Articles
Natural Health Magazine April 2009 Beauty Guru Heals and Grows By Olessa Pindak For 22-years Lisa Levin was a high-powered graphic designer in Los Angeles. She lived a stressful life with daily deadlines, 80-hour work weeks and lots of travel. Then in 1994, her body began to fall apart and she was eventually diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a chronic condition marked by pain and fatigue. With the help of a naturopath, Levin overhauled her diet and eliminated her symptoms. In the process, she found a new calling. Today, she’s the founder and owner of Pharmacopia, a natural skincare company in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her drive to succeed has not vanished, but she manages to stay grounded while overseeing a thriving business.
How did your body begin to fall apart? It began with numbness in my hands and arms at night and progressed to joint and back pain. Eventually I developed IBS and my brain got foggy. I remember trying to make a phone call, holding a piece of paper with the number on it, and not remembering it long enough to dial.
Did you visit any doctors? Yes, but they all said nothing was wrong with me. Then, I read about fibromyalgia and recognized my symptoms immediately. I went to a rheumatologist who confirmed the diagnosis and prescribed sleeping pills and antidepressants, but I hated the side effects. Finally, in 1995, a friend suggested a naturopath. Then things started to improve.
What treatments did the naturopath suggest? She put me on an eight-day goat’s milk fast and had me do a cleanse, which involved ingesting several herbs. As soon as it was over, my IBS was gone. She also put me on an anti-inflammatory diet for eight weeks (I ate a lot of buckwheat, amaranth oatmeal, chicken, fish, cooked vegetables) and took me off gluten.
How did your illness spark your interest in skincare? AS part of my treatment I took detoxifying baths with baking soda, sea salt or apple cider vinegar and was inspired by how the beauty treatments eased my inflammation, pain and generalized fatigue. Later, I studied with an herbalist about using herbs in skincare.
What makes your product line distinct? My formulas contain healing herbs such as ginger, rosemary, citrus, and lavender, and each product features a unique essential oil blend designed for a particular benefit.
How do you keep your life in balance? I pick up my 7-year old son from school twice a week and spend the afternoon with him; I work in the garden on weekends. I schedule time off when life gets hectic (I never used to do that). Ignoring my body was nearly catastrophic–now I really listen when it talks. _________________________________________________________________________
Call to Improve Palm Oil Industry October 2008
Twenty-six Companies Heed Rainforest Action Network's Call to Improve Sustainability of Palm Oil Industry: L'Occitane, Organic Valley and others to pressure ADM, Bunge and Cargill to produce more sustainable palm oil SAN FRANCISCO – Twenty-six food, cosmetic and consumer goods companies – and one palm oil supplier – have signed a Rainforest Action Network (RAN) pledge to support a moratorium on the expansion of palm oil plantations into tropical forests. Mall staple L'Occitane, popular organic label Organic Valley, organic palm oil supplier Ciranda and several other businesses agreed to urge agribusiness giants Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Bunge and Cargill to produce more sustainable palm oil. In mid-August, RAN contacted more than 350 companies that use palm oil in their products to inform them of the widespread rainforest destruction caused by the proliferation of palm oil plantations in tropical rainforests. The same week, 2,000 concerned citizens across the country went to their local supermarkets to apply stickers reading, "Warning: Product May Contain Rainforest Destruction," on any items found to contain palm oil. "We applaud those companies who have signed our pledge and committed to source palm oil in a way that does not destroy rainforests," said Leila Salazar-Lopez, director of RAN's Rainforest Agribusiness Campaign. "However, we are extremely disappointed that eco-friendly companies like Whole Foods, the Body Shop and Ben & Jerry's remain on the fence while forests are burned and communities are forced from their homes. We would like them and others to join us in pressuring ADM, Bunge and Cargill to go beyond the principles and criteria of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil." Demand for palm oil, a key ingredient in many consumer goods, has risen significantly in recent years. As a result, palm oil plantations are expanding at a rate of 2.5 million acres per year into the tropical forests of Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea, the countries which supply 99 percent of imported U.S. palm oil. Pristine forests are clear-cut and burned to accommodate the expansion, contributing heavily to global climate change, species extinction, and the displacement of Indigenous and local communities. Deforestation is the primary reason that Indonesia, a top producer of palm oil, is now the world's third-highest greenhouse gas emitter.
Current pledge signatories include: A Wild Soap Bar, Andean Dream, Bare Organics, Cactus & Ivy, Coastal Classic Creations, Crave Bakery of San Francisco, Dancing Dingo Luxury Soaps, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, Ecolips Inc., Emily Skin Soothers Inc., JP Durga (Herbalix Restoratives), Kaia House, Little Forest, L'Occitane, Montana Emu Ranch Company, Moon Valley Organics, Nature's Path Foods, NutriBiotic, Organic Valley, Pharmacopia, Soap For Goodness Sake, Solay Wellness Inc., Sun Feather Natural Soap Co., TelBari Inc., Uncle Eddie's Cookies (International Desserts), and Weleda Naturals. Additionally, Ciranda, one of two suppliers of organic palm oil from South America, has signed the pledge, signaling a new era in the palm oil industry in which customers can purchase palm oil from suppliers that commit to protect rainforests and honor human rights.
Twenty influential companies that have not yet signed the pledge include: Bath and Body Works, Cadbury, Campbell Soup Company, Chanel, Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, Elizabeth Arden Inc., General Mills, Hershey, Kellogg's, Kraft, L'Oreal, Nabisco Inc., Nestle, Odwalla (parent company: Coca Cola), Pepperidge Farm, PepsiCo. (Frito Lay), Proctor & Gamble, The Dial Corporation, Unilever, and Whole Foods Market, Inc. For more information on RAN's Rainforest Agribusiness Campaign or to read the pledge in its entirety, visit www.TheProblemWithPalmOil.org.
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Sprig.com January 2008 http://www.sprig.com/ Meet an Expert: Apothecary Ace
With chic, apothecary-style packaging and clean, aromatherapeutic ingredients, the Pharmacopia bodycare line exudes organic style. It must emanate from the brand's founder, Lisa Levin, who gives off a stylishly green vibe herself—despite her wariness of eco-fashion. What is one recent green obsession that you just can't live without?
My husband and I are very passionate about composting. I have a vegetable garden and I'm trying to grow a lot of the veggies we eat. We can't throw any food scraps out at our house. If I accidentally throw something in the trash that can be composted, my husband gets very upset—he's kind of a compost cop. Do you have any eco-sins?
I don't buy green clothes. I often think that I should really start to figure out which designers I like that are making green textiles and organic clothing, but I just haven't done it. The problem is that it takes too much time to figure it out. If it was readily accessible at the places I'm shopping, I'd totally buy it. What is aromatherapy?
We look at aromatherapy two ways: Physical aromatherapy and sensory aromatherapy. Sensory aromatherapy is when you smell essential oils and they affect your mood and your emotions. Then there's the physical aromatherapy, where you put the oils on your skin and they go into your bloodstream and actually physically affect you. For example, rosemary essential oil is an anti-inflammatory and neroli has anti-anxiety benefits.
What makes an essential oil aromatherapeutic grade, like the oils you're using?
I don't think there's an official grading system, but essential oils are sold based on how much processing they've had. Sometimes, oils have been adulterated, which means extenders have been added to them. This type of oil is often used in cheaper perfumes and soaps. We use essential oils that we know are pure and have been handled in a certain way that retains their aromatherapeutic properties.
Why did you choose the four scents-ginger, rosemary, citrus, lavender-that your products are based on?
I took aromas that are fairly common in aromatherapy but I made my own sort of blends with them. For example, I love ginger and I've always loved its healing qualities. I think it's an amazing, really tonic herb. So I combined that with other things I really like, such as lemongrass and citrus, to make it a bit more relaxing and soft because ginger can be kind of intense.
Speaking of relaxation, the holiday season can be a very stress-inducing time of year. What do you do to decompress?
I like to give myself a foot massage at night. It's such a simple thing to do and it's so relaxing. I use our lavender lotion to keep my feet soft and I just do a quick rubdown all over each foot. If my feet are really dry, I'll use the hand cream on them. It really softens your skin but it's not quite as thick, so it really works in a massage.
Where else are your products being sold these days?
The direction we're going into is spas, hotels, and specialty gift shops, and not as much in the natural foods stores. There are all these stores that don't carry natural products and all of the sudden they're just craving that. We were pretty well positioned to go into those kinds of stores because we have beautiful packaging and great ingredients. I feel proud that we’re the first natural brand that a lot of these places have decided to carry.
What inspired you to create Pharmacopia?
It started with my own health problems. I was a graphic designer for 20 years and was very stressed with that job. I was starting to burn out when I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. I was in a lot of pain, my memory was really bad, I was having a really hard time functioning cognitively, and I was having trouble sleeping. So I took about 6 months off from work to just care for myself and slow my life down. That's when I started to look at everything that I was eating and everything I was putting on my body. I did a lot of detoxifying and changing my lifestyle and I started to feel better. I also started to study aromatherapy and herbalism. I'd always been interested in plants, but more from a gardening point of view. As I studied herbal medicine, I became so intrigued by the healing qualities of plants. When I saw that there were very few brands that really capitalized on these therapeutic powers, I started to mix my own products and then design bottles for all of the things that I was making. I'd take samples to my friends and they'd say, 'This is the best lip balm I've ever tried,' or 'This is the best body oil.' Because I was really ready to do something new, something that was more meaningful to me, I just went for it.
Why do you think using natural skincare products is so important?
I think a lot of people are aware of the importance of eating healthy, clean food, but they don't really think about what they're putting on their skin. Your skin is your body's largest organ and what you put on it goes directly into your body. I think there's a statistic about how 60% of what you put on your body goes into your bloodstream. Just think about a trans-epidermal patch: You put it on your skin and you're delivering medicine directly into your blood stream. It doesn't go through your liver or all the other places that food does to help break it down and get rid of bad stuff. With personal care products, this is one area of your life where you really have some control and you can start by just buying pure things, buying products that keep you from putting bad stuff on your skin.
Without a true definition of what makes a product natural, how do you differentiate the Pharmacopia line from other "natural" and organic brands?
We're actually working to reformulate our products so that we can get them certified by the British Soil Association [which is the equivalent of the USDA in Europe] because they have organic standards for body care and the USDA does not. Anything with the USDA organic seal means that it meets the food standards. That's hard to do with a lot of the ingredients we use.
How can consumers tell if the skincare products they're using are actually natural, or if they're just marketed as such?
You have to get used to reading labels and know that they're written in descending order. The first handful of ingredients on the list is what a product is mostly made up of. A product could have some really good-sounding stuff in its ingredient list, but if it's at the bottom, there could be less than .01% of those ingredients in there. They put all of those wonderful things on the label just to make the product sound more natural.
People should also look for products that are paraben-free. When we first started, we used parabens because they were thought to be safe, but as information surfaced that parabens are mildly estrogenic and persist in breast tissue, we decided to become paraben-free. _________________________________________________________________________ Body and Soul Magazine
February 2008
http://www.marthastewart.com/bodyandsoulmag/
Beauty Basics Winter Skin Care (Lips)
The Problem: The skin and lack of oil leaves lips naturally dry and extra vulnerable. Seasonal congestion often forces you to breathe through your mouth, which leads to chapping. Licking your lips when they’re dry makes matters worse, since evaporating saliva cause cracks.
Solutions: Before going outside or hitting the sack, apply a waxy balm to lock in moisture and protect against evaporation. By day, use a creamy or oily lip treatment with mainly edible ingredients (since you’ll be ingesting much of what you put on your lips). Avocado, olive, or soybean soften and soothe, while vitamin A-rich shea butter promotes healing.
Try:
Herbal Lip Elixir by Pharmacopia
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Natural Health Magazine
December and January 2008
http://www.naturalhealthmag.com/
Soothe Sore Muscles
The warming ginger in these Pharmacopia Ginger Bath Salts releases tight muscles;
Essential oils from lemongrass, tangerine and cinnamon stimulate your senses.
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Ecopreneurist
January 8, 2008
http://ecopreneurist.com/
Organic Lotions Go Glam & Luxurious
By Leah Edwards
It goes without saying that green is big these days. Within walking distance of my home there are three “eco-friendly” clothing boutiques, a “green home” shop and a billboard advertising green home cleaners. All have gone up in the last year. Ecopreneurists are birthing all sorts of green businesses, which is great to see.
As happy as I am to see all of these green youngsters on the block, it does my heart a lot of good to see green businesses that were started five or ten years ago, when green was not so hip, get a big boost from all of media attention now turned on all things green.
One example is Pharmacopia which was started in 1999. When the hot thing in entrpreneurism was launching a dot-com, Lisa Levin was quietly blending her own lotions and soaps from essential oils and organic ingredients. Lisa first gained a significant market presence for Pharmacopia products in natural products shops, with the Company eventually getting distribution in Whole Foods and other larger natural food stores.
Fortunately, intuition and personal taste had led Lisa, who designed the company’s identity and packaging herself, to make everything about Pharmacopia as elegant as the high-quality ingredients she uses in Pharmacopia’s line of body care products. Day spas and pampering have become a major retail and hospitality trend, and Pharmacopia is perfectly suited for spas and boutique hotels, such as the Delano boutique hotel in South Beach. As Lisa says, “We can either focus on the fact that we use only pure essential oils and organic ingredients or that we provide a really luxurious product.”
Pharmacopia is now well positioned for the increase in green consciousness. One of the first ways people become concerned about organics and natural products is when considering what to put in and on their body. True pampering now requires the safest and most natural ingredients possible.
And it doesn’t hurt that green is IN. A list of celebrity Pharmacopia clients and high-profile media placements shows how start-studded and high-profile, going green has gone.
Pharmacopia is not just for Grape Nuts eaters anymore. Company President Andreliz Bautista says, “People are interested in green even if their whole lives aren’t focused on it. Green options are what people need.”
P.S. For a related discussion of green or organic body care choices, please see a post on our sister blog, Eco Child’s Play.
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San Rafael Business
An Award Winning Publication of the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce
January 2008
Business Briefs
Locally owned and operated business Pharmacopia has announced the roll-out of their organic beauty care products in the Beauty Brands chain. Pharmacopia products will be the first organic beauty care products on shelves in the Midwest chain, with stores spread throughout ten states.
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Vogue Magazine
November 2007
http://www.vogue.com
Beauty, Health & Fitness: Sweet Tart
From grapefruits to kumquats, lemons to limes, the freshest fall beauty has a crisp citrus kick. Pharmacopoia's bath salts blend tangerine grapefruit and lemon.
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CPC Packaging Magazine
September 2007
http://www.cpcpkg.com/home/
Bath and Body Products: Natural, Upscale, and Green
By Marie Redding
Three natural-product brands have similar packaging goals—and challenges.
Marketing natural products can pose many packaging challenges, as three brands—Farmaesthetics, Terralina, and Pharmacopia—can attest to. These challenges include finding the packaging components and suppliers that help to maintain a brand's natural yet upscale image—as well as environmental friendliness.
Pharmacopia is a natural and organic body care brand founded by Lisa Levin. Although the company is not new, many more retailers have shown interest in selling Pharmacopia's products this year. The company just partnered with Beauty Brands to become the retail spa chain's first organic product line.
Organic Spa Magazine
Summer 2007
http://www.organicspamagazine.com/
A Splash of Citrus
Who can resist the crisp appeal of citrus? Pharmacopia's Citrus Organic Shea Butter Hand Cream is a soothing and therapeutic product ideal for hands that may need a little help after hours of gardening or time spent in the sun (It's perfect for the feet too). The company offers a complete Citrus Collection, including bath salts, massage and body oil, and candles.
Gifts and Decorative Accessories
August 1, 2007
http://www.giftsanddec.com/
Organic Growth
By Meredith Schwartz
It's one of the hottest buzzwords in personal care. But what does organic mean, and who's buying?
Just a few years ago, many Americans had probably never heard the term "organic." But now the rapidly increasing popularity of organic foods is making the idea of chemical-free, environmentally friendly farm products a household word. Of course, it isn't only milk and produce that comes from the farm: organic personal care products are growing fast and, like organic foods, appealing to a much wider audience than just their "dark green" roots.
Lisa Levin, CEO of Pharmacopia, agrees. "There's an interest in organic because of the media blitz. A lot of factors are converging: Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, brought an awareness of the global, green, sustainable movement. People are more aware of what's healthy and what's not so healthy, and that they can make a difference in what they do."
Town and Country Magazine
April 2007
http://www.townandcountrymag.com/
Natural and Organic Beauty Products: The Top 75
We’ve become more vigilant about what we put in our bodies; here’s how to be equally vigilant about what we put on them. You’ve switched from conventionally grown apples to organic apples, with the hope of ingesting fewer pesticides. To avoid hormones, you now buy orangic eggs. Like many other consumers today, you may be looking for more benign cosmetics-because the chemicals you put on your body can be absorbed through your skin and enter your blood stream. Some of these ingredients, like the artificial preservatives parabens, serve to inhibit the growth of bacteria and extend the shelf life of your favorite products, but they might be harmful once they’ve accumulated to certain levels inside your body. More and more companies are responding to consumer demand for fewer risky ingredients by finding nonchemical alternatives-no easy feat-and bringing new products to the market as well as eliminating certain synthetics from existing formulas.
T&C had a panel of fifty testers (staff members, experts and trusted friends) sample and rate some 400 products in order to produce the following: our list of the best of all the cosmetics that can be considered natural or organic. But take heed, because neither term is regulated by the FDA, which means if you see either on a label, it may not signify as much as you’d imagine. When it comes to defining natural cosmetics, we’ve chosen to be inclusive here rather than exclusive: a natural product is one that contains some plant-based ingredients; it may or may not contain synthetic ingredients. To simplify matters, we’ve indicated which naturals do not contain some of the more common suspect ingredients.
Determining which products qualify as organic is more straightforward. The U.S. Department of Agriculture permits it’s seal on products that are 95 percent or more organic. Other countries, like France and Germany also have very reputable certifying boards. Truly organic products contain a high percentage of ingredients farmed without pesticides, and they have no synthetic preservatives, colorants or fillers.
If you’re not sure where to begin to clean up your act your eyes and lips are a good place: ingredients enter your blood stream more quickly through mucus membranes than through the skin of, say, your arm. So start with a lip balm and work your way from there. And, remember, just as cleaning with baking soda and lemon takes a lot more elbow grease than spraying on undiluted bleach, some of these products take a little patience and forgiveness. Without artificial fragrance, they may not smell as lovely as you’d expect; without an artificial foaming agent, they may not lather as much as you’d like; and so on. Frankly put, organics and naturals are not for everybody (we heard that from a few testers), and they may take some getting used to. If you fall into this camp, we suggest that you try some of the more mainstream products on the list, like shisedo’s Extra Gentle Cleansing Foam and Cinique’s Turnaround Concentrate Visible Skin Renewer, which boasts some natural ingredients and have been formulated without parabens. Reducing your exposure to even a single ingredient is a fine beginning. To learn more about toxins in the body, visit ewg.org and look for “body burden.”
Natural The following products either contain botanicals (in some cases organic ones) or, as with nail polishes, have been formulated without reputedly harmful ingredients. 27. Pharmacopia Citrus Body Lotion. The moisturizers sunny scent is a sure-fire-wake-me-up. (no added fragrance, artificial colors, petrochemicals, parabens, sodiumlaurylsulfate or sodiumlarethsulfate)
Natural Skin Care Group
March 19, 2007
http://www.natural-skin-care-group.com
Pharmacopia Herbal Lip Elixir
Pharmacopia Herbal Lip Elixir is an absolute must for dry, chapped lips. It seems as if everyone is super dry right now--winter has wreaked havoc on our skin, especially our lips, and the antidote to cracked, painful lips appeared before me the other day. I immediately liked the packaging of the Herbal Lip Elixir. It comes in a chapstick-style tube, but even more so. This elixir is bigger, more substantial. Pharmacopia does a great job of packaging all of their products, with an art deco meets modern graphics look, which makes this the most stylish lip balm I have ever seen. I instantly wanted to use it! The ingredients are vegan: no beeswax or lanolin. 100% natural: no synthetic ingredients or parabens, and 70% organic. This San Rafael, CA company sources from reputable organic growers, local and otherwise. The ingredients list reads like a menu of good things. The base is organic virgin olive oil with candelia wax that are infused with organic calendula and organic comfrey--ingredients known for their soothing and emollient properties. Jojoba, shea butter and castor oil add to the lip-conditioning ingredients. Hemp oil is included and I have found this to be one of the best ingredients for healing cold sores and other lip conditions. Essential oils of tangerine and Roman chamomile give the balm its slightly citrus, slightly earthy scent. The Herbal Lip Elixir goes on easily, remember to twist it from the top, and will give your lips a beautiful natural shine. "
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Skin Deep
February 7, 2007
http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22264/26516
By: Stephanie Simons
Many skincare gurus insist that topically applied beauty and bath products are ultimately absorbed by the body—carcinogens and all. Lisa Levin founded Marin County-based Pharmacopia to address this by creating beautifying balms, bath salts, oils, and even soy votives from organic garden herbs. The company’s back-to-basics approach is based on traditional healing and rejuvenation remedies drawn from herbalism and aromatherapy, as well as Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine. This spring, Pharmacopia’s luxury line debuts with the new Herbal Lip Elixir. It soothes and smoothes the lips with a blend of pomegranate seeds, hemp, castor, calendula, tangerine, jojoba, chamomile, comfrey, and olive oils (Sounds good enough to eat, doesn’t it?).
We recently caught up with Lisa Levin, formerly a graphic designer, who founded Pharmacopia in 1997 after being diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, a condition that causes muscle pain, fatigue and sleeplessness. After visiting several doctors and experimenting with various healing therapies, Levin discovered a Santa Fe-based naturopath who healed her with detoxification—a process that required plenty of hot baths and massage, plus a change in lifestyle which included eating more veggies and less wheat, and doing more yoga and less long distance cycling. Levin considers her experience a testament to the healing power of organics. Here is what she had to say:
What inspired your “a-ha moment?”
When I realized that most body care products had harmful ingredients in them. They were the very ingredients that my naturopath suggested I detox out of my body. At that point, I saw the need for a good, clean product that was also beautifully designed like the products you might find in a nineteenth century apothecary or herb store in France.
Why go organic?
By supporting organic practices, we can help clean up the environmental mess we’ve gotten ourselves into. All of our rivers, lakes, and streams are polluted with agricultural runoff. As more fields are converted to organic, there is less pesticide use.
Is there a difference between “natural” and “organic?”
“Natural” has become a marketing term with varying degrees of truth. There is no regulation on the term. “Certified organic,” on the other hand, is a term that can be trusted because products with that label have been certified by an official source.
What Pharmacopia product can you not live without?
Can I name two? I love the Citrus Body Lotion for everyday use. I have really dry skin and I love how it moisturizes. The scents of tangerine, grapefruit, lavender and neroli are just so…happy. I take a lot of hot baths and love the natural Ginger Bath Salts for their exotic, spicy scent and detoxifying qualities.
October, 2007
Going Green
A toxicologist from the environmental working group took an established list of potentially harmful ingredients (culled from the U.S. government a division of the World Health Organization, among other sources) cross-referenced it with a sampling of products. He found parabens, phthalates, and n-nitro-samines (a suspected carcinogen) present in nearly seventy five hundred products. After some urging from the Breast Cancer Fund, the National Environmental Trust, and The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a California state law was recently passed requiring cosmetics manufacturers to disclose any product ingredient that is on state or federal lists of chemicals that cause cancer or birth defects. More than 200 companies have signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics, pledging to meet the (in some cases more stringent) standard set by the E.U. and to not include chemicals that are known or strongly suspected of causing cancer, mutations, or birth defects. Pevonia, Burt’s Bees, Weleda, Pharmacopia, Naturopathica, Pangea are among the companies who’ve signed.
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