Goats' Notes

Skin Care Routines for Dry/Mature and Oily skin types

Posted on October 1, 2020 by mygoatfarmgcsc

Over the summers we have seen many people wander into our small country soap shop and instantly become overwhelmed by the variety of natural skin care products available. This is definitely not a unique experience when buying skin care products at our store and creating a skin care routine can seem like a daunting task at that moment.

One of the most asked questions is what products are good for dry and mature skin, and what products are good for oily acne prone skin? We have lots of products that are good for both these skin types and a quick look at our website would provide you with a list of all the products we carry for both these needs. However, as many of you know, there is more that goes into creating a skin care routine than a simple list of applicable products. This month I’d like to lay out two daily skin care routines for you based on the two most common skin types.

Dry or Mature Skin

Cleanser: Unscented or Lavender Handmilled Facial Muffin Soap

A cleanser is a gentle face soap and the start to any daily skin care routine which removes excess oils, dirt, and makeup. Our handmilled face soaps are what we recommend as a daily cleanser. For this skin type, I would recommend Unscented or Lavender Handmilled Facial Muffin Soap. Both are made with moisturizing oils such as pomegranate oil, evening primrose oil, argan oil, and rosehip oil; and of course they have double to regular amounts of goat milk in them!

Directions: Wet soap and lather onto your hands or a face clothe, then gently cleanse skin with bubbles in a circular motion. Finally, rinse off with warm to cool water.

https://www.greatcanadiansoap.com/Unscented-Hand-Milled-Soap-p/hmm016.htm

https://www.greatcanadiansoap.com/Lavender-Hand-Milled-Soap-p/hmm006.htm

Astringent/Floral Water: Rose Water or Lavender Astringent

Spray or drop astringents/floral waters on a cotton pad (or a reusable pad) then wipe your face, starting at your forehead. This removes any leftover cleanser and tightens your pores.

Rose Floral Water is made from the steam distillation of roses and contains the benefits of the plants, but are weaker than essential oils. Rose water has a neutral pH that is good for all skin types, helps with wrinkles, and improves the natural glow of your skin.

https://www.greatcanadiansoap.com/Rose-Floral-Water-120-ml-4-1-fl-oz-p/flr003.ht

Lavender Astringent is made with distilled water, witch hazel, aloe gel, and lavender essential oil. It is gentle on your skin as well and won’t irritate already dry skin. Finally, lavender scented products are a wonderful addition to your skin care routine because it will leave you feeling relaxed and soothed.

https://www.greatcanadiansoap.com/Lavender-Astringent-240-ml-8-1-fl-oz-p/ast001.htm

Face Oil: Dry & Mature Face Oil or Pomegranate Oil

Face oil is a very important part of the skin care routine for dry or mature skin because it replenishes your normal sebum levels. This is helpful because with dry skin the levels of sebum can be underproduced causing even drier skin.

Dry & Mature Face Oil has a combination of moisturzing, yet quick to absorb, oils such as apricot kernel, rice bran, pomegranate, evening primrose, jojoba, and argan oil. It also has a combination of essential oils that are good for dry skin and leave you with a pleasant aroma.

https://www.greatcanadiansoap.com/Face-Oil-For-Dry-Mature-Skin-120-ml-4-1-fl-oz-p/fol001.htm

Pomegranate Oil provides similar benefits as our Dry & Mature Face Oil, however it is only a single ingredient product (pomegranate oil) and therefore is completely unscented. It is also known for reducing fine lines and wrinkles, and is gentle enough to be used around the eyes.

https://www.greatcanadiansoap.com/product-p/oil135.htm

Face Cream: Dry & Mature Face Cream or Triple Butter

The final step is to apply a face cream. The skin care routine should be done twice a day (morning and night), but the face cream is best to put on only before bed. This way, the thicker moisturizer can sink into your skin as you sleep, ensuring you get the full benefits of this product.

Dry & Mature Face Cream is a very light and almost airy skin care product that has a creamy texture to it (no oily feel here!). It also has essential oils that are good for both dry and mature skin, and are also beneficial for fine lines and wrinkles. Great for anyone who’s skin is a bit dry, but not very dry.

https://www.greatcanadiansoap.com/Dry-Mature-Face-Cream-120-ml-p/gmc646.htm

Triple Butters come in 5 different scent options and all of them are good for dry and mature skin. We do recommend Unscented or Bergamot if you have very sensitive dry skin. This is definitely a night time cream and does require some time to sink in but the moisturizing benefits of this cream are unmatched! (One of the best winter warriors on dry skin that we make)

https://www.greatcanadiansoap.com/category-s/773.htm

Oily or Acne Prone Skin

Cleanser: Super Soap Handmilled Facial Muffin Soap

Super Soap really does live up to its name as we have heard hundreds of wonderful stories of its skin saving capabilities for oily and acne prone skin. It has a myriad of ingredients that are all great for this skin type including essential oils such as tea tree, lavender, eucalyptus, bergamot, chamomile, and geranium. In addition to its essential oils, it’s made with carrier oils that balance your skin’s natural oil production so that when your excess oil is removed by cleansing, your skin doesn’t revert into overproducing oil once again.

Super Soap can be used by wetting the bar and lathering it in your hands or on a wash clothe, then washing your skin with the suds.

https://www.greatcanadiansoap.com/Super-Soap-Hand-Milled-Soap-Whole-Muffin-190-g-p/hmm011.htm

Astringent/Floral Water: Peppermint Floral Water or Tea Tree Astringent

Spray or drop astringents/floral waters on a cotton pad (or a reusable pad) then wipe your face, starting at your forehead. This removes any leftover cleanser and tightens your pores.

Peppermint Floral Water is made by distilling peppermint leaves. Peppermint is an antibacterial and contains salicylic acid which both work to reduce acne. It also contains Vitamin A which aids in the oil secretion of your skin. Combined, these make peppermint great for acne prone skin.

https://www.greatcanadiansoap.com/Peppermint-Floral-Water-120-ml-4-1-fl-oz-p/flr005.htm

Tea Tree Astringent is made with distilled water, witch hazel, aloe gel, and tea tree essential oil. Tea tree is a classic essential oil for acne as it is an antibacterial which aids in bacterial acne.

https://www.greatcanadiansoap.com/Tea-Tree-Astringent-240-ml-8-1-fl-oz-p/ast003.htm

Face Cream: Nourishing, Natural, Lavender, Orange, or Unscented

Our face creams are great for oily skin because they contain oils that mimic the oils your skin naturally produces. This means that they won’t clog your pores!

The face creams that would be good for oily or acne prone skin are Nourishing, Natural, Lavender, Orange, or Unscented.

To apply, take a small amount of cream on your clean fingers and rub in circular motion into your skin. Great for morning or night-time use.

https://www.greatcanadiansoap.com/category-s/996.htm

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The Bee-Line

Posted on July 23, 2020 by mygoatfarmgcsc

Hello friends,

I am sure I do not have to tell you that this summer is different, very different. And while everyone here at The Great Canadian Soap Company went into this Summer knowing it would be unlike any other there are still many parts that were unexpected.

During the past couple months, we have been focusing on keeping the wonderful connections with our extended soap family strong. However, it is undeniable that the warm conversations between us and our customers is lost in the online world we have all fallen back on. This leads me to dusting off the keyboard, firing up this blog, and returning to those lost relationships.

I think it’s only right to return to this blog by writing about the expansive benefits of using natural products. Lately I, and I am sure many of you, have become increasingly aware of my actions and how they affect our one shared Earth. It can be overwhelming to know what choices to make and because of this I wanted to write in about one of the amazing, but often overlooked, benefits of natural products – bees!

The decline of bee populations over the past years has become one of the many pressing environmental concerns that we are facing. Bee populations have been declining due to an increase in pesticides, Colony Collapse Disorder, pathogens, habitat destruction, and a decrease in the variety of flowers available to them due to monoculture farming. You might be wondering how this has anything to do with natural products.

The natural ingredients that we use in our products, for the most part, come from plants. We use a wide variety of plants in our products; and a large collection of our products actually use ingredients that come from plants that bees like! The ingredients that we use that are bee-friendly are Borage, Calendula, Lavender, Rosemary, Mint, Sage, and Thyme. By buying products that are made with these carrier oils and essential oils there is an increase in demand for these plants to be grown; making for some very happy bees!

We have created a category of products on our website that are all made with one or more of these ingredients, this category is called The Bee-Line. Our goal for The Bee-Line is to help you know what you’re buying and how it impacts the world. This goal is not a new one for our company and it is one that we will to continue to work towards into the future.

If you have a moment check out The Bee-Line on our website http://greatcanadiansoap.com. You might be surprised to find that one of your favorite products is also a favorite of our little buzzing friends, or maybe you will find a product you never thought to try!

Here is where I would like to move the conversation over to you. What are some topics that you think natural product makers, like ourselves, should be talking about? Please leave your thoughts below, I’d love to chat

Take care and be caring,

Katie

(The soap-maker’s daughter)

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Response to COVID-19

Posted on June 5, 2020 by mygoatfarmgcsc

As we were preparing to pour soap in the middle of March,and we decided to pour a few extra batches for the local food bank. Since washing hands often with soap is recommended to stop the spread of COVID-19 and the food banks in PEI were low on soap, that inspired a great idea. Let’s give our customers a means to support their food bank of choice, by offering boxes of soap for $50.00. Without knowing the response we ordered enough raw materials for 5,000 bars. April 11th, we sent out an email, with-in 48 hours all the 5,000 were spoken for. So we increased the amount to 8,000. We are now at 8,610.

Pouring, cutting, racking, labelling, bagging and boxing is an incredible amount of work. Some local homeschool families volunteered to label, bag and box 1,000’s of bars, to help with this overwhelming project we got ourselves into.

Now we are at the final stages of sorting where the soap is going and putting letters in the boxes letting the Food Banks know who donated the soap. Today the first boxes were delivered and shipped. The Upper Room Food Bank, Salvation Arm and Caring Cupboard received their soap today and Alberta’s food bank soap was shipped.

I am so grateful we have the most wonderful generous customers that want to help support their food banks. We are all in this together.

Stay save and wash your hands often,

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Hand Milled Face Soap

Posted on January 14, 2020 by mygoatfarmgcsc

We have been making Hand Milled Face Soap since the start of GCSC in 2003. At first is was a way to use the ends of the blocks that were not sellable. In 2007, Anna a summer student made Supersoap for oily and acne prone skin. She put every essential oil in the batch that would help with acne. Customers found a great improvement in their skin! Over the years we have tweaked the recipe. We now add ground oats and a bunch of carrier oils that are great for your face.

Rice Bran; fast-absorption allowing it to soothe irritation quickly without clogging pores or adding oiliness

Pomegranate; contains a high level of vitamin C content. The oil helps in regulating the production of sebum, and oily secretion which may cause acne and oily skin

Camellia Seed Oil; is packed with fatty acids, but more importantly, it’s packed with antioxidants that produce an anti-inflammatory effect. The oil nourish the skin but also calms any inflammation, soothing acne prone skin and effectively fading redness.

Evening Primrose; helps strengthen the skin barrier, reduces moisture loss, and causes the anti-inflammatory effects that can calm some of the lesions associated with acne, as well as the redness.

Marula; oil makes a good moisturizer for oily skin and treating acne because it’s non-greasy. It also has antimicrobial properties and may be effective against the bacteria that contribute to the formation of pimples, whiteheads, and blackheads. pimples

Abyssinian; it is a very lightweight oil and won’t leave your skin feeling greasy or tacky. Calms and soothes problem prone skin. The oil helps control the overproduction of sebum, which can lead to acne prone skin.

Jojoba infused Chamomile; this oils molecular structure is very similar to your skin’s natural sebum. This makes it an excellent oil for oily skin to stop the overproduction of your own skins oil.