Handcrafted Skincare: What It Actually Means (and What It Doesn't)

I hand-labeled a batch of Aurora this morning, same as I have since 2011, peeling stickers that never sit perfectly straight. (Nearly! But never perfect.) Somewhere in it I got thinking about the word "handcrafted," because I'd just been looking at how many other brands use it. Almost all of them promise the same three things. Fresher. More potent. Made with love.

All three are true of what I make, and I'll stand behind every one. But on a label with nothing behind them, those words prove nothing. Anyone can print "fresher" on a box. So rather than say them louder than the next brand, let me show you what's actually underneath mine. (Something tells me you're the type to check!)

What "handcrafted" actually means

On its own, honestly, not much. There's no legal definition, no board that certifies it. I've seen "small batch" on labels where I'd bet real money the batch was not "small" at all... and besides, that's relative. A small batch can mean 10 units, 100 or 100 000, depending on who you ask. 

For Stark,  handcrafted means something specific and a little boring, which is the point, because boring is checkable. I formulate every product myself. I make them in (truly) small batches here in Canada. Batches of 25-100 products, depending on how busy the season is. I double-check every batch before it leaves the studio. And when you email, I'm the one who reads it. No outside lab I'm sneakily relabeling, no marketing department writing this for me.

Is handmade actually better?

Sometimes. Not always, and I'd rather say that plainly than sell you "handmade is always better," because that kind of overclaim is what got this whole industry into trouble...because boy oh boy does the beauty industry love to over-promise and under-deliver.

A big factory runs on a scale I'll never match. Machines filling thousands of units an hour, formulas built to survive three years in a warehouse. None of that makes them safer than how I run things, it just makes them bigger than me. The real difference is where the money goes. With no shareholders to pay, mine goes into the oils, extracts and butters instead of cheap filler, and you can see that on the ingredient list. That's the whole idea.

The part most of these posts skip: preservatives

A lot of "handcrafted" writing either ignores this or turns it into a scary story where preservatives are poison. I won't do that, because it isn't true and you'd catch me.

So here's the short version, and what you need to keep in mind: Anything with water in it will grow mould without a preservative, often within days, and "natural" doesn't change that. In fact, natural products are more likely to grow mold! (Mold is always, ALWAYS more harmful to your health than ANY preservative.)  So in my line it splits cleanly. The balms, like Aurora, have no water, so they need no preservative and you'll see none listed. The water-based ones, like Equinox, do have one, because I would rather protect your skin than protect a bogus "preservative-free" badge. I use gentle ones, and you can read them near the end of the list yourself.

Handmade should not mean unpreserved. Done right, it means preserved thoughtfully, and honest with you about which is which.

Handmade means a personal touch.

It should mean that you get access to someone reachable. If something feels off in week three, you email and I answer, usually in a day or two. I've kept customers for over a decade partly because of messages that had nothing to do with a sale. These products were made by my hands, and I am accountable for them. Just me.

You also get fresher products. Small batches move quicker, so what lands on your counter was made lately, not stockpiled to ride out a sales forecast.

And someone who can change her mind, when the season turns or when enough of you tell me the same thing. I tend to reformulate or tweak products based on repeated feedback (either because something isn't quite working, or because it's working well, and I lean into it.)

I'll be straight about the trade-offs too, because a list of only the good parts is exactly what I'm asking you not to trust. Handmade means a shorter shelf life, so buy what you'll use rather than stockpile. I can always help someone with an issue with a new product, but if you've had it sitting around somewhere for 6+ months? It's a different story... so keep your own stock fresh, as I do. It also means the odd batch looks or smells a hair different, because the plant does, though it still works the same. And yes, it costs a little more. You saw the ingredient list. That's where it went. Also, let's be honest... I need to support my family and any brand needs margins healthy enough that they can carry them through a (small) disaster. I am conscientious and fair in pricing.

Why I'm telling you all this

You've probably got a cabinet of half-finished jars, each one bought on a promise that didn't hold. I'm not trying to sell you on the feeling of a mythical maker.... selling you some fantasy lifestyle by a supermodel founder padding around barefoot in a long linen dress, mixing golden elixirs in a secret garden. I'm not glamorous, but I am super honest. I want to be a maker you can actually check up on, so that at some point you get to stop looking for fantasy products, and find that Stark are the products you can rely on.

That's handcrafted, in the only sense I can stand behind.

Jess

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A few quick questions

Is handcrafted the same as small batch? Related, not identical. One means made by hand, the other made in small amounts. Neither means much until you can see who's behind it.

Is natural skincare preservative-free? Usually not, if it has water in it. And preservative-free isn't safer. A water-based product with no preservative is the risky one.

Is it worth paying more for? If your only measure is cost per millilitre, maybe not. If it's knowing what's in the bottle, reaching the person who made it, and not starting over every six months, that's the case for it.