Life is full of contradictions. While consumer demand skyrockets for cold, mass-produced products like computers and cellphones, people around the world increasingly long for one-of-a kind, good-for-the-planet items so special and warm, they bring the most entitled people back down to earth.
“Handmade” is a language of love for the user and the maker: Actor Bradley Cooper often speaks of making homemade pasta with his grandma as a youth; George Cooney invests entirely in handmade suites, while pal Brad Pitt owns handcrafted motorcycles. Actress Penelope Cruz launched the Red Carpet/Green Cars campaign that calls on stars to arrive to the Oscars electric sports cars and other green vehicles.
Handmade products are steering the modern marketplace: global handicrafts topped $663 billion in 2019. In a recent survey, 72% of people said that handmade items are “more special.” (Lady Gaga is known to gift her pals almost exclusively handcrafted gifts.) Research has even coined the term “the handmade effect.”
Car maker, Bentley, recently unveiled a 2 million dollar automobile with interior trim made from trees that have been naturally preserved for 5,000 years in England’s rivers and lakes. This naturally-sourced wood is one of the car's "sustainable" features, along with the use of rice husk ash, to give their paint an organic and outrageous sparkle. Nothing assembled with a robotic arm can equal the attention to detail a pair of life-affirming, human hands can offer, choosing raw materials from ethical sources that point to quality over quantity.
Like snowflakes, no two handmade products are ever exactly alike. Skin, hair and body care formulas picked and mixed by Zatik organic chemists, part of a “small batch” process, differ in small ways season-to-season due, as every crop year is different in certain characteristics. Plant-influenced results may cause a color or scent variant. But the potency of the products is core and guaranteed, as the small batch process assures items never sit on the shelf and lose ingredient value.
“Handmade” is not a trend; it is an investment in oneself and a show of love and pride for local artisans.
Beauty Blogger Erika Somerfeld for Zatik Naturals
Blog #2- September 10, 2020
