Category: Product

All articles about the product, packaging, formulating,

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Mix It Up Before You Use It

Why Do I Need To Mix It Up Before I Use It?

Mix it up or shake it up, chances are you might need to give your Très Spa product a stir before using. Not all things, but some things like the body scrubs and the aromatic mists may separate when they are resting on the shelf. No need to panic. It’s perfectly normal.

Squeeze To Mix

Tres Spa Vanilla Coconut Body ScrubSometimes, like with the body scrubs and the organic face cleanser, you need to mix it up. That is because the products do not contain any artificial stabilizers or suspenders to “hold it all together”. They come together like a handshake. When they are resting the heavier items may fall to the bottom while the oil rises to the top.

Our purely natural products have a combination of plant oils and botanical ingredients. They don’t all weigh the same. So, when the oil gets warm, heavier items may fall to the bottom and lighter oils lift to the top. No biggie, you just stir it up a little. (it’s like using fresh handmade Almond milk or Cashew milk in your coffee or tea, without the guar gum, you gotta’ stir it up a little.)

Shake It Up

Très Spa Aromatic Mist – Sacred Smudge

If you have an Aromatic Mist from Très Spa, you’re going to want to shake it up before you spray it. Oil and water don’t mix. That is just a physical fact that will never change. Some things can be used to help the two get along and seem to mix better but that is as far as well can go naturally. Certainly there are synthetic chemicals that can help force the situation, but that is not us. We use only plant based ingredients and we tend to take a more gentle approach to nature. Trying to force things is just…. well… not natural.

So keep it natural, simple, elegant, and eco chic. Shake that bottle and give that bag a little squeeze when needed.

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Organic Powder Made For Exceptional Skincare

Organic Powders by Très Spa Unique & Exquisite

Of course we’re going to say that our Organic Dusting Powders are exceptional, but they really are exceptional in their category and here’s why.

Tres Spa Botanical Blend for Organic Dusting PowderLike any producer, the uniqueness is in the formulation and blend of the final product. At Très Spa we take great pride in carefully selecting each one of the ingredients. We don’t rush into a final product without taking the time to do the homework first. We carefully evaluate how each piece will shape the whole formula, how it will affect your skin care, and how it will impact the planet (we are an Eco-Friendly and Cruelty Free company).

You Need To Have Your Own Vision

Most people take a look at someone else who is doing “it”–whatever it is you want to achieve. We don’t for several reasons.

  1. Just because someone else is doing it doesn’t mean they have it right or have the best way.
  2. If we follow someone else then why the heck are we even bothering being in business?!
  3. We’ll just end up a carbon copy or a cheap imitation of someone else’s creation.
  4. At Très Spa we march to our own drummer. After all, you don’t pay us to be like everyone else, you pay us to be exceptional and unique and yes, different.

Change Your Perspective

When we approach a formulation, like our organic powders, we look at it from the desired result. Why and how would a person want to use a powder? Is organic powder important vs non-organic powder? Then we look at the long list of plants out there that we use to feed ourselves. You see, we think of skin care as a topical application of nourishment. You are feeding your skin just like you would feed your internal organs, your body. Naturally, you feed your external protective cover, your largest organ of all, your skin! Call it simple, but last time we checked the best nourishment was from food we grow not from a synthesized compound created in a lab or from things buried deep in the earth’s core. Don’t get me started on gold flecks in skin care! Seriously people!

Once we get a short list of possible options, we start to play and experiment with each one individually and then as a blended unit. You see, not every plant powder is the same. They all have unique strengths and behaviors just like all of us. When we blend them, we want to play to each one’s strength to create a formula that is exceptional as a whole. There is an abundance of possibilities! Even though we may finalize a formula for the moment, we may go back and modify it down the road. One should never be afraid to adjust along the journey.

Test and Retest and Then Test Some More

Tres Spa Product Testing LabWhen the final list of ingredients is finalized and the blend is perfected, it is time to apply environmental testing. This is where the rubber hits the road. You actually have to use it in real-life scenarios and gather feedback on various performance matrices and observable data. For some, we may set up lab tests like the Three Powder Experiment. For what we cannot do in the lab or with the assistance of our immediate circle of friends, we extend the invitation out to the Très Spa extended circle of friends, the Très Spa customers. They are, by far, the most exceptional group of people and they are the best testers ever. They are never afraid to give candid feedback and are generous with their personal thoughts. In fact, there are many occasions these experts have helped shape our products!

Exceptional People Make Exceptional Products

We can confidently state that Très Spa Organic Dusting Powders are magnificently exceptional, because Très Spa customers are truly magnificently exceptional and they helped shape them for you. Before we started selling the Organic Powder, we had lots of candid input from people just like you.

Often times, when we want to create a new item or design a new synergy blend, we like to get input from others. No one lives on an island of isolation so we reach out to our community. We usually send out a special request for volunteers in our subscriber community. They get free stuff and we get great feedback. We use blind surveys so it is unbiased and people can share candidly. It works great for everyone. They get their “hands in” on the design from ingredients to scent and even to the packaging!

We hope you enjoy using them as much as we enjoyed making them for you!

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Is Talc Powder Bad For Me

Tre Spa Is Talc Powder Bad for me

No hype, is Talc powder bad for me?

I know there are lots of articles out there and at times there seems to be a great deal of hype and blustering around talc powder, alarmist and extremist. I try to sift through it and present you with information so you can make your own decision.

Talc powder has been around and in use for a very long time and has been widely used for a very long time. It is found all around the globe in veins of deposits. It is a mineral that was formed when magmatic rock, rich in magnesium, experienced a hydrothermal reaction. When liquid rock meets super heated water and pressure? Transformation! Talc a very soft mineral. In fact, it is the softest measuring, only 1 on the mohs scale. You can flake it away with your fingernail; so, you can imagine, it doesn’t take much to mine and gather talc powder. However, there are some things to note here.

Purity

Mineral deposits are rarely pure. There is usually some cross-contamination from other deposits and minerals seeping over. For example, many of the talc veins run very close to asbestos, a known carcinogen. Now, not all veins do and there is pure talc, you just need to trust that the suppliers have properly processed and tested the purity. Call me a cynic, but I think this might be problematic.

Cancer link and Pulmonary Disease

In all fairness to talc, there is no conclusive evidence linking pure talc to cancer. Last time I checked the American Cancer Society page on talc, there were no conclusions on links to cancer when the talc did not have asbestos. OK, but you can make the leap: asbestos might be present if the talc was not tested properly.

Having said that, I will note one major US brand has been hit with several major lawsuits sighting a direct link to their powder (talc) and ovarian cancer. I have not read the cases all the way through but the company and their supplier were fined. This makes me think there must be something amiss. Like some testing was done wrong or ignored. They lost three major cases (and more are on the way) but recently won one so you be the judge. You can read the cases for yourself and let me know what you find. Seems to me that each time the winner declared the science was on their side!?

As far as lung disease, miners and millers are the most at risk because they can be exposed to trace amounts of carcinogens when they handle the material in its raw, unrefined state. Miners are also exposed to radon so it’s difficult to find a conclusive, direct link. Also, due to it’s ultra fine powder it is very easy to unintentionally inhale talc powder. Talc powder in the lungs can cause pulmonary disease. This is the key reason that most if not all doctors caution it’s use around infants.

Sustainability

Talc powder is a mineral that does have a finite supply. Any item that is mined or pumped from the earth is not sustainable, plain and simple. The geothermal reactions that created the deposits happened long before we showed up and they aren’t going to be repeated. Once it runs out, it is gone forever.

Naturally designed for living organisms

I don’t know how else to say it: Our bodies are not designed to process talc powder. It is not a mineral that has any advantages to the human organism. It is not digestible or biodegradable so if it gets in, there is no way to convert talc powder into anything usable for the body. So if it cannot be converted what’s it going to do. Perhaps your body, with it’s natural defenders, may be able to flush it out somehow, but what if some gets stuck. On a molecular level it would be like inviting an invader into your home that just stays and festers…forever. You hope it never causes trouble, but there is always a chance.

So why use it when you can use plant powders to do the same thing? This is my biggest hang up about talc powder; it offers no additional value, it is not sustainable, it acts as a foreign invader if it ever gets inside the body. We know that plant starches can do the job of helping to keep us dry and cool almost as well. Our bodies know what to do with plant starches and we will either use it to our advantage, convert it to something we need, or purge it out. So why risk using talc powder? To save a few bucks?

What would you rather use?

For those of us at Tres Spa, we would much rather use a pure botanical solution. One that the body naturally knows what to do with.

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Three Powder Experiment

The Three Powder Experiment

The Three Powder Experiment, Why Do It?

It’s not unusual for me to run tests and experiments. I do it all the time when developing new products or new blends. I just don’t always let people in behind the scenes. But when it came time to experiment with how I wanted to design the Très Spa body powders, it seemed like a fun project to share with everyone.

There are three types of powders used in making any body powder; Talc, Clay, or plant based starches. But which one is the best one to use? I decided to do a little three powder experiment to see what happens to each of the main ingredient types used in manufacturing powder under water and oil conditions. Here is what I found

Designing The Conditions

I wanted to see what happens with powders applied to the skin. Considering many people use powder on their pits and private parts, and those glands secrete both water and oil I decided to use those catalysts as my test condition. My goal was to demonstrate and observe  the behaviors of each of the three main powder ingredient classes (talc, clay, plant starch).

Now before you call me out on design of experiments and scientific research, I know what you are going to say. This is not a scientific journal and this is not a peer reviewed article. This is “kitchen counter” observation designed for fun and to make us think. Pretty easy to do and very easy for anyone to do at home.Believe me I had to harness my engineering training in order to not get complicated.

Set Up The Three Types

I divided my experiment into three types of powders that are used by most manufacturers of body powder.  1) Clay. A blend of micro fine minerals. I used Kaolin which is the most popular in cosmetics.  2) Talc. A mineral mined from the earth. I had some old talc powder in the back of my bathroom cupboard that must have been over 20 years old by now. You know the one, the big name brand that they encourage you to use even for a baby, that one. 3) Plant Starch. Leafy green plants grown every year. For this one I used a pure botanical blend that had no clay or talc, the Très Spa Organic Silky Skin Dusting Powder served for this category.

My experiment was a very simple design since there really is no need to get too fancy here! I observed and photographed each step. I confess that I was not too surprised by the results but I thought the visuals would help demonstrate each one. Turns out, it also makes a great narrative for you to understand how I make the millions of decisions that go into each one of the Très Spa products.

First up, The Water test

Step 1) Measure a quarter of a teaspoon of each and placed it in a clear glass dish.

Observation; Texture,  when dry: Each one felt silky to the touch but the talcum felt like it had more “slip” to it. It also seemed to send puffy clouds of dust at the slightest of movements. Clay and plant starches felt about the same, soft with glide.

 

Step 2) Add warm tap water. Not too hot, just warm to the touch.

Observation; Just add water? Out of the gate, it was clearly obvious why Talcum was such a hit with powder manufacturers. It is very hydrophobic. When I poured the water in, it went around the talc but not through it. When I poured the water into the Clay and the Starch dish, they seemed to dance with the water as if they would dissolve and blend. Since the clay is hydrous, it’s easy to see why it would play along for the most part. After all, water played a huge role in the mineral being formed in the first place!

Step 3) Stir each one with a spoon.

Observation: No matter what I did to it, that talc was having nothing to do with the water. It just laid on the surface and when I tried to stir it up, it clung to the spoon and clumped together but would not have anything to do at all with the water. The clay and the starch seemed to partner with the water as long as I stirred. Once I stopped stirring you could see it begin to separate.

Step 4) Let rest a couple of hours 

Observation: The talc did nothing. Nothing at all. After a couple of hours you could see the separation was more significant in the clay than in the plant starch. The plant starch water seemed to be a bit more cloudy. This could be due to a small fraction of the material being water soluble. It could also be that the clay molecules were heavier so settled faster. You would have to test that variable.

Step 4b) Let rest over night 

Observation: Again the talc did nothing. At the side view you could tell the water was a bit clearer with the clay than the starch. Now I am no scientist but I believe starch is a polysaccharide made of gloucose monomers with two types of molecules amylose and amylopectin. The structure is a hollow helix which makes it excellent for storage and for energy but it’s going to take more than water to break it down. Amylose, unlike amylopectin, is not cold water soluble.

Step 5) Apply heat 

Observation; Nothing noteworthy here. In fact they all seemed to remain the same, just a little hotter.  I had gotten used to the talc not budging and I figured the clay wouldn’t care about the heat, but I thought the starch might do something. But alas, I was wrong. Plain tap water wasn’t going to do a thing. Nothing.

 

Time for Phase 2 testing, The Oil Test

This was an interesting test for me and I’m not sure why I got the results I did get, but I found it very interesting. If you want to try this at home, I used Organic Jojoba oil since it matches the skins natural sebum. In case you were wondering what sebum is, it’s that waxy oily substance we mammals secrete to lubricate and waterproof our skin. Sebaceous glands piggy back with hair follicles.

Step 1) Measure out about a 1/4 of a teaspoon of each into a glass dish. 

Observation: I have no colored dishes at all so I had to use these leaves my Grandmother painted over 50 years ago. I think she would be thrilled to be a part of one of my experiments. Someday I’ll have to tell you about the time she let me experiment with hors d’oeuvre for a tea party she was having. I think I was 8 at the time.

 

Step 2) Add a splash of oil. 

Observation: Do my eyes deceive me or does it seem the oil and starch are already getting familiar?

 

Step 3) Stir

Observation: The starch seemed to melt in with the oil like long lost halves of a whole. The talc astounded me with similar action. But when it came to the clay, that was another story. I stirred and stirred and stirred and it did not want to blend. I think you can still see bits of clumps.

 

Step 4) Let it rest 

Observation: They all appeared the same after blending, well at least close enough. Nothing  of interest for me there but, given a little time, the strangest thing started happening. The starch dish had a clearly powdery deposit around the edge. When I touched it, it was soft and silky and felt dry to the touch.  As time went on, so did the talc. The clay was sticky and goopy. I confess that I kept returning to the dishes and playing with the powder.

Step 5) Overnight 

Observation: Eventually the entire dish for the talc and for the plant starch turned to look like a powder again. The viscous character of the oil was gone as if it had never existed. They had been transformed into powder cakes you could brush on and the texture was soft and silky. The clay was still sticky and goopy to touch. Not at all pleasant.

Perhaps you can tell me why this transformation happened?

As far as a conclusion, I’ll let you make your own. I made my choice a long time ago for Très Spa, Plant Based all the way! The only way to keep it pure, sustainable, and organic.

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What Is The Best Body Powder To Use

Vegetable vs. Mineral, What’s The Best Body Powder To Use?

What is the Best Body Powder To Use, Tres Spa Organic PowderThe whole purpose of any powder is to cover the skin with a light silky coating. The goal is to create a protective layer and to wick water away from the surface.  This is how powders work no matter what their chemical structure is.  But they don’t all work exactly the same and some of them have some pretty big caution flags for personal care use.

Traditional Talc

This is a Talc MineTraditionally, powders were made with mined  minerals or clays. The most common mined mineral is Talc and you can find the use far and wide from industrial to pharmaceutical to cosmetic. Talc is  hydrated magnesium silicate, a very fine substance and rates only a 1 on the MOHS scale of hardness for minerals. That means it is so soft you can actually flake it with your finger nail. It can be found in veins  all over the globe and was formed hydrothermal alteration of magnesium-rich magmatic rocks. The mines are plentiful and it’s fairly cheap raw material. It also has a shelf life of eternity. All those factors make it very appealing for manufacturing. Unfortunately, it is usually found near asbestos veins as well but not always so not all talc contains trace amounts of asbestos.  And recently there have been a few lawsuits citing Talc as a leading cause of cervical cancer. There are also some studies that link pulmonary disease with talc which has caused many pediatricians to recommend against using it for children.

I checked the American Cancer Society to see where they stood on the matter and they had stated that there was no conclusive evidence linking Talc to causing cancer as long as there was no asbestos present in the talc. remember we talked about the fact that it is common to find the veins run close together. Here is a link to their article for you: Talcum Powder and Cancer

Clay: The Other Mineral

Next are other minerals we will just lump into one major category called Clay. There are a several different groups of clay based on the chemical combination of the minerals. All clay is hydrous aluminium silicates, made up of ultra fine mineral particles and some minor impurities. They can become plastic like when wet.

Fun fact on clay. Did you know that water had to be present in order for it to form? That makes clay rare in the solar system.

Clay is used in many products from creating ceramics to paint filler to rubber, plastics and hi gloss paper manufacturing. But the ultra fine grade is used in cosmetics. Just about every dry powder formulation and even in some wet ones like scrubs and face masks can be made using clay in part or as a whole. Still used today by aboriginal tribes, it can also work as  a sunscreen. For skin care, the most common clay is the purified white kaolin, with and ultra fine texture that feels like silk to the touch when it is dry.

You can read more about my experiment and the observable differences here: I personally haven’t seen anything against it other than the fact that any mineral may have impurities and it can be “plastic like” when mixed with water and it felt goopy sticky when I mixed it with oil. Again, clay is pretty bountiful and fairly cheap to come by which makes it an common filler used by some to keep manufacturing costs down.

Pure Natural Botanical

Pounding Roots Into Pulp For PowderMore recent in the skin care world and less common are powders made entirely from plant starches. Personally I think it’s pretty fantastic how starch is made. Plant sources for starch powder can be anything from tuberous plants to seeded ones. The most common plants are corn, wheat, and rice as a seed version. Less common would be coconut, beans and peas. Arrowroot, potato, and tapioca  are all examples of starchy tuber plants. You can read more about how the starches we use in Très Spa formulations are created: From lush green plant to delicate soft white powder

Plant starches are used in many products including pharmaceutical and paper making but most common are food based products. There are so many  varieties of plant starches to choose from and each one has a slightly different texture and behavior. With such a variety there is a seemingly endless array of combinations when you add in other powdered food ingredients like honey, maple syrup, vanilla, and coconut. Hmm that has me thinking of a future product…..  Plant starches are renewable and sustainable, they are digestible (your inside and your outside can deal with it), and they can qualify as certified organic. But they are way more expensive to formulate with and there is a variance in the texture and behavior based on the plant so that is probably why most manufacturers shy away from using pure botanical.

Hybrids, A Little Of This And That 

There are some formulators that combine two groups into a hybrid mash-up. For example one may use talc with corn starch or maybe kaolin with rice powder. I do not know why other than to cut cost by using a cheap filler with a higher priced plant ingredient.

So What’s It Gonna’ Be?

Given all the information, which powder is the right powder for you comes down to a personal choice. And in some cases, what you are willing to risk. Personally, I would only use talc as a bug deterrent (sprinkled on the floor or window sills, works great to keep ants out of the house). Clay seems okay for masks and scrubs but based on my observations, I’m not sure how good it would be as a body powder. Seems like you would have to have a plant starch with it. Then there are the possible impurities and the fact it could never be classed as organic. Which aren’t to intimidating if it all stays on the surface but it doesn’t just stay on the surface.If there is one thing the recent multi million dollar lawsuits should demonstrate it is that what goes on the body goes in eventually.

Personally I have other things in life to worry about, the last thing I want to worry about is my body powder. That is why I kept it simple when I created the Très Spa Organic Dusting Powder  I use only plant based ingredients so if what goes on the outside ever gets to the inside, I have nothing to worry about.

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