Today we thought we'd give you a peek at the nerve center of Bianca-Blake Headquarters, and what goes on behind the scenes.
We use three different extract formulations in our products, and we hand-harvest the plant material for them, and let them sit for 6-8 weeks before bottling.
We harvest our sea kelp, Macrocystis Pyrifera, right here in the early morning, from the pristine waters of La Jolla, CA. It's rich in proteins, amino acids, and important vitamins and minerals supporting healthy skin, and health in general. One of the things we absolutely love about it is, it has an even greater capacity to retain moisture than hyaluronic acid. We think it's pretty amazing stuff. Add to that, it is naturally rich in iodine, – which is essential in healthy skin, promoting wound healing, cell repair, regulates the skin's moisture levels as well as regenerating the lower layers of your skin (has anti-aging properties ♥)
There's so many amazing things about sea kelp that we can't put it all down here or you would fall asleep, but we have written about it throughout our blog and website, and if you're in the mood for a little heavy reading, here's a scholarly paper about its function in skincare. 1 The pic above was taken after we strained the fucoidan extract, because that's when I decided this would make a good blog post. This is the star ingredient in our Elixir Vitae...but that doesn't mean the other ingredients aren't pulling their weight. We just love sea kelp.
Additionally, we hand-harvest wild strawberry leaf and berries from a private forest in Oregon, along with organic hibiscus, to create our Elixir Vitae, which goes in our
Rejuvenating Body Polish, as well as making an appearance in our serum, Molecular Geometry, which also contains another extract we call Pink Moon, because it was first created on the Pink Moon, and contains 9 hand-harvested botanicals from the Oregon Forest, which are associated with love & beauty in folklore, and also happen to be stellar performers in skin care. We'll save that for another post though.
Packed with an abundance of Vitamin C, and an ORAC value of 4,302 (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) puts strawberries just slightly below blueberries and raspberries. 30% of their total antioxidant capacity comes from Vitamin C, with 1 cup providing a whopping 113% of the total RDA of Vitamin C. This makes strawberry leaf an excellent addition to your skincare...but wait, it gets even better – Now let's talk about WILD strawberries, because that's what we're using! In addition to their high bioactive content, the leaves are one of the richest sources of chlorogenic acid, which has anti-aging, skin tightening effects and promotes a radiant complexion. And while strawberries are generally high in Elligic Acid – plant phenolics associated with human health – wild strawberries and their leaves have EA in spades! In fact, scientific studies have demonstrated significantly higher EA levels in the leaves than in the fruit. So basically, wild strawberries are a SUPER Super Food!2
Hibiscus flower is another one of nature's best kept secrets & has earned the moniker, "The Botox Plant" through it's overachieving antioxidant content, plus its ability to act as a natural AHA (alpha hydroxy acid) by gently exfoliating and tightening skin. Its such a powerhouse that the antioxidant content is no joke, and it has been shown in laboratory studies to be so efficient at killing gram negative and gram positive bacteria, that its performance in this arena has been compared to some antibiotics Some say it even helps minimize the appearance of cellulite. It is packed with Vitamin C and has been used in beauty treatments since the days of Cleopatra.
With the addition of wild strawberry and hibiscus, we created a potent bioactive skin-nurturing extract, and we are the only skin care experts to have a face and body scrub containing such powerful skin actives. It's seriously like feeding your skin a healthy diet.