Lesley left, Lyrae right.
About The Good Life:
The Good Life Collective is a wholesale mail-order distribution company formed by the synergistic merging of the sales and marketing efforts of Lesley (the artist) of Hankettes and Lyrae (the scientist) of Lyrae's Naturals in an effort to jointly market their all natural and organic products. By selling our products cooperatively we are able to offer a complete line of locally manufactured all natural and organic bath, body, baby and homecare products. We have also already begun selling other complementary products made by like-minded companies to offer you even more!
About the Manufacturers:
Lyrae's Naturals
History of Company
Lyrae began making natural products for herself and her family 10 years ago because she could not find quality natural products that she could afford as a student. With her belief in using natural products, and her passion for creating products, she gradually began replacing all the synthetic products that she used to use in her household from hand soap, household cleaners and laundry soap to facial care products, toothpaste and hair care. About 7 years ago Lyrae began selling products to the public at the local farmer’s market with the intention of making a little cash just to buy more supplies so she could make a greater variety of products for herself, family and friends. But the enormous positive customer feedback and requests for future products led her to create Lyrae's Naturals with the intention of creating a wide variety of affordable natural alternatives to the synthetic products found in the market today.
About The Products
Using her BSc. Honours, in Environmental Sciences, Lyrae uses her knowledge and skills in research to develop products that are as safe for us as they are for the planet. All of her products are handmade in Sechelt, BC in small batches to ensure quality and freshness. All products are biodegradable as all ingredients are all natural. Only pure essential oils are used to scent any of our products, and only herbs, spices, plant extracts, oxides, micas and clays are used to colour any of our products. We also offer many unscented versions of our products for those who have sensitive noses, even to natural products. Whenever possible the herbs we use are either organic and or locally grown. Native plant species are wildcrafted by Lyrae herself using ethical principles to ensure that wild populations are never harmed in the making of her products. Lyrae will often not use certain plant species and certain essential oils from certain species that may be endangered or threatened in the wild due to pressure from over-harvesting and / or habitat loss. We never use genetically modified ingredients or any animal products (beeswax and honey are the only exceptions, these ingredients are found only in Oatmeal & Honey Soap, and all Herbal Salves and Balms - Vegan varieties made with Carnauba Wax will be available soon), and our products are of course not tested on animals, except of course our pet care line which is intended for use on pets!
All paper we use is recycled and / partly recycled and unbleached. We minimize packaging wherever possible and all packaging used is recyclable. The use of plastics is minimized whenever possible, and when plastics are preferred only the most benign plastics are used. PVC plastic is never used because in addition to not being recyclable it contains chemical stabilizers which may leach into products, and because if it is ever burned it releases a highly toxic form of dioxin. It is for this reason that we pour our soaps into wooden moulds as most soap moulds are in fact made from PVC plastic. Our custom made wooden moulds give our soaps their elegant and unique oval shape for a handmade soap. The oval shape is much preferred to the square blocks often sold by other soapmakers because they fit nicely in the palm of their hand and have no rough edges that must be worked off before the bar fits comfortably.
Non-Profit Contributions
Lyrae also uses a portion of her profits to fund various environmental research and/or environmental educational projects she gets involved in. She eventually intends to pursue a MSc.in the plant sciences when she intends to study BC's rare and sensitive indigenous lichens. She wants to study the impacts of climate change and forest fragmentation on the lichen populations, and what in turn that may mean to the rest of the forest ecosystem that relies on these lichens for nourishment. Lyrae is currently devoting her research time into the development of a comprehensive database of information and pictures allowing for identification of all of BC's biological diversity, from the tiniest mosses and club lichens to beautiful wildflowers and massive old growth trees, amphibians, bugs, slugs, birds and mammals. This is an ongoing collection which is updated biannually with additional species’ pictures and information. She posts this information online free for all those who wish to learn about the biodiversity that surrounds us. View her website(s) www.lyraesalternatives.com for more information on Lyrae's non-profit work.
Hankettes
“organic cotton cloth always within reach”
Hankettes Company Background
The idea behind Hankettes came about in early 1996, during hayfever season. Lesley Roberts, a major hayfever sufferer, was going through a box of “kleenex” a day. Her nose was red and sore from the roughness of the tissue and she was concerned about all the waste. She thought “handkerchiefs are the solution!” but standard handkerchiefs are not very soft or absorbent. They are also not as handy as boxes of tissue all around the house. You may have a hanky stuffed in your pocket, but where is that clean one when you need it? Plus, they are so big, it’s kinda gross using it so many times!
One night while trying to sleep she thought of it! Lesley jumped out of bed and began folding cloth napkins and cutting up boxes, trying to figure out how to make hankies pull out of a box like tissue. Once she got that, she decided to make the hankies smaller than standard. Next came the name....Hankettes!
Hankettes started in Vancouver in the family house. For the first year Lesley did all the cutting, sewing, packing, and sales herself. She did this while watching her 1 ½ year daughter and 4 ½ year old son. She began hiring part time help when it got to be too much for her to do it all. She was very committed to homeschooling her two children and hired other homeschooling moms whose children were welcome to come to the house to hang out too.
Now the company is located on the family’s co-op acreage in Roberts Creek, BC in a 40’ long by 8’ wide semi trailer. The product line has grown alot from hankies that pull out of boxes but the primary company goal is still the same...to replace disposable products with organic reusable ones. All the cutting, sewing, silk screening, packaging, graphics, etc. are done in the trailer.
We are all about: creating “right livelihood” jobs for local community; creating wholesome household products; supporting organic farming; growing enough to include co-op childcare on the premises; sharing naturally good products with everyone!
Why Organic Cotton?
Conventionally grown cotton uses synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. It pollutes the water, soil, and air, thus poses a health risk to farmers, wildlife and you!
An average of 4lbs of chemicals are used per acre of conventionally-grown cotton per year in the US. Cotton crops cover nearly 34 million hectares of the earth and worldwide use nearly 25% of all insecticides...that’s $2.6 billion dollars worth of pesticides. In 1995, 240,000 fish were killed by pesticide-contaminated runoff from cotton fields in Alabama alone. It is estimated 67 million birds are killed in the US each year from pesticides. In developing countries, up to 14% of all occupational injuries and 10% of all fatal injuries can be attributed to pesticides.
Further, conventionally grown cotton uses chemicals in the processing and milling process which contributes even more to the problem.
Organic cotton is grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, therefore doesn’t damage the soil, water, or air. Organic cotton farmers use beneficial insects to help control pests. They rotate crops often with grains. In order to improve soil health and quality, compost and green manures are added.
What About The Trees?
It takes about 6 million trees to make one year’s worth of tissue. About 3.5 tons of wood goes into making 1 ton of tissue paper. In order to process these trees, hundreds of thousands of pounds of chlorinated dioxins are dumped into rivers annually. Each year in the US alone, over 200 billion tissues are tossed into landfills. If you took all those tissues and laid them out, they would cover 1.5 million football fields. Landfills are one third filled by paper products.
By replacing as many disposable paper products as possible with reusable ones, we save a lot of trees, reduce chemicals being released into our Earth, and help preserve landfill space.
How is Hankettes part of the solution?
Our primary goal is to create organic reusable products that replace conventional disposable ones. We have created: handkerchiefs that pull out of a box to replace disposable paper tissues; reusable cosmetic squares to replace disposable cosmetic rounds; reusable facial mitts that pull out of boxes to replace disposable cosmetic wipes; reusable wet wipes to replace disposable “Huggies” type wet wipes.
Over the years our customers began requesting a variety of organic cotton products. We are now manufacturing a full line of quality organic cotton household and body care items.
Mountain Mama
"Mountain Mama" is a partnership between a tiny organic herb farm and plant nursery (Edible Landscapes) and the organic cotton product and design folks at Hankettes. Edible Landscapes either carefully grows or purchases Certified Organic BC herbs to create the tea and other herb products it uses. We then hand strip, hand blend and hand bag our herbs before they are passed to Hankettes who then packages the blends into the organic cotton tea pouches they have silk screened and sewn.
Crescent Moon Duvets
When you want bedding that is heavenly soft, non-allergenic, comfortable and natural, choose Crescent Moon products. We process our sleep sets without using harmful chemicals, dyes or bleaches and we use 100% natural alpaca wool. Alpaca wool comes from live animals grown without herbicides in a stress-free environment, and we do not dip our animals in a pesticide bath. Our alpaca wool bedding is the allergy-freindly and environmentally friendly choice in bedding.
The Organic Cotton Company
We are an ethically based corporation focusing on organic fiber production & processing. We purchase organic Pima - the highest quality organic cotton in the world - directly from the farmers. We then clean and spin the raw cotton into our soft and supple fabrics. We design our underwear so that you will get 4 to 5 times longer product life than most conventional underwear. Jon, the owner of the company, is an active member in many organic organizations and is involved in training and writing articles on organic farming practices.
"Natural Products Made By Planet Lovers"
This page was last updated: February 11, 2008
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