Our Origins
One sunny day in August, the founder of eirenē found herself on the dairy farm of an older Welsh family out in the North Fork of Long Island. There had been 2 calves in a nearby enclosure, born just the night prior. As she drew near, the calves began to get on their four (and very unproportional might I add) legs and hobbled over to the gate to say hello. Just a bit away were 3 ducks, sitting in the lush daisy-covered grass, quacking away. In their formation, they seemed to judge the city girl, who lived on the same block in Brooklyn her entire life, as she attempted to pet one of the calves.
To everyone's surprise, the calf took a liking to her and let out what I like to think of as their first moo's. From that point forward, I felt as though something was missing from the life I was living in the city. In that moment, I felt more connected to God and his creation than I ever did before. In a city of yellow cabs and cannabis stores on every block, it can be hard to remember where we come from. Upon coming back to my city street, I was desperate to be able to reconnect to that feeling in any way I could find. For a week, I ate the commodies we had purchased at every farm stand we passed. When all the butter and pies and duck eggs had run dry, I yearned for another alleyway of connection to the pastures I had briefly been acquainted to.
A huge part of life as a woman is my self care. Its my personal philosophy that there's no better way to honor the body that God gave me than to take care of it to the best of my ability. I'm keen to assume that many of you feel similarly. Thats why many of go to the gym regularly, take a multivitamin, get in our daily protein, and try (sometimes unsuccessfully) to get at least 8 hours of sleep. Going beyond the usual daily requirements, it's occured to me that one of womans biggest gifts is taking pleasure in the little things: in brushing their hair, painting their finger nails, getting dressed for the day, choosing their fragrance. I can keep going, but for me, my favorite is showering. As weird as it might sound, I love double shampooing, brushing throuhh my conditioned hair, and scrubbing down with my loofah. The final step, my absolute favorite, is when I get out of the shower slightly damp, and can begin to apply my skincare.
Taking care of your skin is one of the most rewarding forms of self love. The skin is humankinds largest organ, and is presented for all to see. In taking good care of our skin, we can rest assured than we are putting our best selves forward.
Its hard to scroll on social media without seeing hundreds of posts telling us that everything is harming us: endocrine disrupters, tap water, emf's and microwaves, polyester. Personally, I found it overwhelming, and more than anything my soul yearned to feel what it had out on that farm. Upon further research of how homesteading farmers use the whole animal, I discovered tallow. Tallow, the rendered form of animal fat, or suet, has been used for centuries in cooking, soap, candles, and skincare. I felt as though i stumbled onto ancient wisdom, knowing that generations of women before me had used the same natural rememdy. Unlike modern lotions filled with unpronounceable ingredients, tallow is simple, recongnizable, and nourshing in a way our skin truly understands.
The purpose of me creating eirenē was to return to time-honored and reliable remedies. When using our tallow, I want everyone to feel even just a sliver of what I experienced on that farm. The only words I can think of to truly describe it are bliss and serenity. Tallow became the cornerstone of that feeling because it embodies that spirit- ancestral, grounding, and unapologetically simple.
With my feminine background, I felt drawn to use this beautiful component not just as something functional, but as a way to elevate daily self-care into a moment of peace.
My prayers for each one of you is that your jar of eirenē envokes these 3 essential states of being; serenity, self love, and connection to something greater.
Signed, Sasha