No glitter. No dyes. No crap.
For most of human history, “skincare” wasn’t an industry. It was instinct.
People reached for what was already around them, plants, oils, waxes, clays, minerals. The things that grew, or the things that came out of the ground. There wasn’t a label for it because there didn’t need to be.
That’s where we live: in the long story that started before laboratories, before branding, before we needed to convince anyone that what comes from the earth works.
A Lineage Older Than Industry
Humans have been tending their skin with natural materials for tens of thousands of years. Ancient Egyptians used plant oils and mineral pigments not just for beauty but for protection against the sun and sand. Greeks and Romans massaged themselves with olive oil, scraping it away with strigils to remove dirt and sweat, a daily act of care. Indigenous communities across the world relied on local botanicals for salves, waxes, and balms that healed, protected, and softened.
When you trace every modern serum or lotion back to its roots, you end up in the same place: dirt and leaf, oil and resin, salt and stone.
We just never left.
The Longest Skincare: Plants, Minerals, and Time
Plant oils like olive, jojoba, and macadamia have been used for centuries to soften and protect the skin. Waxes such as candelilla (our favorite) have sealed in moisture long before “hydration barrier” became a buzzword. Clays and mineral salts have drawn impurities out of skin since prehistory.
These aren’t trends. They’re materials that proved themselves over millennia, because they worked. When something lasts that long, it isn’t nostalgia. It’s evidence.
The New Stuff Is the New Stuff
Here’s the funny part: synthetic ingredients are barely a century old. The explosion of lab-made preservatives, artificial dyes, and synthetic fragrances didn’t really start until the early 1900s. Industrial chemistry changed the landscape fast, but that doesn’t mean our biology changed with it. Skin is still skin.
And now, after a hundred years of shortcuts, the entire body care industry (think skin, hair, and nails) is quietly steering back toward the same place our ancestors began: plant-based, mineral-based, sustainable formulations that actually make sense.
We’re not “ahead” of that movement. We’re just right where we’ve always been.
Why We Keep It This Way
Cascadia Roots products are made with ingredients that are either grown or mined, never synthesized, dyed, perfumed, or stabilized in a lab. No preservatives, even the so-called natural ones. If it doesn’t come from the earth, it doesn’t go in.
That choice isn’t about purity culture or fear of chemicals, it’s about trust in time-tested materials. If people have used a plant or mineral on their skin for thousands of years with good results, that’s long-term research you can feel.
From the Earth, Still Working
We make small-batch skincare the same way it’s always been made: slow, intentional, with ingredients that remember the forest, the soil, and the sea. No glitter. No dyes. No crap. Just the oldest skincare in the world, still doing its job.