To create 100% natural, entirely handmade from scratch, superior quality skin and hair care products using organic, wildcrafted and home grown herbs and flowers.

Our products are honestly formulated to promote your health and radiance. Alpenglow Skin Care is a very small, family-run business that is very personal, not corporate and we care about your satisfaction.

We harvest Yarrow annually with our neighbor, Priscilla Russell who is an Alaskan expert ethnobotanist. Also helping is Alana and her friend Cecilia. Many hands make light work.

What makes our products special?

We make our Alpenglow Skin Care products entirely by hand, in small batches in our home workshop in Homer, Alaska.

We wildcraft Alaskan botanicals which means we harvest wild plants sustainably and in their peak of season. We gather wild Alaskan Rose petals, yarrow flowers, horsetail, nettles, fireweed, and cottonwood buds for their scent and therapeutic properties. We also grow many herbs and flowers organically for their beneficial properties.

We use a plethora of organic plant oils and nut butters. They are far more benefical, and that is our priority.

We formulate our products so that each and every ingredient is beneficial to your skin, hair and health. It’s a totally different process than the commercial industry that invests so highly in marketing and packaging, putting very little money into the ingredients. Cheap manufacturing - which often means harmful ingredients, means more money for corporate profits. At Alpenglow, you’ll find every product works incredibly well, smells terrific (not over scented), is concentrated, healthy and just feels great.

What don't we use in our products?

You will never find petroleum products, synthetic fragrances, alcohol, parabens, propylene glycols, sodium lauryl or laureth sulfates, DEA, urea, formaldehyde or any other synthetic chemical in any of our products. Why?

We are concerned about your health, our health, the health of the planet. Synthetics can irritate skin, some are carcinogenic or endocrine disrupters, they pollute our precious water and they provide no benefit.

Look at the list of ingredients in an expensive name brand product you may now be using. It may say "all natural" or "organic" on the label but when you read the ingredient list you can't pronounce it and you wonder how natural or healthy is. The truth is that there is not the regulation or testing of ingredients that we would expect from products permitted on shelves in stores across America.

Alpenglow products are truly 100% natural - that is the guiding light in our work. Read our ingredient list on any product and rest assured.

We live, love and embrace LOCAL...

We use local ingredients whenever possible. Not only are all the wild and organic plants we harvest local, our neighbors raise several dozen goats sustainably and we use their hand-milked goats' milk. It has been treasured for centuries for its moisturizing properties.

We also use pure Alaskan snow or rain instead of tap or city water because it doesn't contain chlorine or hard minerals and is pH balanced for skin and hair. Have you noticed how soft your hair is after it's been in the rain?

We grow numerous organic herbs for our products to make them unsurpassed in quality and purity and reduce shipping, thereby fuel consumption, of these local ingredients.

Our commitment to green and safe packaging...

We use only the safest plastics for bottling our products, predominately #1 PET and #2 HDPE. These are recyclable in most communities. All packaging materials such as peanuts, newspaper, cardboard and bubble-wrap are reused/never virgin, to minimize resource consumption and reduce waste. All of the paper we use is 100% post-consumer recycled. Our product labels have a corn based biopolymer rather than a petrochemical base.

We do this because honestly, we care.

Say NO to fragrance oils!

We have optimized the selection and ratios of ingredients to create concentrated, effective products with aromas made only from flowers and plants.

We use ONLY pure essential oils that have been steam distilled or cold pressed directly from plants and flowers to scent our products. Not only do they smell so much better than any synthetic fragrance could, they are beneficial to the skin and aromatherapeutic.

Many synthetic fragrance oils are toxic - endocrine disrupters, estrogen mimics and carcinogenic. The government isn't keeping our skin and hair care products safe enough, it's up to consumers to choose wisely.

Say YES to nutritional ingredients!

We are meticulous about the content and source of every ingredient we select.

We use organic cold pressed, steam distilled and unrefined oils and butters because their nutritional profile is far better.

There is a plethora of bioavailable antioxidants and vitamins that our skin absorbs. The more processed an ingredient is, the more compromised its healthy and beneficial properties are, just like with food.

Have sensitive or problem skin?

Our entirely natural products work wonders for healthy and normal skin, as well as sensitive and problem skin, including babies’ delicate skin.

If you have a cabinet full of skin care products claiming to be hypo-allergenic but your sensitive skin still breaks out – you’ll LOVE our products. We use organic oils, nut butters and only the purest ingredients because they are non-irritating, mild and effective at nourishing and moisturizing the most sensitive complexions. There is there is no real definition of ‘hypo-allergenic’. It’s a marketing term, there are no government standards or required testing to prove a product won’t cause an allergic reaction.

Why no alcohol?

In addition to the chemical soup, water and alcohol are main ingredients in almost all commercial skin products.

Many of us are aware that alcohol dries the skin and can leave it irritated. Why is it so commonly used?

Because it’s inexpensive. With water as the main ingredient, alcohol is added to evaporate the water. When we apply these diluted commercial lotions, they 'disappear' quickly on our skin - drying it in the process.

Alpenglow is soooo NOT a corporation...

If only a small percentage of the money you spend on skin care products goes into the ingredients, why are commercial skin care products so expensive?

Because advertising, marketing, elaborate packaging, and corporate profits are expensive. No joke, 90% or more of your money goes into the 'business' of skin care, not the actual ingredients you are putting on your skin. With Alpenglow products, our 'business' is minimal, our 'products' are where it's at. We'd rather:

1) use organic jojoba oil which is very costly but the best oil for your skin,

2) make our Face, Hand & Body washes far more concentrated than our competitors but not add artificial thickeners to give you the 'perception' of a concentrated product,

3) spend hours wildcrafting botanicals to create superior quality products using local, healthy ingredients rather than buying 'lotion base', 'soap mix' and 'lip balm base'. We make everything from scratch instead of outsourcing the manufacturing,

4) use paper wrappers on our bar soap because they are a fraction of the waste, energy and cost of a box packaging etc.

This list goes on and on. We put our effort, energy and cost into the product, not into the marketing or 'illusion' of a high quality product that provides little or no benefit for your skin. Our business model is the reverse of the corporate world and our customers couldn't be happier.

Alpenglow Skin Care products are unmatched in purity, quality, workmanship, scent, effectiveness and concentration. They are excellent for even the most sensitive skin. Enough said from us. Please read our customers opinions on our testimonial page.

Certifications and organizations we are members of and support