Osmia Organics
The Colorado-based line of skincare products started by a former ER doctor
Just a few months after taking her first soap-making class (and after 10 years of practice as an emergency room physician in Carbondale, CO) Dr Sarah Villafranco decided to pursue the idea of making homemade skincare products—using only organic ingredients whenever possible—and created Osmia Organics. The name “osmia” is a term coined by Villafranco as an antonym to the word “anosmia” (or the loss of the sense of smell) and the line has garnered attention for its soaps, made with food-grade oils and scented with botanical powders, essential oils and clay. Each bar is handmade in batches of 33 to 40 at a time and cured for eight weeks—long enough to ensure plenty of water has evaporated, in order to prolong the life of the soap.
Osmia Organics has also released a line of specialty skincare products that include cleansers, exfoliators and moisturizers. We recently tried the best-selling detox exfoliating mask. Made from three kinds of clay, raw cacao, manuka honey, bamboo charcoal and finely ground walnut shells, the mask comes in powder form and is mixed with water in the included ceramic dish and spatula. Given the number of effective ingredients, the mask has a pleasant scent, along with an improbably smooth texture. As the mask dries on the face, the clay and charcoal exfoliate and deep clean, while the caffeine tones and tightens.
Each Osmia Organics product arrives packaged in 100%-recycled cardboard with labels made from Terraskin—a recyclable, biodegradable tree- and water-free material made from rock and resin. Osmia Organics products are available online, with prices ranging from $8 to $75.
Images courtesy of Osmia Organics
