Nuts for a sustainable product

By Ellen Spitaleri

The Clackamas Review, Jun 20, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (5 Reader comments)

ellen spitaleri / clackamas review

Tolú Tahmassbi shows off her multi-use coconut oil product named Tolú—Essential Bliss in a Jar, pictured below. The product both cleans and moisturizes skin.

Tolú Tahmassbi has a goal – she wants everyone to be “happy, healthy and beautiful,” and she’s willing to put her name on the line for it. Literally.

Tahmassbi, a Clackamas County resident who taught Spanish at Cascade Heights Charter School this past year, makes a product she calls Tolú, Essential Bliss in a Jar, and she is, she said, living proof that it works.

Tolú is a multi-use cream made largely from coconut oil, a product Tahmassbi is “passionate about.”

She said, “I formulated it with a bio-chemist, and it is basically coconut oil with a few added ingredients to bring out the benefits of the coconut oil. It’s safe for a baby’s bottom, it’s safe for everyone.”

Two years ago, she explained, she was started to get wrinkles, and she amassed a quantity of anti-wrinkle and eye creams.

Then she happened to compliment a family friend on her flawless skin and slim shape, and the friend told her that she used coconut oil. The friend gave her a small container of coconut oil, and Tahmassbi said, “I took it home and tried it, and immediately got results. My skin was so soft, it was like magic.”

After looking at the ingredients in the creams she already had at home, Tahmassbi discovered that even so-called natural products contained “a lot of toxic ingredients.”

So she threw those other creams away, and has devoted herself to using only coconut oil.

“People started seeing a difference in my skin, my hair and my weight. They asked me if I had my skin re-surfaced, and I told them no, I just use coconut oil,” she said.

Soon Tahmassbi found a supplier of high-grade coconut oil in the Glory Bee Company out of Eugene, and began to formulate a cream that became her signature product.

“It’s my product, and I believe in it. My intention is for everybody to feel good about themselves and not spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on creams that don’t work.

My product is simple, safe and it works,” she noted.

She continued, “I hope my product will help people. You can use it for make-up removal, after shaving, on your hair as a conditioner, as a moisturizer and in the bath, where it melts.”

She sells the 12-ounce jar for $45, but she points out, “My product will replace make-up removers, creams, eye creams and some hair products. Even with continuous use, it will last four to six months and it has a long shelf life – it will not go rancid,” like other products.

***Coconut oil a sustainable product

Tahmassbi explained that coconut oil is a highly sustainable product.

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