Frequently Asked Questions

Our Black Clay Soap should be used like any other bar of soap: wet your face and hands, create a nice lather by rubbing your hands together with the soap between your hands, then use your fingers to wash your face gently for 15-30 seconds. Give special attention to areas of congestion, like the sides of the nose, the hairline, and the chin. Rinse copiously with lukewarm water, pat dry with a towel.

This is a very concentrated essential oil blend, formulated to be applied to blemishes 3-4 times a day. Use this product as the last layer in your skincare routine, on top of all other products, and keep it away from your eyes. Do not apply this serum to the entire face—only to blemishes.

Each of our masks can be used two ways - as a facial scrub, or as a leave-on mask. Start by cleansing your skin and hands. Then, combine two spoonfuls of mask with just enough warm water to make a smooth paste in a bowl (add the water slowly). Gently spread the paste over your clean face and neck. If you’re only exfoliating, work the mask in circles using the mildest possible pressure, for about a minute. Step into the shower and rinse clean. If you’re masking, leave the product on your skin for 10-15 minutes, pressing it with wet hands or spritzing with thermal water to moisten if it starts to get tight. When you’re ready, step into the shower and use gentle circular motions with the fingertips while rinsing away the mask. Still have questions? Watch our Detox and Adzuki videos!

We recommend keeping your handmade, organic soap on a soap saver or our sustainably-crafted soap stand, safely away from any water in your soap dish. This allows the soap to dry on all sides, so your soap will last much longer, and you won’t have soupy soap in the meantime. On the road? Try our soap travel bag, a convenient way to keep your favorite soap handy and safe when you’re far from home.

Take a look at our blog post on this topic, written by our founder, Dr. Sarah Villafranco. The use of essential oils in pregnancy is a personal decision, and one you should make with your healthcare provider.

Skin care during cancer treatment can be tricky, as many people experience increased sensitivity to ingredients and scents. Here’s our guide to skin care during cancer treatment, and we’re also available to answer your questions via email, as always!

We recommend using our products by the "Best Before" date which can be found on the bottom of the box and/or container in a BBMMDDYY format. For example, BB060322 means your product is best used before June 3, 2022, even if it has not been opened.

Yep. Tons. 

All Osmia products are cruelty-free, and the only animals we use for testing are ourselves! Most of our products are vegan, with a few exceptions listed below. We use a bunny logo on each product page of our website to show which items are ‘cruelty-free and vegan’ and which are just ‘cruelty-free’. The same bunny appears on the product packaging, so find it there, as well.

Here is a list of our cruelty-free, non-vegan products:
- Detox Exfoliating Mask (contains honey)
- Serenity Milk Bath (contains milk powder)
- Lip Doctor (contains beeswax)
- Lip Repair (contains lanolin, honey, & beeswax)
- Pumpkin Facial Soap (contains honey)
- Lavender Pine Soap (contains buttermilk powder)
- Milky Rose Soap (contains buttermilk powder)
- Oh So Soap (contains buttermilk powder)
- Purely Gentle Mud Cleanser (contains honey)

Nope. Our products contain natural and organic ingredients, and don’t contain any of these things, but we are not a certified organic company. The National Organic Program of the USDA, which provides the standards for organic certification, publishes the National List of Allowed Substances for Non-Agricultural Ingredients. Since this list is based on materials used in agriculture or food production, many of our favorite beneficial skincare ingredients are not mentioned. On each product page and label, we let you know the percent of certified organic ingredients in that product. Our priority is purchasing the highest quality ingredients from the highest quality suppliers, grown organically or wild-harvested whenever possible. Some of our suppliers have not achieved organic certification yet, so we can’t list their ingredients, even when organically grown and processed, as certified organic. We’d rather have it that way than using a certified organic ingredient that smells worse and comes from a company we don’t know and trust. If you have any questions, you can email us any time!

We do not use any gluten-containing ingredients, but we are not a certified gluten-free facility. We use certified gluten-free oats in some of our bath and body products. We also use a liquid oat extract, which is not a certified gluten-free ingredient, in our Purely Calm Gel Toner.

Our Vitamin E oil used to be soy-derived, but now consists of mixed tocopherols from non-GMO sunflower sources. We use this oil, in combination with an organic rosemary extract, as an antioxidant in many of our soaps and some of our oil products. It is listed in the ingredients in every product in which we use it.

We do not currently carry any products with sunscreen. 

We’d prefer that you not use a Vitamin C Serum with any of our products that contain sodium benzoate a natural preservative in our Purely Simple Face Cream. When sodium benzoate is mixed with vitamin C, it can undergo changes that make it less safe than it is in our products, where it is not used with vitamin C. Our reformulated Purely Simple (due to launch in fall 2021) will not contain sodium benzoate, so it will be fine for use with a Vitamin C Serum.

- Detox Exfoliating Mask (organic honey powder)

- Purely Gentle Mud Cleanser (organic honey)

- Pumpkin Facial Soap (organic honey)

- Lip Repair (manuka honey)

We recommend the products in our Irritated Face Kit, and suggest that you order 1-2 sample sized kits to get started. When you have dermatitis, it’s always good to make sure the products agree with your skin before you purchase the full sizes.

We have a great blog post about natural acne management, complete with education and lifestyle recommendations. For skin care, we recommend our Breakout Face Kit.

We recommend starting with the information and products on our rosacea page.

We recommend starting with the information and products on our eczema page.

We love our Purely Simple Face Cream and/or a drop of Nectar for the eye area. If you have extremely sensitive skin, the Purely Simple has a lower concentration of essential oils and is a great place to start.

Yes! We especially love our Oh So Soap or our new Naked soap as shampoo bars. Oh So is available on our website, and Naked is available with many of our retail partners and on Amazon.

Osmia products are made in the USA, either at our Colorado Headquarters or with one of our US-based manufacturing partners.

Please allow 3-5 days for standard order processing, and up to 7-10 days for order processing during our seasonal sales. Once your order has shipped, you will receive a confirmation email from us with your tracking information.

Thank you for shopping with us!

The Osmia team will combine your entire order so it fits in one beautiful gift box if you have chosen "add a gift box" at checkout. If you need more than one gift box, please purchase a separate gift box ($8 each), for each additional gift. If you need further assistance, please email help@osmiaskincare.com, and we will do our best to accommodate you. 

CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR GIFT BOXES

Unfortunately, we do not have any control over this, as every country sets its own customs charges for packages entering from international destinations. The customs charge seems to range from 5-50% of the value of your order, due upon delivery of your package. We do not provide refunds for customs charges, so be sure to research them before you place an international order.

Email us at info@osmiaskincare.com! We want to make sure you’re using the products correctly, and that you’ve had every chance to bond with your Osmia goodies. But we also want happy customers, so please let us know what’s going on, and we will try to make you just that — happy!

Good question.

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Unfortunately, they are not. If you are looking to plant trees and write them off on your taxes, please visit the One Tree Planted website directly. 

If you’re shipping to multiple addresses, it’s best to place separate orders and add a gift box to each order. If you’re shipping to one address, you can add extra gift boxes, and leave us a note at checkout regarding which items you’d like in which box.

Feel free to leave us a note with your order! If we have the free samples you request in stock, we’ll do our best to include 1-2 samples! But if you have your heart set on specific samples, the safest bet is to add trial sizes (from the drop down menu on the product page) to your order!

Please email us at info@osmiaskincare.com!

You can email us at info@osmiaskincare.com and we will get back to you as soon as possible! We love working with bloggers, but have a limited budget for doing so — we will work you into the schedule when we can, and appreciate all you’re doing to spread the word about natural beauty!