Lab Chronicles: The Making of the Chamomile & Tansy Cream Cleanser

We sat down with Dominique Caron, founder and formulator of Apoterra, to learn more about the making of the new Chamomile & Tansy Hydrating Cream Cleanser. Read on to learn how our first cream cleanser came to be! 

It’s so amazing to finally try the long-awaited Apoterra cream cleanser! As the formulator, which parts of this new cleanser are you most excited to share with the world? 

I have dry & sensitive skin, and cleansers have in general always left my skin feeling a little dry. For those who don’t love oil cleansers, or who need something even more hydrating, this cleanser will be a game changer. I formulated it to not just cleanse, but hydrate and calm skin at the same time.  My skin feels so happy after using it—I can’t wait for others to experience it too!

With the introduction of the Chamomile & Tansy Hydrating Cream Cleanser, have any new ingredients entered the Apoterra line? 

I had so much fun formulating this cleanser—and really fell in love with watermelon. It's such a wonderfully hydrating ingredient, and the fruit extract honestly kind of smells like candy. I decided to incorporate both watermelon seed oil and watermelon powder into this cleanser. 

For extra cooling and calming benefits, I also included blue tansy essential oil, which has a great synergy with our chamomile extract to clarify and calm any redness in the skin. Blue tansy is actually a type of chamomile called Moroccan chamomile, which is why it has similar properties to the German chamomile used in our extract.

The other “new” ingredient is beet root extract, which I introduced to the line in our updated Rose Essential Hydration Mist. When I was formulating the mist, I tried dozens of different humectants, comparing them to hyaluronic acid. I was really impressed with beet root extract—my skin loved it and it really made a difference in my skin’s ability to retain moisture! So of course, when I was formulating this calming and hydrating cream cleanser, I had to include beet root extract!

Did you take any risks with the development of this cream cleanser?

Adding blue tansy oil felt like such a gamble—the cleanser was almost finished, and it had this beautiful bubble gum pink color because of the watermelon and rose extracts.  But me and the team just weren’t loving the aroma. We don’t use artificial fragrances so making it smell more like watermelon wasn’t an option. I had the idea of adding tansy, which is not just anti-inflammatory but also has such a calming aroma. When I smell it, I immediately decompress. The scent is so lovely—but it's also very unique and so not everyone loves it. 

That AND it changed the color of the cleanser from a fun bubbly pink to a grayish purple. Almost everyone I sent the new samples to loved the scent (yay!) and were impressed with the cleanser itself but commented on the weird color, haha. I don’t like adding ingredients to a product just to make it aesthetically pleasing, or not including them for the same reason—so we went with it!

mixing ingredients into the cream cleanser

If you had to narrow it down, who is the ideal person to get results with this cleanser? 

Honestly, everyone can benefit from this cleanser! Dehydrated skin is one of the most common culprits for common skin concerns—from acne, to blotchy complexions, and more. But this hydrating cleanser is especially formulated for those with sensitive, sensitized and dry skin. One of our team members has really sensitive skin and I had sent her a sample to try. After a few weeks she admitted she hadn’t tried it because she was scared to try something new—her skin is so reactive and gets red really easily. After I explained the calming & hydrating properties of the formula to her, she decided to give it a try. 

Two weeks later she told me she was out of the cleanser and could not wait to get another bottle. She said her skin LOVED it. If you have redness, sensitive skin, or struggle with stubborn dryness—know this cleanser is formulated for you :) 

If I’m not mistaken, this is Apoterra’s first cream-based facial care product! Can we expect to see more creams in the future?

Yes, that’s correct! Our Chamomile & Tansy Cleanser is our first cream :). It's taken us a long time to start making cream-based products, but no worries—you won’t have to wait as long for the next one!

So there you have it! You just learned all of the secrets along journey to create our first ever cream cleanser. What new products are you hoping Apoterra will create in the future? Let us know in the comments below, or via our other social platforms! 

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