We have drawn on the Ayurvedic tradition to formulate many of our products. In India, health and longevity were traditionally allocated to a branch of learning called Ayurveda, the Sanskrit words Ayumeaning life and Veda meaning science or knowledge. This ancient, 6000 year old holistic belief system encompasses a vast pool of knowledge leading beyond medicine to deep spiritual teachings which include beauty care, rejuvenation therapy, diet, yoga, surgery, herbs and more.
Because we do not wish to use preservatives or synthetic ingredients in our products, we have had to find new ways to formulate them, drawing on the holistic principles of Ayurveda, which focuses on using whole pure plant ingredients in their natural form. We also advocate the Ayurvedic approach to care of the skin: cleanse, nourish and moisturise from head to toe using whole pure organic ingredients, and the gentlest of applications. This is a holistic approach to health which works by tapping into the body’s innate healing and regenerative systems.
Skin care for purists
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Our full range is certified organic with the Australian organic certifier NASAA, and is free of palm oil and palm oil derivatives. We are passionate about using fairly traded ingredients, and are now certified Choose Cruelty Free.
Preservative and water free
Our skin care products are formulated differently from virtually all other skin care – they contain no water, whereas mainstream skin care contains up to 85% water. The absence of water means our products require no preservatives, since microorganisms are unable to grow in a water-free environment. Further, they require none of the other synthetic compounds required when water is present – emulsifiers, stablisers and thickeners. Our products are pure plant ingredients – unrefined, and unchanged from their natural form.
Because they contain no water, Mokosh moisturisers are up to 5 times the concentration of standard skin care. This means you need use only one-fifth the amount you would normally use. The benefits of formulating our products this way are multiple:
- They go a lot further: a 60ml jar of Mokosh cream is the equivalent of up to 300ml of a standard lotion containing 80% water. Yes, this is how much water goes into a lotion! Because skin is water-proof, the water present in a cream does nothing to hydrate your skin. The water evaporates soon after an aqueous cream is applied. The purpose of adding water is simply to dilute the oils in the cream.
- They are completely free of preservatives and other chemically altered ingredients – every ingredient is in its natural form, as found in nature.
- The nutrients in the precious ingredients we use are more stable in their non-aqueous environment. This means that when you apply the product to your skin, its active nutrient content will be higher. What is more, we don’t heat our ingredients to more than 40° C, meaning they are effectively ‘raw’, further enhancing nutrient content.
- The high density of nutrients combined with an absence of synthetic ingredients means better looking, healthier skin.
- Higher density skin care saves packaging, money and transport costs.
Organic
Certified organic products are grown without use of synthetic insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and hormones – this means they are safer to eat and safer to apply to our bodies. In addition, certified organic produce may not be extracted from plants by chemical means – for example oils such as coconut, macadamia and rosehip must be cold-pressed, whereas conventional oils may be extracted using solvents which may contaminate the final product.
Some also consider organic produce to have a higher nutrient content than conventional produce.Finally, and perhaps most importantly, buying certified organic is a vote for sustainable agriculture. Supporting certified organic farming is supporting a system that can flourish alongside, rather than against, the remnants of our fragile ecosystems.A product that is certified organic indicates that it is as pure and uncontaminated as it is possible to guarantee, grown sustainably, with minimal negative impact on the environment.
Fair Trade
A number of ingredients used in abundance in skin care products are grown in developing countries – including palm oil, cocoa butter, shea butter and coconut oil. These growers employ workers from amongst the poorest communities in the world. In many cases, workers – some of them children – are paid so little for their labour they barely provide sufficient for the basic necessities of life, let alone gain access to education, or basic amenities such as clean water and sanitation.
Purchasing products that have been fairly traded means workers are paid a fair price for their goods and labour. The ramifications of this are enormous – it means equality for women and girls, access to education for more people, better living conditions through provision of clean water and sanitation, and greater access to healthcare. It also assists communities to work together to improve infrastructure such as roads, electricity and water.
Mokosh uses fairly traded shea butter, cocoa butter, coconut oil, coconut flour, marula oil and coffee in our products. We never use palm oil or palm oil-derived ingredients – apart from the severe environmental impacts of palm oil plantations, palm oil companies are known to make use of forced labour, child labour and are implicated in human rights abuses. Make sure that when you buy coffee, tea, clothing and skin care, you are not purchasing a product that keeps the world’s poorest communities in poverty.
Palm Oil Free
Here at Mokosh, neither palm oil nor palm oil-derived ingredients are used in any of our products. We use no emulsifiers or other synthetically derived ingredients in our skin care products. Our bar soaps contain virgin cocoa butter rather than palm oil to give them hardness and longevity. An additional benefit of cocoa butter in soap is its luxurious creamy lather and wonderful skin-conditioning properties. Most importantly, be secure in the knowledge that you are not contributing to destruction of incredibly important ecosystems.
Mokosh is a proud Green Partner sponsor of The Orangutan Project.
Without knowing it, most people use products every day that contain palm oil –food, toiletries and detergents, and are thereby bringing about the destruction of fragile ecosystems in subtropical Malaysia, Indonesia, Africa and South America.
There is nothing inherently wrong with palm oil itself. The problem lies in the fact that large tracts of native forests are being cleared and burned in order to grow palm monocultures to satisfy the enormous worldwide demand for the oil. In addition to the serious contribution to greenhouse gases and loss of biodiversity due to land clearing, the plantations are often heavily treated with pesticides, further affecting fragile ecosystems.
Of particular concern is the widespread destruction of native forest in Sumatra where the Sumatran orangutan is predicted to be extinct in the wild within the next 10 years. Also at risk are the Sumatran tiger, the Asian elephant and Asian rhinoceros, in addition to numerous lesser known plant and animal species.
So, what products contain all this palm oil we are consuming? Palm oil is used in many baked goods, snacks, chocolate, margarine, soap, shampoo, conditioner, moisturisers, lipstick, domestic and industrial detergents, and it is being considered as a biofuel. In soaps it is often labelled ‘sodium palmate’ or ‘sodium palm kernelate’, indicating palm or palm kernel oil. It is hidden in toiletries under a variety of names, since palm oil is used to manufacture many ingredients – including almost every emulsifier you would find in skin care products.
Cruelty Free
Choose Cruelty Free is an independent, non-profit organisation which actively promotes a cruelty-free lifestyle. Their accreditation program is amongst the most stringent in the world today. Mokosh gained accreditation with Choose Cruelty Free in 2012. Read more on their website.
At Mokosh, we believe animal testing of cosmetics is unethical, and support Choose Cruelty Free’s awareness campaign against this practice.
Our Lip Balms contain certified organic beeswax, whereas all our other products are vegan. Read why we believe it is ethical to promote the farming of bees cared for under certified organic conditions in our blog, ‘Bee products and Skin Care.’