Nyita, As Nataurally Beautiful as Nature Intended

When we buy products that say they are 100% natural, is that really true? It may well not be. To obtain, say, the oil from a seed, there needs to be an extraction process. Think of your Olive Oil as an example. If you buy a cold-pressed version to cook with, this means it’s been ‘pressed out’ using no heat, no chemicals, and by doing so has kept all the nutrients. However, if it’s not cold pressed, the precious oil you want could have been gotten using some rather ugly chemicals. Meet Hexane, a petrochemical you actually really don’t want to meet. Check out Nyita, As Naturally Beautiful as Nature Intended Here

Hexane is a colourless, volatile liquid that is used as a common solvent for extracting oils from seeds and vegetables. It is found in gasoline, glue, and other industrial products. Now you don’t want to be getting close up and personal with it.

Most of us purchase and use products containing Hexane without having even heard of it or being aware of the health risks. It is easily inhaled and absorbed through the skin.

In the beauty industry, brands use Hexane to extract oils such as Castor oil, Almond oil, and Argan oil. These oils are used for hair and skin. They can also be added to haircare and skincare products like lotions, shampoos, and conditioners. It is also used to extract precious oils for perfumery.

But here is the thing, even if you check out the ingredients on the products you buy, you are very unlikely to see the word Hexane written. But there are ways to think outside the box.

Rebecca Jaquest started her luxury, super-clean and ethical fragrance and Skincare house Nyita. Without nasties like preservatives, or synthetic fragrances, and even using oils that do not involve using the whole plant. The worst thing she came across in her research was Hexane. Here she tells us her story.

“One of the reasons why I started this journey was because when I was pregnant with my first child, I started looking at ingredients, because before I just bought stuff and just never thought about what was in it.

I found so much that I was shocked about, but I think the thing that really was the biggest shock for me is that the ingredients which are listed as 100% natural are being extracted with something called Hexane.

It’s a really toxic petrochemical; it’s a distillation from crude oil. If it gets on the workers, they have to be so careful because it’s really toxic. So many natural products will have things extracted from them with Hexane, yet will still be listed as 100% natural. However, shockingly, there’s a legal limit on the amount of Hexane residue that’s allowed to remain on the product.

For me, I didn’t want anything in my product like that, but even if you’re not worried about Hexane being in the products you use, it is still really bad because it’s a distillation from crude oil.

Now, just for a little fact, the beauty industry uses Olympic-sized swimming pools of Hexane (altogether it is estimated at around 1.1 million tonnes per year across industries), and the reason why it is used is because it’s so much cheaper to extract with Hexane than other forms.

There are some products, for example, Jasmine, which is too delicate to steam distil, which is why pretty much all of it is solvent extracted with Hexane. In fact, a lot of the absolutes are extracted this way. When as a producer you get the material safety data on the products for skincare, you can see where the how it’s extracted, but for the consumer, there is nothing; they can’t see at all how that’s ingredients being extracted.

And as I say, they are listing that as 100% natural, that’s not 100% natural if you’re extracting with Hexane. And then it’s not just for skincare, it’s in perfume extraction. So, a lot of the fragrance oils are extracted with it too. Because we don’t use it, it’s a huge restriction, and of course, it means our raw ingredients are more expensive. We only extract with steam distillation, cold pressings CO2 and enfleurage.

This made sourcing from big fragrances houses impossible but my real big passion of mine is to source from small community farm.

Our Japanse Yuzu farmers

We have some incredible, lovely communities that we work with. We get Yuzu from this remote Japanese island that was depopulating. And then, because of the Yuzu we bought, it’s regenerated. It really is special. There’s a community in Bhutan that we source an oil called Thingy, it’s genuinely called Thingy, and it’s yeah, there are over 160 households that are involved in that, that we help to support that oil. They are also all farming, sustainability-wise.

Angay Dem, of Trongsa, Bhutan

Working with organic Patchouli farmers in Rwanda provides a livelihood for genocide stricken, impoverished communities. With income for over 200 rural local farmers means widows can find hope again, orphaned young adults can imagine a brighter future, and the poor can live more dignified lives

One of our Patchouli farmers in Rwanda

Finally, the special enfleurage the Jasmine we use comes from small community farmers in Colombia. Grown in the Andes, at 1600 meters above sea level and surrounded by a unique microclimate. Most of the farmers are single mothers or women who have suffered from guerrilla war violence.

One of our community Jasmine farmers in Colombia

And of course, mass farming is another massive problem and is not good for the environment. So when we source from these small community farms that are also organic, that is really another way we help minimise environmental impact.

When ingredients are bought from a single crop farm, it means that they churn up everything, doing so much damage topsoil. Topsoil takes between 200 and 1000 years per inch to be replaced and is damaged when you take out the whole plant, including the roots so oils which smell amazing, like Vetiver, are really damaging for the topsoil.

Therefore, we only use the fruits, the leaves, the flowers the seeds.
So we just focus on those that have the minimum impact and don’t damage the topsoil. On top of that, we don’t use any oils that involve cutting down trees either, for that same reason.

Like say, Pettigrain, which is the leaves and twigs of the Bitter Orange Tree. It is gorgeous, but again, we have to be so careful where we harvest it. A lot of the trees at Pettigrain farms are just like little stumps because they’ve just hacked, hacked and hacked away at them.

Then there is the conversation about synthetics. We don’t use synthetics because 95% of them are petrochemicals. It is depressing, as so much of it comes down to money. I know it’s a minefield, but I think for us, we are doing our best.

It’s just a choice. So we’re just going to give people a choice, if they are concerned about these things then they can come to us. It’s really important where we are because we’re tiny and I like our practice it makes me proud.

We source the highest grade, cold-pressed, unrefined and 100% certified organic oils. No synthetic fragrance, GMO, mineral oils, emulsifiers, parabens, preservatives, or petrochemical solvents have been used in our Bath and shower oils, candles, or our perfumed body oils.”

So check what you are buying, try to dig a little deeper, and see what is really in your products. But know Nyita have done a lot of the work for you so they are a safe place to start. The products are safe and of course, beautiful.

Find out all about the beautiful oils, candles, and body and bath products available at Nyita.com here.

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