OCASA

UNPOPULAR OPINION: NOT EVERY TRENDING SKINCARE INGREDIENT BELONGS IN A FORMULA.

From salmon DNA + bee venom to synthetic vitamin derivatives and methylene blue, the beauty industry is constantly introducing the next big thing.

But as someone studying herbalism + formulating skincare, I’ve learned that just because an ingredient is trending doesn’t mean I need to use it.

Some of these ingredients have promising research behind them. Others are still being studied. And some simply don’t align with my formulation philosophy.

Does synthetic automatically mean harmful? No.

Does natural automatically mean safe? Also no.

But I believe there’s something valuable about slowing down, understanding our ingredients + remembering that skincare doesn’t always need to be complicated.

I choose to work with whole herbs, slow botanical infusions + thoughtfully sourced ingredients.

Now I’m curious: have you tried any of these trending ingredients? What was your experience?

Recently, we received a pretty concerning comment on our social media from someone who said she had been using a honey tallow balm and experienced a very bad reaction.

The only problem? She had never purchased that product from us.

We have NEVER sold a honey tallow balm. In fact, we’ve been against adding honey directly to our tallow formulas from the beginning.

And I think this is an important conversation to have.

We love bees + we love honey. We even have beehives here on our ranch surrounded by wildflowers. 🐝🍯 Honey can be a beautiful ingredient when it’s used appropriately.

But while honey tallow balms became incredibly trendy and it seemed like everyone was making some version of the same formula, my priority was never to follow a trend. My priority has always been to understand the ingredients I’m working with and formulate products I feel confident putting into your hands.

Honey naturally contains water. Tallow and oils are anhydrous. Once you introduce a water-containing ingredient into an otherwise water-free formula, you change the formulation—and you also change the preservation considerations.

Pure honey has unique properties that help inhibit microbial growth, but once you start combining it with other ingredients, you cannot simply assume the finished product will behave the same way as a jar of pure honey.

That doesn’t mean honey is “bad.” It means formulation matters.

I actually love using honey + tallow together as a fresh skincare ritual. I simply mix a little honey with tallow in a separate dish when I’m ready to use it rather than storing the two together in the same jar.

why we don’t add honey to our tallow… more on the blog ➡️ ocasabotanica.com 🐝🍯

Something new is taking shape out West… 🌵

We’ve been a little quiet behind the scenes because we’ve been busy formulating two new tallow creams — and I’m not ready to tell you everything just yet.

But I’ll give you one little clue.

One of the ingredients I’ve been especially excited to work with is prickly pear seed oil, wild-harvested in Tucson, Arizona.

It’s an ingredient that feels so unmistakably OCASA — born from a plant that knows how to thrive beneath intense sun, scarce rain + the harsh conditions of the desert.

And soon, it’s finding its way into one of our jars.

These new formulas have been a long time in the making, and I can’t wait to show you what we’ve been working on.
Consider this your first little glimpse. 🌵

Call us wild. We don’t mind.

Somewhere along the way, knowing who made your skincare became unusual.

Knowing where the ingredients came from became excessive.
Making things slowly became inefficient.

Buying fewer, thoughtfully formulated products became less profitable than convincing people they needed ten.

And “handmade” became something we had to distinguish from skincare produced by the thousands.

We think that’s a little backwards.

We believe the person formulating your skincare should understand formulation.

We believe sourcing matters.

We believe you deserve to know what’s inside your jar — and why it’s there.

We believe there’s still value in whole plants, slow infusions, small batches and human hands.

We believe skincare can be simple without being thoughtless.

Natural without being anti-science.

Beautiful without being mass-produced.

And no, we’re not interested in becoming another brand with a warehouse full of products just because bigger is supposed to mean better.

We’d rather make less.

Know more.

Source thoughtfully. Source American grown ingredients.

Knowing which farmer planted the seed and cared for the soil.

And stay close to what we create.

That might ruffle a few feathers in an industry built around more, faster, newer.

Call us wild.

A little wild.
A little sun-worn.
Forever chasing the last light.

Meet the ritual made for wherever the road takes you.