Fresh goat milk brings a pH that naturally matches human skin. It contains fatty acids that support your skin barrier. It delivers vitamins that contribute to skin health. For areas you're treating repeatedly (knees, lower back, shoulders), the condition of your skin over time reflects whether your carrier is helping or just occupying space.

Your body uses sulfur constantly. It's essential for synthesizing proteins, supporting enzymatic reactions, and maintaining the structural integrity of connective tissues. But here's what matters most for your skin: sulfur is absolutely critical for producing collagen, keratin, and elastin—the proteins that determine whether your skin looks firm and healthy or thin and aged.

Including both glucosamine and MSM in Active Cream reflects a broader formulation philosophy: address the problem completely rather than partially. Real joint concerns involve multiple mechanisms. Effective support should too.

Participation in the half-marathon was associated with significantly increased markers of oxidative stress, muscle damage, and pain—exactly what exercise physiology would predict. While the time-by-treatment results didn’t reach statistical significance for outcome measures, the MSM group saw clinically significant reductions in both muscle and joint pain compared to placebo.

The first World Championship took place in Oberhausen, Germany in 2019, drawing roughly 600 participants—mostly German, since the sport hadn't yet expanded significantly beyond its home country. German athletes Lukas Storath (the first man to finish under one hour) and Imke Salander claimed the inaugural titles.

The story of the CrossFit Games begins in early 2007, when Dave Castro—who would become the longtime Director of the CrossFit Games—invited Glassman to his family's ranch in Aromas, California. Glassman looked around the property, with its open spaces and rustic facilities, and suggested hosting what he called a "Woodstock of Fitness" for the CrossFit community.

The skin's barrier function takes time to recover from environmental stress. Research indicates that compromised barrier function can persist for hours after exposure to harsh conditions. This is why the immediate post-run period is so critical—the products you apply during this window encounter skin that's actively trying to repair itself, making them more effective than the same products applied hours later.

The competition itself is straightforward on paper: eight one-kilometer runs alternated with eight functional workout stations, all completed indoors in convention centers and exhibition halls. In practice, it's an hour or more of sustained effort that creates unique challenges for your skin—challenges that most skincare brands haven't begun to address because they don't understand what happens when you push a sled across a convention center floor while your body temperature soars and sweat pours from every pore.

Keratin is the structural protein of your skin's outer layer, your hair, and your nails. It's also what makes animal horns, hooves, and claws so tough. This protein's strength comes from its structure—alpha-helical coils that interlink and cross-bond to form strong, flexible sheets.

MSM doesn't get magazine covers or social media hype. It's not the ingredient influencers showcase in their routines. But it's been quietly supporting skin health for decades, and it's in every product we make for good reason.

Understanding where MSM comes from helps you make informed decisions about your skincare. This isn't an ingredient that appeared out of nowhere, backed only by marketing claims. It has a research lineage that stretches back sixty years, to a lab in Portland where a curious scientist started asking questions about sulfur.

The permeability-enhancing property of MSM means the goat milk, the botanical oils, the targeted ingredients in each formula all penetrate more effectively. Combined with MSM's own anti-inflammatory and collagen-supporting benefits, it's foundational to how our products perform.

For skin that's been through as much as psoriatic skin has—the inflammation, the rapid turnover, the cracking and scaling—sometimes what's needed isn't aggressive treatment but gentle, consistent nurturing. Products that provide raw materials. Formulations that don't trigger. Skincare that works with your skin rather than demanding more from it.

Think of sulfur as one of the building blocks your body uses to construct and maintain healthy tissue. It's the fourth most abundant mineral in your body, and your skin, hair, and nails are particularly sulfur-hungry. Without adequate sulfur, your body struggles to produce collagen and keratin—the proteins responsible for skin's firmness, elasticity, and overall structural integrity.

MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) provides bioavailable sulfur that your body can readily use for these synthesis processes. Unlike some sulfur sources, MSM is well-absorbed and has been shown to support collagen production in research settings.

For MSM, the delivery system matters. Our formulations pair MSM with fresh goat milk, which supports absorption and provides complementary benefits. MSM in a poor vehicle may not reach the layers where it can do the most good.

What MSM offers is genuine, gradual improvement without irritation, sensitivity, or lifestyle restrictions. For many people—especially those who can't use retinol—this is exactly what they need.

MSM and goat milk form the functional foundation of our products. We add other supportive ingredients where appropriate, but we don't chase ingredient lists. We focus on combinations that work synergistically, where each component enhances the others.

The MSM-colostrum combination addresses inflammaging from multiple angles. The anti-inflammatory effects of both ingredients help calm this chronic process. The regenerative support from colostrum helps repair damage. The structural support from MSM helps rebuild what's been lost.

Topical MSM delivers the compound directly to skin, where it can be absorbed and utilized without systemic distribution diluting its concentration. For skin-specific concerns—inflammation, barrier support, collagen production in the skin itself—topical application provides more targeted delivery.

MSM itself may be gentle, but an MSM product loaded with fragrance, irritating preservatives, or harsh alcohols will still cause problems. The sensitizer doesn't have to be MSM—it can be anything else in the formula.

The athletes who recover best aren't the ones who do nothing all week and then spend hours on recovery modalities before competition. They're the ones who incorporate recovery into their daily routine—proper sleep, good nutrition, active recovery, and yes, topical support for stressed tissues.

Eczema involves a compromised skin barrier. The protective outer layer that normally keeps moisture in and irritants out doesn't function properly. This creates a vicious cycle: irritants penetrate easily, causing inflammation; inflammation further damages the barrier; the damaged barrier lets in more irritants.

That's why every product we make on our Washington State farm contains MSM. It's why we formulate with absorption in mind, using fresh goat milk as our base. And it's why athletes and non-athletes alike tell us they feel a difference they didn't get from supplements alone.

What MSM can do is support your skin's overall health and function, potentially reducing the frequency and severity of breakouts for mild to moderate acne. It can provide a gentler maintenance approach for skin that's responded to treatment but still breaks out occasionally. And it can offer support during the healing phase, helping breakouts resolve faster and with less hyperpigmentation.

MSM-based skincare offers something different: ingredients that support without triggering, formulations that strengthen without irritating, and products developed with genuine understanding of what reactive skin needs.

The benefits of MSM come from consistent use, not occasional application. Each use supports recovery and builds on previous applications. Over time, the accumulated benefit becomes substantial—more resilient skin, faster recovery, better overall skin health.

Athletes talk about recovery in terms of muscle soreness, joint health, and getting back to training. What rarely makes the conversation is skin—despite the fact that athletic skin takes a beating every single day.

MSM offers a different approach to scar management—not by erasing scars overnight (nothing does that), but by supporting the biological processes that determine how scars form and mature over time.

Dermatology has become increasingly evidence-based over recent decades. Professional organizations publish guidelines based on systematic reviews of research, and practitioners are trained to evaluate ingredient claims critically. This environment is hostile to hype but receptive to genuine evidence.