About Us
We are Guelph Organic Life, specializing in organic personal care products, organic beeswax candles and farmed freshwater pearl jewelry.
How does organic foods heal me as a consumer with sensitive skin?
We are Guelph Organic Life ™ and allow me to introduce my organic life in Guelph. I am a mother of two and earned my MSc. degree from the University of Guelph. I became aware of organic foods while my husband was working on his graduate research study about organic foods. Meanwhile I noticed a skin rash appeared, bothering me periodically while I was studying at the University. An allergy test was done and the results showed that I was allergic to some food. Then, one day, I realized that I was able to comfortably consume food stated on the test results, providing it was organic. So, I think the problem was not the food itself, but the synthetic chemicals and preservatives that make me sick. Since then, I actively scan product ingredients on labels when I go grocery shopping to ensure the items have ingredients I fully understand in plain English, not the mystery chemistry terminologies. Through my learning experience I have found a new appreciation for my sensitive skin, as it is my body’s way of warning me of danger to keep me safe.
Why are synthetic chemical-treated foods harmful?
My understanding is that our ancestors helped us test the things people could consume from nature and later these things are called food if they are safe for most people. This process took so long and long enough to let human beings have evolved the ability to tolerate them. So, we are not only just what we eat, but also we are what our ancestors ate. We were designed to eat organic foods and they ideally fit our genetic makeup. While the modern petroleum industry is considered to have begun no more than 200 years ago. Compared to the long evolution time of the human diet, these 200 years can be a blink. Our genes haven’t had enough time to adapt to synthetic chemicals from petroleum. Our human bodies are still evolving and struggling to deal with them at the cost of significantly disrupted hormones, cancers and other negative effects on human health.
How are personal care products on my radar?
Personally, the practice of routinely close reading ingredients on food labels naturally expanded into my personal care products and heightened after my daughter was born. Like every new mom, motherhood was filled with incredible feelings and emotions but also stresses and worries. One of the most troubling situations I faced was choosing baby care products. At the time, personal care product scandals popping up really scared me even more knowing my daughter could be a victim to the companies’ negligence when serving their consumers.
Why are personal care products with synthetic chemicals harmful?
The ingredients of personal care products from popular brands are insane petrochemical cocktails, regardless of the effects to its consumers. But, due to the companies' strong and persistent marketing, they have succeeded in convincing our belief that their products perform wonders for our bodies. Even the word “natural” has transformed into manipulative marketing term intended to twist consumers’ perceptions. I recognized it was NOT a coincidence that every time after I used the magical shampoo, my hair fell out a lot and scalp was so itchy. The products’ toxic chemicals leach into our hair, our skin and throughout our bodies continually with each day of use. For so long I had been washing my hair by using detergents with residues and consequential aftermaths, yet never thought to change my product purchases. Suddenly, the products we assumed were safe, effective and natural became the cause of these preventable health concerns, and unfortunately the regulations on these products are not enough to prevent us from the major companies’ imposed dangers. You can look up some of the toxic chemicals, like Fragrance (mostly synthetic), Methylisothiazolinone, Paraben family (like Propylparaben), and Propylene Glycol on any personal care and cosmetic product from your washroom.
But be patient. The big companies are always too shy to show their entire ingredient lists clearly. Some of their tricks are tiny font size, blur printing and labels on bumpy surfaces.If you want to learn more about each particular ingredient, you can check the Environmental Working Group (www.ewg.org) and their Skin Deep tool for chemical hazards.You can also check one of the piling up information on this by watching the CBC documentary Toxic Beauty.
What are my ideal personal care products?
I felt obligated to do something for the health of my babies and families. I searched for the ideal personal care products, but such products do not exist. My requirements for the best products are simple and straightforward: certified organic food ingredients on the labels. Why? Anything you apply to your skin ends up inside your body just as if you had ingested it. And, if organic foods are safe for human bodies inside, then they should also be safe for human bodies outside. People may think I'm high maintenance and being over dramatic. But my sensitive skin has warned me to avoid any harsh and dangerous chemicals for my own, my children’s, and families’ health. Some of us may not notice the harmful effects today but it’s affecting us a couple of decades from now on.
Thus, I have created my own personal care product line with certified organic food ingredients from scratch. Through this process I have discovered building this product line is my calling; it is what I was supposed to do in my life. Organic is the future, and it can provide solutions for many modern-day and chemically infused problems affecting society beyond agriculture and the agri-food sector.
Why did I jump from organic personal care products to pearl jewelries?
My daughter and I have purchased hair accessories made with plastic and other manmade materials. These products are easily broken in an extremely short period of time. Then one day, I recognized the seemingly cheap products were not really cheap at all as I bought them so often. Not to mention the carbon footprint the production of these plastics and shipping from factories in Asia to customers in North America. While clearing the full drawer of half-broken accessories, I came across one of my daughter’s headbands wrapped with plastic beads mimicking pearls, which sparked an idea. Why not invest in some pieces of hair jewelry with real materials, for example, real pearls? Then I created my own jewelry line with freshwater pearls which can serve us for a real long time like what they usually did before the plastic was invented. Through wearing my pearl creations, the compliments of the beautiful luster, elegant shine and fine craftsmanship I receive prove the investment was worth it.
All our pearl products are handcrafted in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. The freshwater pearls are farmed and matched specifically for each piece product. Where possible, I use 100% silk thread, gold-finish metal and wire instead of glue to string the pearls together, which will prolong the beauty of the pearls under proper maintenance. Every product is unique, and it is a combination of elegance from nature, incredible skills, and craftsmanship. These pearl jewelries also represent the love and respect for Mother Nature, reminding you to cherish what you have for the good of that which she provides on her beautiful earth.
What are normal candles made of in the market?
Candles, candles. They are like an extension of personal care products, which may have negative effects on you and the Mother Nature if you do not dig their ingredients deep enough. It is another case of a beautiful trap for us, especially for the women.
Candles can be made of paraffin wax (also called petroleum wax, made from petroleum, coal or oil shale), plant-based wax (like soy wax), or beeswax. Just like plant-based meat, plant-based wax is a highly processed, chemical treated from beginning. For example, soy wax, a prevailing candle making wax in the market, is made from soybean oil. Soy wax is widely labeled as eco-friendly, green, vegan, sustainable or natural and so on. In North America, most soybean seeds are genetically modified from big chemical companies, like the famous Monsanto. To get soybean oil commercially efficient, crushed soybean is mixed with Hexanes for the extraction and the Hexanes are primarily obtained by refining crude oil. Then, soybean oil is bleached and deodorized with chlorine and boric acid separately to make soy wax. These synthetic chemistries will end up as a chemical mist through burning soy wax candles because it is impossible to filter them out completely during the process. Clearly, soy wax is NOT as ‘”Friendly” as what it is labeled.
Soy wax is another case of cheap substitute for real staff, the beeswax; just like the vastly used synthetic fragrance oil in personal care products is a cheap substitute for essential oil. These synthetic fragrance oils are also widely used in candle making so that the huge scents of candles are available. They can mimic all the scents in the labs, varying from the nature to our daily lives, from Christmas trees to chocolate cookies. These synthetic fragrance oils have been associated with many negative health effects, including causing allergies, headache, disturbing reproductive system and more (1,2).
Synthetic fragrance oil scented soy wax candles are not as healthy, attractive and real cheap alternatives to beeswax candles as they pictured. People, especially woman customers, are paying for an illusion of synthetic chemical mist, which will harm everyone in the room through inhalation.
What do we do with our candles?
All of our organic beeswax candles are hand poured in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. As always, we do not shy away showing you the full ingredients of our organic beeswax candles. The ingredients of our organic beeswax candles: 100% USDA Certified Organic Yellow Beeswax, Certified Organic Essential Oil and Organic Hemp Candlewick.
Why Certified Organic Beeswax?
Similarly to get organic milk from dairy cows, which should be fed organic feed on the farms, beekeepers should make sure the bees only get organic feed (nectar and pollen) for bees if they want to harvest organic honey and organic beeswax. Bees cannot be physically fenced in a certain area to collect nectar and pollen, like what dairy farmers do to cows. So the biggest challenging to meet the organic certification requirements is providing a 3 km radius (or 28 sq. km) forage area around the beehive free of any prohibited synthetic substances (3) such as miticides, herbicides, fungicides and pesticides. Buying organic beeswax ensures that you avoid contact with these synthetic contaminations. In addition, beeswax candles purify the air by releasing negative ions, which can neutralize pollutants in the air.
Why Certified Organic Essential Oil?
We are following the same protocols of using 100% certified organic essential oils to scent our organic beeswax candles like what we are making our organic personal care products. The certified organic essential oils are safer than their counterparts by conventional farming practices, which are allowed to use synthetic chemicals, like synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and more.
Why Hemp Wick?
There are a few reasons why we choose hemp wick over others. For the most reason, hemp wick is more environmental friendly than other options (4,5). Hemp requires less water, fertilizer and other synthetic chemical treatments (herbicides, pesticides) during the growing process, while cotton has higher requirements on these treatments. Hemp is a carbon-negative plant and "It's even more effective than trees (5)” in terms of converting CO2-to-biomass. Since it is difficult to find organic beeswax coated hemp wick, we have to source the organic hemp twines and coat them with certified organic beeswax by ourselves. Another project made from scratch!
1 https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ingredients/702512-FRAGRANCE/
2 https://davidsuzuki.org/living-green/dirty-dozen-parfum-fragrance/
3 https://www.ontariobee.com/research/getting-started/thinking-organic
4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp#Sustainability
5 https://www.dezeen.com/2021/06/30/carbon-sequestering-hemp-darshil-shah-interview/#