Production

Natural and effective

Whether distilling, extracting or exponentiation: through sensitive and appropriate processing systems, natural raw materials become suitable for human needs. Fortunately, Weleda has a wealth of experience in dealing with the healing and soothing powers of nature.

We process approximately 1,000 natural substances into cosmetics and medicinal products. But natural isn’t enough for us—our ingredients have to be effective too. They have to work with your body’s own ability to heal, to restore well-being and impart internal and whole-body radiance. To ensure our ingredients keep their innate potency, we harvest quickly and process them as little as possible, taking excellent care of them along the way. Weleda’s pharmaceutical knowledge and experience determines which production method is appropriate in each case.

First of all, we ‘potentise’ all of our liquids by hand, gently agitating them in a specific motion. (You can imagine this by pretending you are holding a jar, and shake it gently lengthways in a figure eight). In all our heat and stirring processes, the possible impact of extraneous energy sources is kept to a minimum, with wi-fi and electromagnetic radiation measured, minimised and fully screened in sensitive processing areas.

Furthermore, in anthroposophic medicine, the relationship between metal and planetary forces, between microcosm and macrocosm also plays an important role. So we choose the times of exponentiation by following a calendar – for example, silver exponentiation would never take place during the waning moon. We use distilled water for all exponentiation, which we consider rejuvenating, as it has the quality of rainwater.

Production processes

For thermal processes, such as distillation, valuable essential oils are extracted – for example from lavender blossoms – with the help of water vapour. The resulting natural fragrances are used for perfuming various Weleda cosmetics. Maceration is another important process at Weleda. In this process freshly cut calendula plants are crushed and mixed with alcohol and water. Two weeks later, the mixture is pressed and filtered: the result is the calendula tincture, a valuable plant extract.

All these processes and processing steps have one thing in common – they create a bridge between the natural state of the ingredient and humans and make accessible to us what grows in nature, benefiting from the natural nurturing and healing qualities of the ingredient.  And because we believe unwaveringly in cultivating beauty for all creatures, we do not test our skin care products or their ingredients on animals, and neither do our suppliers.

Because of these sustainable production methods and the care with which we use natural resources, Weleda has earned certification from NATRUE, an international not-for-profit organisation that aims to provide guidance and reassurance to consumers around the world by offering stringent and detailed standards for certification. We are proud to be a founding member of NATRUE.