Today I want to peel back the curtain and share with you a little about how my product is created, and how it’s different than other products out there.
A quick glance at an ingredient list only tells you part of the story. You may see similar ingredients between two products, but they could be miles apart in terms of performance. For example, you may rave about a Celtic Complexion product to your friend who decides to purchase some raw ingredients and go the DIY route, but end up with a completely different product.
Here’s why:
1. Source of Ingredients – An artisan’s source of ingredients is held in as much regard and secrecy as the actual formula. Not all ingredients are the same. I’ve spent many months, sometimes years researching raw ingredients. The health of the soil, the care in which they are harvested and how they are stored or preserved is of the utmost important to me.
I can relate this to wine to make it easily understandable. You can take a wine type, say Pinot Noir, and it can taste very differently from each wine maker. The best wines (in my opinion) are the ones from boutique wineries with very limited runs.
I remember as a child, my mom had this very special stuffed shell recipe. Rather than get all her ingredients from the grocery store, she purchased the meat from a butcher in a neighboring town, the tomatoes from the local farmers market, and the pasta from a specialty Italian market that hand made their own pasta. The result was sublime, and no matter how hard I tried, I could never replicate her recipe because my ingredients were purchased from a big box grocer.
I purchase the majority of my raw ingredients for Celtic Complexion products from small businesses who manufacture in micro batches, ensuring the freshest ingredients.
2. Attention to Detail – When you get a Celtic Complexion product, it’s my hands that lovingly create it. I believe strongly that is what you are paying for, the “artists’ hands”.
Details such as how the product is poured, how it sets up, and how it’s packaged and shipped. I want every stage of the product to inspire and delight you, from the time you open the package, to when you place it on your vanity, to when you first place the luxurious creme between your fingers.. it has to be “an experience” that you won’t forget.
As the saying goes, the devil is in the details.
3.Time – It takes a full six months for a Rolls Royce to be made. It takes 14 hours to assemble a Ford Edge.
A mass marketed creme is made in minutes, in large vats, with the push of a button. The production time of a Celtic Complexion product can take from three hours to three days.
4. Formula – An ingredient list on the back of a bottle does not reveal the actual recipe or formula. It does not reveal actual percentages of ingredients either. Greenwashing is a common practice in our industry. It means when a company puts a wonderful ingredient in a product, but in miniscule amounts so they can then advertise it on the bottle, but there isn’t enough of the ingredient to actually be effective.
I liken a cosmetic formula to a secret family recipe that has been passed down for generations. As in the example above, when cooking, you can have the same two people make a recipe but it can taste very different. The experience, expertise and intuition of the chef can turn a simple egg into a masterpiece.
As an artisan, part of my process is to honor my intuition when working with raw ingredients, and know when to accelerate a formula, and when to call it done.
An artisan’s formula and process is their fingerprint, and theirs alone.
5.Intention- I call it the “x” factor. The emotions, feelings and settings for which a product is created has a lot of influence on how the product will perform. In other words, I have to be in a specific mindset to “create” because it effects the end result. In addition to the actual product creation, there are many rituals which we follow before, during and after which charge and imprint each product.
I believe this is why our products have such a profound effect.
I feel it’s so important to educate you about my process, so you can make an educated decision when comparing products. I’ll leave you with this little story about Pablo Picasso.
Legend has it that Pablo Picasso was sketching in the park when a bold woman approached him.
“It’s you — Picasso, the great artist! Oh, you must sketch my portrait! I insist.”
So Picasso agreed to sketch her. After studying her for a moment, he used a single pencil stroke to create her portrait. He handed the women his work of art.
“It’s perfect!” she gushed. “You managed to capture my essence with one stroke, in one moment. Thank you! How much do I owe you?”
“Five thousand dollars,” the artist replied.
“B-b-but, what?” the woman sputtered. “How could you want so much money for this picture? It only took you a second to draw it!”
To which Picasso responded, “Madame, it took me my entire life.”
Warmly,
Jennifer