Armstrong's All Natural, Made in America
Armstrong's All Natural, Made in America
Armstrong's All Natural products are handmade in Brooklyn, NY. And the best part is, they only source ingredients from small, local, family farms. Ingredients like ethically gathered beeswax and sustainably harvested, American-grown turpentine.
Fed up with mass produced petrochemical shoe polishes and artificial leather conditioners that can actually be harmful to when applied to product (and also to the environment), Armstrong's decided to produce their own artisanal waxes. Using clean turpentine, distilled the old-fashioned way, means no refining of crude oil or chemical solvent extraction is necessary for the making of their products.
All products are mixed and poured by hand, one tin at a time to ensure a consistent quality product.
Armstrong's mission is simple, to locally source natural and sustainable ingredients that support family farms and organic practices in order to produce the highest quality handcrafted, artisanal products possible. Hand poured in small batches, their creations are superior to others because they are made of natural, pure, reliable ingredients that are simple, sustainable and straightforward.
Since they don't use synthetic chemicals, any "waste" is diverted to their garden or compost system, if not recycled. How cool is that?
Instead of using synthetic chemicals, the following all natural ingredients are used in their products:
Beeswax:
Much the same way turpentine has become a byproduct of the timber industry, beeswax has become a byproduct of honey. As such, the bees are not always treated the same from apiary to apiary. Armstrong's take pride in the fact that they source organic beeswax, ethically gathered from bees raised here in the USA.
Copernicia cerifera:
A special plant in that it has been cultivated all over the world, but only produces a unique wax when grown in its native Brazilian habitat. Armstrong's sources organic carnauba wax, which, in combination with the other ingredients in their leather waxes creates not only a controllable shine, but also a natural hydrophobic barrier to help keep leather protected without the use of silicone or other artificial chemicals.
Dyes:
To add shades to their boot wax, Armstrong's uses completely natural and abundant pigments gathered straight from the earth, which artists and craftspeople have been using for tens of thousands of years. Nothing synthetic!
Lanolin:
Highly beneficial wax extracted from shorn wool before spinning.
Limnanthes Alba Oil:
If you are on the west coast and ever have the opportunity to visit a meadowfoam field during blossoming season, take it! The oil pressed from the seeds of these beautiful flowers, known as meadowfoam seed oil, contains a high number of long chain fatty acids, making it a highly prized oil.
Citrus Sinensis Oil:
An essential oil, derived from cold-pressing orange rinds that acts as a carrier in Armstrong's leather wax. And it smells delicious and works wonders. All of their orange oil is sourced from Florida oranges!
Rhus Succedanea Fruit Wax:
Also known as sumac wax or japan wax, this unique vegetable wax is harvested from the berries of the Japanese Sumac and is a traditional hair styling product used by Sumo wrestlers.
Ricinus Communis Oil:
Triglyceride rich castor oil contains the beautifully unsaturated omega-9 fatty acid, used historically for thousands of years with hundreds of recorded uses.
Tocopherol:
If you have heard of the antioxidant Vitamin E, this is it, in its natural state. Great for the skin and hair.
Turpentine:
Despite the fact that China provides the majority of the world’s supply of turpentine, Armstrong's sources their turpentine from the United States. Most turpentine on the market today is not pure turpentine, but an adulterate byproduct of “sulfite pulping” in which a method of “solvent extraction” is employed to separate the sap of the pine tree from its timber. Armstrong's work with family farms that practice traditional distillation methods in order to extract the pine tree sap by sustainably tapping each tree much in the same way maple trees are tapped for their syrup. The turpentine not only smells great, but also acts as a cleaner, degreaser, and carrier in the boot wax, which helps to evenly distribute and penetrate the waxes and dyes throughout the surface of the porous leather.
Vitis Vinifera Seed Oil:
An all natural, lightweight plant-based oil containing polyphenols, flavonoids, essential fatty acids: lauric, linoleic, myristic, oleic, palmitic, stearic, vitamin A and vitamin E, an antimicrobial antioxidant; Grapeseed oil is the perfect alternative to mineral oil, which is a petroleum byproduct commonly used for conditioning wood and bamboo cutting boards and chopping blocks.