I’ve spent the past few months working on and refining the recipes for my products. My priority has been to create a simple product which helps support skin health, regenerative farming and the environment in equal measure. I have tried to keep the number of ingredients used to a minimum, the packaging is environmentally friendly and the herbs used are of the highest quality and, if not grown by me, are sourced as locally as possible.
The benefits of local products are multiple-fold; they support local business, have lower mileage and therefore a lower environmental impact but, possibly most importantly, they also carry a resonance with the area where they are from. In the past, our diets as humans have been dictated by where in the world we live, the climate in which we live and therefore what food is supported best in such an environment.
As a red-headed, fair-skinned Celt, I know full well that my body is best adapted to a relatively high protein, green and irony diet and that pulses and grains from far afield don’t agree with me. I also have a much greater affinity with UK wild flora and herbs and respond best to them from a medicinal perspective. I’m quite sure I’m not the only one like this.
The herbs I use may seem overly simple or even too familiar but, ‘simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance’. The herbs I use grow in abundance locally, support biodiversity and support our health too. They’re simple, elegant and useful and, in my mind, this is the most common sense approach to supporting our health through the skincare products that we choose to use.
I use tallow because it is a sustainable ingredient, is currently considered a ‘waste product’ and because of its medicinal properties if the source of the tallow has been farmed in the right way.
Compared to oils, which need to be substantially processed (grown in monocultures, harvested, pressed, filtered, bottled and transported from far away), requiring energy inputs, the tallow I use is produced locally, responsibly and to the highest of welfare standards with low energy inputs. So, if you eat meat or indeed if you are concerned with the environmental footprint on the products you consume or don’t like waste, you are right to feel comfortable using a by-product such as tallow.
In addition, from a medicinal perspective, tallow is particularly healing for rashes and other inflammatory skin conditions as well as cuts and scrapes. It is antimicrobial, antifungal and anti-inflammatory. Grass fed beef tallow contains the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K which are only found in animal products and are necessary for health. The benefits are remarkable.
And what of beeswax? Well, I am careful to use local beeswax. I mix up where I take this from as I don’t like to deplete the bees (who are not fed supplementary sugars) but, as with the tallow and herbs, the bees wax is of the highest quality and acts to support the ecosystem where the hives are and is only taken when there is an excess supply for the bees.
In terms of supporting the environment, I am not solely concerned with low mileage and eco-packaging, but my main interest lies in how to encourage biodiversity locally, help improve soil quality, reduce topsoil degradation, and support the ecosystem in which we live. As I have touched upon in my musings on the Regenerative Agricultural system, an optional and discretionary charitable donation can be made to the PFLA when purchasing any NIMMO product via the website. I too pledge part of the profits to help support and re-instate wild flora across the UK.
Of course, my products are certainly not tested on animals, though they can be used on animals and have been used to great affect!
