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SINCE 1906
westerngazette.ca THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2016 • WESTERN UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER • VOLUME 109 ISSUE 28 who dunnit? since 1906
Ethical beauty
Purdy Natural is capitalizing on consumer trends in buying ethically and locally made cosmetic products. AMY SKODAK GAZETTE STAFF @GAZETTECULTURE
In
her kitchen, Roxanna Purdy, owner of Purdy Natural, opens watermelon-sized jars of coconut oil, jugs of goat’s milk and glasses of olive oil infused with herbs. Only she’s not preparing ingredients for a night of baking at home, she’s making a bar of soap on site at her local shop. Producing natural, ethically sourced goods has become a family craft that’s grown over the last six years. The purple and turquoise Mount Pleasant Ave. storefront’s windows are lined with flower boxes and a welcoming chalkboard sign to draw you in. Walking inside feels as though you’ve entered a
treasure-trove. Luxurious scents, cosmetics and rich soaps and creams are piled high and organized tastefully along the walls, completely filling up the store. But it’s behind a black curtain in the back of the room where all the magic happens. Rolling up her sleeves at a counter not unlike one found at home, Purdy makes her popular soaps – and all products – from scratch. She combines shea butter and goat’s milk with coconut and olive oil as a base for the vanilla, mint, honey or lavender blends of essential oils, used to enhance the scent. Purdy then works the mixture into a mould, yielding log-like beams of soap ready to be sliced and packaged — but not before adding the last
ingredient that appears on each of their product labels: love. “Our products are made here on site … with ingredients from the earth,” explains Purdy. The ingredients used in Purdy Natural products differ from regular cosmetics in that they are entirely organic and handmade. “When you come here, you’re guaranteed that you’re using a healthy product that’s safe for you,” Purdy says. “Our bodies react better to those [natural ingredients] because that’s what we recognize,” she continues. “Our bodies connect with that nature aspect. We do not recognize synthetics, that’s why we develop allergies to them.” SEE PG.6
TAYLOR LASOTA GAZETTE
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