We have a pantry full of fruits, flowers, herbs at the studio. They are our ingredients, but I eat from the cranberry jar if I am craving a snack. I make myself chamomile tea with a touch of melissa if I am feeling anxious that day. I make sure to fill up my jar if I am running low on rose lavender mix i drink daily at home. I cook with the same olive and coconut oils at home.

And then people who just discovered us ask if we are cruelty-free, plant-based. Rightfully so. After hearing so many horror stories about the cruelty that has been done to animals in the pursuit of flawless beauty (whatever that means), no one wants to be a part of this circus called animal testing.

Brands that started testing on animals by using chemicals in the first place are now rushing to get labels that say cruelty-free, vegan. The irony is that we have to use those terms too, even though we have nothing to do with this whole problem. To make people believe, I am forced to literally purchase a logo that says cruely-free while eating my cranberries.

I much rather continue to pay that couple thousand to my organic chamomile grower in Croatia. He has been keeping the soil alive with organic practices for the last 10 years. When he makes a price increase, I should be able to pay that instead of switching to a lower quality, cheaper, non-organic mass production lifeless chamomile. So that I can pay for the yearly fee of a logo that I don't even need. Isn't paying the grower so that he keeps the soil alive what we desperately need? We use about 75 herbs (and that's not including the plant oils and butter) which means at least 75 farms that I can continue to support by buying their produce. I choose the farm over a logo.

I think it's time that we take the matter into our own hands by reading the ingredients of a product instead of looking for labels created by those caused the problem. If I can not pronounce it and it's not available in nature, then it is probably not good for me and tested on animals to determine its somewhat safety. That's how I look at things.

Farm to Skin. Farm to Table. Not Lab to skin. Lab to Table.

with love and light

- Ezgi