PAA Mysterium Serum

Since I can't find my comment on PAA sub-forum anymore, here it goes.

I was looking into getting some unscented serum that doesn't conflict with my frags and I saw this PAA Mysterium Serum. It comes in a travel size container which is always a plus.
I was googling some of the ingredients to see what is what and I found this other place which is selling something ... that is exactly same!

Ingredients from PAA site


Ingredients: Purified Water, Aloe Vera, Shea Butter, Fractionated Coconut Oil, Olive Squalane, Glycerin, Natural Vegetable Emulsifying Wax, Stearic Acid, Hyaluronic Acid, Allantoin, Pea Extract, DL Panthenol, Safflower Oil, Prickly Pear Oil, MSM, Green Tea Extract, Silver Dihydrogen Citrate, Citiric Acid & Menthol

Ingredients from Texas Natural Supply

Ingredients: Water, Aloe Vera Juice, Shea Butter, Fractionated Coconut Oil, Olive Squalane, Vegetable Glycerin, Natural Vegetable Emulsifying Wax, Vegetable Stearic Acid, Hyaluronic Acid, Allantoin, Pea Extract, DL Panthenol (Pro-Vitamin B), Safflower Oil, MSM, Green Tea Extract, Silver Dihydrogen Citrate, Citiric Acid

Only difference I see is that PAA is using Menthol (which I prefer) and Purified Water. Anyone here familiar with Texas Natural Supply? Are they copying our artisans instead of coming up with their own formula? That would be a shame because it takes effort and money to come up with something unique and good.
Or am I missing something?

After looking at it, I see that TNS forgot to copy Prickly Pear Oil.

Knowing PAA’s history, it is probably the other way around.

Yeah I thought it was kinda suspicious that the thread got deleted shortly after this was brought up.

Knowing PAA’s history, it is probably the other way around.

Ya think?

Seriously though, it's so obvious that he buys this base from them, rebottles it, and slaps his label on it. Which is fine until it's promoted and advertised as his own original creation. Some "artisan"...SMH

Hello,

I took down your comment because it seemed less a comment and more baiting. In short, it came off like trolling...which we really don't have time for nor appreciate. It's just not kind. I apologize if I misunderstood your intent.

Yes we have our balm made for us, this isn't such an odd or strange thing as it seems to be being framed. As a hardworking and growing small business we try to offer our customers everything they could want in regards to shaving and male grooming on our site. One stop shopping, customers love that and save on shipping. Rebranding a related/helpful product is not that odd. We took time searching for the best balm out there with what we believe to possess the best ingredients, test and trial and then offer it to out customers, as stated on the sales page. Nowhere did I claim this was handmade by us. Do I think it's the best and kickass ass, yes. Do I need to announce to everyone and other similar businesses this? No. 


I mean, we have our razors made for us as well, scuttles, witch hazel, African Black Soap (it's made in Africa), aloe, shea, etc, things we just don't have time to do or can't do. We do QC and then package them...again, this is not uncommon or wrong. We do our own perfuming, hydrosol distilations, shaving soap, pomades, afetrshaves, EDP, etc. Plenty of hands on artisan creation is done by us, all day long. 


[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]As I mentioned, we are a small growing business. After years of hard work and saving, we bought our own building last year, have 3 employees and loads of responsibilities. Products like this offset costs, and also keeps retail costs down for our customers. Costs can be anything from Flat Rate shipping we offer, EU Certification, Military Discounts, Free Shipping, overhead, etc.  [/font]A lot goes into running a business and I hate to see it over-simplified and distilled down to something bad, or unusual, which I can tell you it is neither.  


[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In fact, most ingredients used by soap makers or bath and body product producers are “prepared” to some degree or other.  For example, we don’t grow the coconuts or make the lye that are used as ingredient s in the preparation of our soap, nor do we process the jojoba wax we use in our soaps either.  Prepared bases are a great way to ensure a safe and affordable product for everyone. And this is an extremely common practice among many bath and body producers.  Most larger companies don’t make anything at all, they hire contract manufacturers to complete the entire production process and then simply apply their brand.  Also, Water based solutions all have to be sequestered and challenge tested.  [To not have it challenge tested is just irresponsible]. We would not be able to do this process as we are such a small supplier and the costs are out of our reach.  Our suppliers are carefully selected based on a number of factors but we make sure that what we are preparing and selling is both safe, effective, and high quality.  We do what we can in our facility but there are some processes that are not able to do, however this does not mean we don’t stand behind the product.  We have it because we think it’s great. Simple as that.
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[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Anyone can always email us, PM us or even call us if they ever have any concerns and suggestions. This is our passion and we can talk shop all day! Hope this clears us any confusion.[/font]

[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]D[/font]

Hey Erik, do you have your balm made for you or did you just find an off the shelf bulk formula you like a lot? Because one is not like the other.

Will and Sri come up with formulations with complex ingredients and processing that are contracted with labs. You buying a bulk base formula from TNS isn’t the same as that, brother

Hey Erik, do you have your balm made for you or did you just find an off the shelf bulk formula you like a lot? Because one is not like the other.

Will and Sri come up with formulations with complex ingredients and processing that are contracted with labs. You buying a bulk base formula from TNS isn’t the same as that, brother

Joey, maybe he came up with the formula and now TNS is selling it as their own. Let the man clear things up first.

"We took time searching for the best balm out there with what we believe to possess the best ingredients, test and trial and then offer it to out customers, as stated on the sales page." I thought I was pretty clear. (Not sure what else you want from us)

Regardless, we try to offer everything people could need whether it is made in house or out (for reasons covered above). If anyone has any further questions please shoot us an email rather than me repeat myself! 

Take care!

"We took time searching for the best balm out there with what we believe to possess the best ingredients, test and trial and then offer it to out customers, as stated on the sales page." I thought I was pretty clear. (Not sure what else you want from us)

Regardless, we try to offer everything people could need whether it is made in house or out (for reasons covered above). If anyone has any further questions please shoot us an email rather than me repeat myself! 

Take care!

Thanks a lot for clearing this out. What I understand is this - PAA has done lots of research and found a balm base made by TNS and they sell it after packaging/adding menthol and/or scents. Nobody is copying anyone else. This is similar to buying a great melt and pour base and adding scents/menthol/packaging etc.

As long as the product is great, and nobody is copying anyone else, I don't personally see anything wrong with buying mass produced stuff and selling it. Thanks a lot CaD314

EDIT - I actually like the idea of adding value to the community this way. Without PAA doing the research, we wouldn't know that this is actually good stuff. Now, if I ever find that I love certain EO/FO, I can buy this in bulk, add my own scent and have a great product.