Many people ask us why they can't find our products in Whole Foods stores anymore. The answer is really simple. We love Whole Foods and they were nothing but wonderful to us. But, to be consistently available in their stores, we would have had to make our products last for a full year on the shelves, which would require us to switch to a synthetic preservative. Switching to harsh synthetic preservatives is just not what we're all about, it would undermine what we stand for as advocates for clean skincare. 

We never use harmful synthetic preservatives because more often than not, they're just plain bad for your skin. So, we could have added synthetic preservatives into our line to make them last longer and easier to wholesale, but then they wouldn't be Luminance anymore.

Now, our products do need preservatives, and so we use a very natural and very safe one derived from red radish roots. In our oil blend products, which don't require a preservative, but do need protection from oxidation, we use antioxidants derived from natural floral sources.

As you probably know, our products are handmade fresh daily in our studio. When we say fresh, we mean really fresh. In fact, the Delicate Cleanser you're putting on your face was probably made a week or so ago. 

So, amicably, we went our separate ways with Whole Foods. We pulled our line out of stores and went back to only selling online and at a handful of Farmer's Markets in the Bay Area and one very special natural store in Berkeley California (Three Stone Hearth at https://www.threestonehearth.com) It's not that we think Whole Foods is a bad place to be—not at all. In fact, they make every effort to source their stock with integrity and care, they treated us with respect and generosity, and we had a blast working with all their wonderful team members.

But by selling online, we can preserve and control the integrity of our recipes and only send out items that have been made fresh and shipped immediately. We sleep easier at night knowing that our products are made from only what your skin needs and nothing has been added for our benefit of making more money or gaining exposure by selling less-than-clean products in stores.

We have never and will never compromise our standards, and for that reason, we remain happily unattached to all mainstream retail.