We are introducing better packaging. You know our lovely insulating eco-felt envelopes? Well now, each time you receive one in the mail to keep your cleansers and hydrosols cool and fresh, you will also find an envelope stamped and addressed back to us. Unless you wish to keep your eco-felt envelope, you can place it (along with the twine if you wish) in the addressed envelope and mail it back. I'll keep it for you for the next time, repair it should it so require, and send it back to you with your next order, with another stamped envelope--and a $5 credit toward any oil of your choice--to use or accrue, it is entirely up to you. I know my customers are environmentally conscious and don't need an economic incentive, so please don't think of it as such, but rather as a way of using our collective resources more efficiently.
Many of you have received a lot of these felt envelopes by now, and while the eco-felt is entirely biodegradable, and you may have created a fabulous sound proof studio for yourselves or outfitted your friends and families with little lunch clutches, or found countless creative way to repurpose them, it isn't lost on me that at some point or another, you find yourself with yet another one, and I prefer you not to feel a tinge of that burden.
Now more than ever, luxury means enjoying an experience without casting a shadow elsewhere, needlessly wasting, compromising and/or accumulating. I feel regret every time a purchase I make includes excessive packaging; I find myself trying not to focus on those perfunctory flimsies that go straight into the recycling bin (or worse, can't be recycled). The whole chain of effort and process flashes before my eyes: the ink and paper that was chosen and paid for, the boxes being shipped to the factory or to the printers, the dying, the stamping, the packing, the travel back to hq. Many of these boxes are too flimsy to repurpose. The ones we can repurpose we do-- tea boxes, yogurt glasses, bubble wraps that need re-using must be accommodated; tidiness helps, but flexibility and creativity is imperative. So much time spent managing just far too much packaging!!
Happily, at Balbec we can help keep the spark joyful. I want you to be delighted when you receive your envelope of fresh skincare. Ship it back and you'll see it again when I ship it to you for your next order, and so on. We are finally tying up a loose end, and this part and parcel of the energetic mission of Balbec.
The Energetics of Live Probiotic Skincare
We started with the premise of properly nurturing what should already be yours--a healthy acid mantle-- through daily use skincare consisting of live probiotics, organic and wildcrafted aromatherapeutic essential oils and botanicals. I still believe live probiotic skincare makes for the finest skincare. When properly done, there is no concern of compromise--nothing that is unfriendly on the skin or when rinsed down the drain. There is only longterm gain for the health of your skin. Within the wider field of probiotic skincare, Balbec remains unusually energetic because our probiotics are live, in whole food form, free of preservatives and heat based formulations that render probiotics ineffective. Should I come across an acceptable way to stabilize our clay and yogurt based cleanses, you'll be the first to know. For now high-quality, live probiotic skincare lives in the refrigerator.
When we started I wondered how on earth this could work. But it did because you were willing to receive a cleanser in an insulated envelope, and refrigerate it for the sake of freshness. Together we have made this work and have made it something of the every day, normal.
The Energy in the Preparing
Keeping the ingredients potent, live, and active in the making leads to a more energetic product, and therefore our products have a life span not a shelf life. We do this by sourcing our ingredients equitably and eco-consciously and by using utensils and vessels that keep the electrical charge of the clays so that they remain effective. Our violet glass (see below) keeps our ingredients in beautiful form.
The Energy of Wrapping and Unwrapping:
On our end:
Like most businesses, we receive a lot of packaging, which we reuse, recycle, and repurpose. We are fortunate to have found local shipping companies who kindly accept for reuse the pesky packing peanuts we receive.
How we package Balbec:
Our violet glass is a beautiful and effective preservative for our products. Through “biophotonics” (bio meaning life and photonics, light), superior preservation is possible because molecular decay is slowed significantly by the application of only beneficial light. You can reuse the violet glass you receive to keep your own spices and flowers and herbs fresh. Should you choose not to, both glass and lids are completely recyclable, and the latter are made from non-petroleum based plastic. When we started years ago, I learned that all glass is not recyclable. Green, brown, blue glass goes straight to the land fill--another psychic burden.
Twine and paper. To wrap our oils and Nomad we use lustrous kraft paper, 100% recycled and reusable for your grocery lists, and book marks and notes to self.
The ice packs. Keep and refreeze these as they will withstand many occasions--lunches and picnics with ice cream and champagne.
The eco-felt envelopes--the star of this show is undyed, cleaned but unprocessed wool punched into felt. Wool is considered one of the most ecosensitive fabrics, and as we know, makes a lovely insulator.
What we are creating is a skincare experience that is comfortable for our skin, our emotions, and our conscience. It is an experience that can withstand full focus, and forms of a circle of energy, that begins with an agreement for fresh and better, between you and me...for a joyful we.