Longmont couple’s firm kicks “toxic ingredients” to the herb
Organic, natural and locally sourced: It’s not just for food anymore.
In the wake of the farm-to-table food trend, a Longmont company is hoping farm-toface is the next big thing.
Cindy Jones, who owns Colorado Aromatics Cultivated Skin Care along with her husband, George Wahl, has been quietly advocating for locally grown ingredients making their way from dinner plates to medicine cabinets for nearly a decade.
“It’s very important what we put on our skin,” she said. “There’s a lot of talk about all these toxic ingredients, but we think too much about what we shouldn’t put on our skin instead of what we should put on our skin.”
She and Wahl bought their 10-acre Longmont farm eight years ago, and ever since, they have been harvesting more than 30 different fresh herbs for use in lotions, scrubs and lip balms. Their products sell at their Lashley Street storefront and at various local shops, including Lucky’s, Ace Hardware, McGuckins and Boulder Book Store.
Farm-fresh beauty products are a micro-trend inside a larger shift toward natural and organic cosmetics — a booming business that last year generated $696 million.
That’s up about 11 percent from 2014, when the natural and organic personal care was a $626 million business.
“The natural beauty space has been somewhat on people’s radars for a while,” said Jessica Rubino, natural beauty editor for Boulder’s New Hope, an industry media group. “There’s so much awareness around our food system — wanting to know where your food comes from, understanding the story behind the ingredients.
“That’s definitely starting to trickle down more than ever before into cosmetics.”
Trends in beauty often follow closely behind food trends, Rubino said. When so-called “superfoods” dominate grocery shelves, lotions and shampoos with those ingredients aren’t far behind.
There are even Paleo products, including toothpaste and deodorant, rising in popularity along with the caveman diet.
“Consumers are wanting fresh, whole ingredients” in everything they buy, Rubino said.