed for every day use. Appearance: smooth, golden yellow coloured wax. Aroma: sweet honey floral aroma, with warmer woody notes. Stability: expected shelf life 12 months subject to manufacturing practice. Recommended uses: daily use on wrists, behind ears, neck and inner elbow. Phase Raw Material % w/w A Beeswax certified organic 30.7 B Jojoba oil certified organic 23 Castor oil certified organic 7.6 Almond sweet oil certified organic 7.6 C Shea Nut butter certified organic 23 D Orange Sweet essential oil certified organic 2.5 Cedarwood Atlas essential oil certified organic 2 certified organic 1.9 Jasmine oil certified organic 0.7 E Vitamin E natural 1 100% w/w Method of Manufacture 1. Gently heat Phase A to 70 C maximum, until wax is liquid. 2. Gently heat Phase B to 70 C maximum. 3. Add Phase B to Phase A and mix well. 4. Gently heat Phase C until melted and add to mixture 5. Continue to stir until cooled to 55 C. Add Phase D, mix well 6. Add Phase E while stirring constantly. 7. Pour into small perfume jars whilst still liquid and cool slowly to room temperature. For ingredients, contact Sydney Essential Oil Co. +61 2 9565 2828. Disclaimer Product formulations are included as illustrative examples only. Whilst all care has been taken in presenting example formulations, Sydney Essential Oil Co. accepts no responsibility concerning any product manufactured using such formulations. The responsibility for the performance for marketing claim and adequate testing for stability of any product prior to sale lies with the manufacturer thereof. 23
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