A Family, A Farm, and Three Goats That Changed Everything

In 2013, three goats arrived at our Washington State farm. Sierra, Sienna, and Annie. They were not part of a business plan. We didn't have one.

That was the year someone in our family got sick — the beginning of six years of hospital visits, of driving home late trying to make sense of what a doctor had just told us. The goats were supposed to be a distraction. What they turned out to be was something steadier. They were there every morning. They made noise when they saw you coming down the hill. On the hardest days, there was a warm, furry animal to put your hands on, and for a few minutes that was enough.

Sierra, Sienna, and Annie have since passed. Our herd is about sixty now. But every jar we make traces back to those three.

From Kitchen Experiments to Skincare Innovation

I'm Lisa. I studied Modern Dance at San Diego State and fully intended to open a studio. Instead I met Frank, we moved to the Pacific Northwest, and I spent the next thirty years raising six children and making things in my kitchen — food, supplements, salves for the shins and shoulders of a household that never stopped competing.

Those six years of hospital visits turned us into researchers. We learned to read studies instead of headlines, to trace an ingredient back to its source, to ask what a claim actually rested on. When the crisis eased and the kids were grown, I had thirty years of formulating, a new habit of reading primary sources, and a barn full of goats.

Artisan The Goat was founded in 2017.

Six Kids, One Big Dream

Frank was born and raised in New York City and came west for graduate school, where we met. He competed at the NCAA Division I level in football and track and field.

All six of our children are athletes. Four competed in college, and two at NCAA Division I in track and field — high jump, pole vault, hurdles, multi-events. Three hold master's degrees in business, which is why the company runs better than most kitchen-table operations.

That's not a marketing angle. It's the reason Active Cream and Muscle Cream exist. They were made for the people in this house before they were made for anyone else, and they got tested the honest way: on sore legs after a meet.

Life on the Farm

The day starts with milking. The milk goes straight from the parlor to our on-site cleanroom, where I formulate every batch myself. Nothing gets dried, shipped, or reconstituted. That short walk is the whole point.

Along with the goats there are chickens, our Australian Shepherds, Sadie and Captain, and Charlie, our Great Pyrenees, who takes the night shift with the herd and takes it seriously.

What Makes Us Different

Fresh goat milk, never powdered. Most goat milk skincare is made from powder — milk that was dried, shipped, stored, and rehydrated somewhere far from a farm. Ours goes into the formula the same day it leaves the goat. Check any label you're considering and see where the goat milk falls in the ingredient list. If it's behind the fragrance, you know what you're buying.

MSM in every formula. Organic sulfur, in all seven products, not just the ones where it makes a good headline.

Caprine colostrum. From our own goats — not bovine colostrum sourced from a dairy supplier.

Shellfish-free joint support. The glucosamine and chondroitin in Active Cream are shellfish-free, because a good portion of the people who need that cream most can't use the standard version.

Made here, tested independently. Formulated and produced in our own cleanroom, and third-party quality tested.

Every Ingredient Earns Its Place

We don't put anything in a formula to look good on a label. That cuts both ways — it also means we keep ingredients that get flagged by apps but do real work. Cetearyl alcohol is a fatty alcohol that conditions skin and holds the cream together; it has nothing in common with the drying alcohols that strip it. Sodium hyaluronate is hyaluronic acid in its stabilized form, and it absorbs better than the pure version. Our preservative system is paraben-free and gentle, because a cream that isn't preserved properly isn't safe to put on your face.

We'd rather explain a choice than hide behind a buzzword.

What We Make

Seven creams, each built for a specific job. Face Cream for daily moisture. Hand Cream for hands that work. Active Cream and Muscle Cream for bodies that get used hard. Colostrum Cream and Rejuvenating Cream for skin that's been through some seasons. Superfruits Cream for antioxidant defense.

The Artisan Promise

We call ourselves the generous company, and it's not a slogan we picked in a meeting. We've spent our whole lives buying carefully and comparing prices, and we're not going to charge a luxury markup just because the category allows it. We can put real ingredients in a jar at a fair price because the milk comes from our own herd and the manufacturing happens in our own building.

We'll tell you exactly what's in it and exactly what it's for. We won't promise you it cures anything. And if a batch isn't right, it doesn't ship.

From our Washington State farm to your skin.

About Goat Milk Skincare

Why goat milk? What does it actually do for skin?

Three things, and we'd rather be specific than sweeping about them.

Goat milk's fat globules are notably smaller than those in cow milk, which helps the lipids spread evenly and sink in rather than sitting on the surface. It contains naturally occurring lactic acid, one of the gentlest alpha hydroxy acids, which supports smoother-looking texture without the sting that stronger acids can bring. And its medium-chain fatty acids are genuine emollients — they soften and condition skin that's gone dry and rough.

Here's what we won't tell you: that goat milk is chemically similar to human skin, or that its pH matches yours. Those claims circulate widely in this category and neither holds up. Fresh goat milk sits around pH 6.4–6.7; healthy skin sits closer to 4.7–5.7. That's a real difference, and a formulator who tells you otherwise either hasn't checked or is hoping you won't.

What's true is enough. Goat milk delivers useful lipids and a mild acid in a form most sensitive skin tolerates well.

Is your goat milk fresh or powdered?

Fresh. Always. This is the difference that matters most.

Because we raise our own herd and manufacture on-site, the milk goes from parlor to formula without being dried, reconstituted, or shipped anywhere. Powdering milk requires heat and time, and both cost you the delicate components — enzymes, proteins, and other compounds that don't survive processing intact.

A great many goat milk brands, including expensive ones, use powder. Some list goat milk after fragrance on the ingredient panel, which tells you roughly how much is in there. When our label says "goat milk (not reconstituted)," that's exactly what it means.

Read the panel on whatever you're considering. It's the fastest honest test in this category.

What is MSM, and why is it in every product?

MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) is a naturally occurring organic sulfur compound. We include it in all seven formulas, not just the ones where it would make a good headline.

We started using it because of the athletes in this house — people whose skin takes a beating from sun, wind, chlorine, tape, and repeated washing. It's well tolerated, it plays well with the rest of the formula, and it's one of the ingredients customers most often mention when they write to us about how a cream feels.

Look at any Artisan ingredient panel and you'll find it. That's deliberate.

I have very reactive skin. Where should I start?

Start with our original Face Cream and patch test before committing to your face — inner forearm, small amount, twenty-four hours.

Most people with reactive skin are managing a compromised moisture barrier, often from a stretch of using products that were too active or too stripping. Our formulas are built around emollients and a short, deliberate ingredient list rather than high-percentage actives, which is why they tend to suit people who've had trouble tolerating other things.

We hear regularly from customers who came to us after a long run of frustration. We're glad about that, and we'd still tell you the same thing we tell everyone: patch test first, introduce one product at a time, and if you're managing a diagnosed skin condition, keep your dermatologist in the loop. Our creams are cosmetics. They're not treatment, and we won't pretend otherwise.

Will this work for acne-prone skin?

Often, yes — which surprises people who assume anything milk-based will clog.

The lactic acid supports gentle surface exfoliation, and the formula moisturizes without the heavy occlusives that tend to cause trouble for congested skin. Many people dealing with breakouts are also dealing with a barrier that's been worn down by aggressive acne products, and a gentle moisturizer is frequently the missing piece.

If you're using prescription acne treatment, this works well as your moisturizing step. It isn't a replacement for it.

What about oily skin?

It works better than most people expect. Oily skin is often dehydrated skin compensating — when it's properly hydrated with something that suits it, oil production frequently settles down.

Our lighter formulas suit oily skin best: hydration without weight.

Is goat milk skincare good for aging skin?

It supports the things that make skin look older than it needs to. Dryness exaggerates fine lines. Rough surface texture scatters light and dulls tone. Lactic acid and a good emollient base address both.

For more intensive support, our Colostrum Cream is the one to reach for. Caprine colostrum is a nutrient-dense material, and the formula pairs it with marula, abyssinian, evening primrose, and sea buckthorn oils. Customers reach for it when skin needs more than daily maintenance — after a hard season, a long winter, or years of sun.

What we won't claim: that any cream reverses aging, rebuilds collagen, or does what a prescription does. Skincare of this kind improves how skin looks and feels. That's a real benefit and it doesn't need inflating.

About Our Products

What's the difference between your face creams?

Face Cream — The original. Balanced daily moisturizer for all skin types, with fresh goat milk, MSM, sodium hyaluronate (hyaluronic acid), argan, jojoba, green tea, and frankincense. The right starting point for most people.

Superfruits Cream — The original formula built out with antioxidant-rich fruit oils including blueberry, acai, kiwi, passionfruit, and goji berry. Antioxidants pair naturally with daytime, which is why we recommend it as a morning cream.

Colostrum Cream — Our most involved formula, built on caprine colostrum from our own goats — not bovine colostrum bought from a dairy supplier. Includes marula, abyssinian, evening primrose, and sea buckthorn. Our premium product, and the one to choose when skin needs extra support.

Rejuvenating Cream — Cucumber, marula, rose hip, and moringa oils for hydration and a softer, brighter-looking finish. Gentle by design.

Not sure? Start with the original Face Cream. It's our bestseller for a reason, and it tells you quickly whether goat milk agrees with your skin.

What is colostrum, and why is it in skincare?

Colostrum is the first milk a mother produces after giving birth — richer and more concentrated than the milk that follows, containing immunoglobulins, lactoferrin, and a dense mix of proteins and nutrients.

Ours is caprine colostrum, from our own goats. That distinction matters: most colostrum skincare uses bovine colostrum sourced from commercial dairies. Ours comes from animals we know by name.

The kids get theirs first, always. A doe produces more colostrum in those first hours than a kid can take, and only once we're certain the babies have had everything they need do we collect what's left. It's a small amount per goat, which is the honest reason Colostrum Cream is priced where it is.

Active Cream vs. Muscle Cream — which do I want?

Both are built for bodies that get used hard. They feel completely different.

Active Cream — Organic arnica montana, shellfish-free glucosamine and chondroitin, turmeric, and ginger in a fresh goat milk base. No heat, no cooling — this one goes on quietly. It's what you reach for after a long training block, a long shift, or a long day of using your hands.

Muscle Cream — Organic black pepper oil, peppermint, wintergreen, and pomegranate. This one you feel. A clean cooling sensation that arrives quickly and lingers, and a warmth from the black pepper underneath it. Massage it in and it announces itself.

Simplest way to choose: if you want a cream that works in the background, Active. If you want the sensation, Muscle. Plenty of people keep both.

Are your chondroitin and glucosamine shellfish-free?

Yes, and it's one of the formulation decisions we're proudest of.

Almost every topical joint product on the market derives chondroitin and glucosamine from shellfish — which shuts out a significant number of people who have a shellfish allergy and want exactly that kind of product. Our sources aren't shellfish-derived. Active Cream is available to people the rest of the category ignored, including family members of ours with shellfish sensitivities.

Why is there cetearyl alcohol in my cream? I'm avoiding alcohol.

You're avoiding the right thing and this isn't it.

Cetearyl alcohol is a fatty alcohol, derived from natural fats and oils. It has essentially nothing in common with drying alcohols like denatured or isopropyl alcohol, which are the ones that leave skin tight and stripped. Cetearyl alcohol does the opposite — it conditions and softens, and it's part of the emulsifier system that lets oil and water hold together as a stable, smooth cream instead of separating in the jar.

It's in all seven formulas on purpose. The chemistry shares a name with something unrelated, which is unfortunate but not a reason to reformulate.

Some of your ingredients get flagged by clean beauty apps. What's going on?

Those apps score by name-matching, not by function or dose, so they flag several ingredients we chose deliberately. Worth explaining each:

Phenoxyethanol is part of our paraben-free preservative system. It's gentler than what it replaced, and it occurs naturally in green tea — which is also in our Face Cream.

Stearic acid sounds alarming and isn't. It's a fatty acid found naturally in shea and cocoa butter, and it conditions skin and improves texture. It's in all seven formulas.

Benzoic acid and dehydroacetic acid are preservatives, not exfoliants. They don't behave on skin the way an AHA or BHA does. Benzoic acid occurs naturally in berries and other plants. These keep our products safe and stable without parabens.

Chlorelleth-20 is derived from chlorella algae and is part of the same emulsifier system as cetearyl alcohol. The "-eth" suffix triggers app warnings; the ingredient itself is plant-derived and gentle.

Sodium hyaluronate is hyaluronic acid — the stabilized salt form, with a smaller molecular size that absorbs better than the pure acid. If you've been looking for hyaluronic acid on our label, you've been looking at it.

A preservative-free cream isn't a purer cream. It's a cream growing things you can't see. We'd rather use a gentle, well-studied system and tell you exactly why it's there.

Are your products organic?

Our goats are raised on our Washington State farm using organic practices — no pesticides on our pasture, no hormones, no unnecessary interventions. Throughout our formulations we use USDA Certified Organic ingredients wherever a certified source exists, which is why you'll see "organic" ahead of many ingredients on our panels.

To be precise: we are not a USDA Certified Organic company, and we won't claim to be. Certification is a specific legal designation with a specific process behind it. We'd rather describe our actual sourcing than borrow a word we haven't earned.

Are your products tested on animals?

Never. We live with our animals. The idea is unthinkable here.

Everything gets tested on volunteer humans — of which a household of eight provides a reliable supply — before it goes anywhere near a customer.

Are your products vegan?

No. Goat milk and caprine colostrum are animal products.

They are cruelty-free, and our goats are named, known, and cared for as members of this farm rather than as inputs. We think there's a meaningful difference between that and industrial animal agriculture, and we'd rather answer this question honestly than find a way around it.

Do your products contain common allergens?

Our products contain goat milk, which is dairy. If you have a severe dairy allergy, talk to your doctor before use.

We don't formulate with nuts, gluten, soy, or synthetic fragrance. Our sports recovery creams are shellfish-free. Full ingredient lists are on every product page, and if you have a specific allergy you're working around, email us — we'll go through the panel with you.

How long do your products last?

Unopened, 12–18 months from production. Once opened, we recommend finishing within 6–9 months.

Store them somewhere cool and dry, out of direct sun. No refrigeration needed. Avoid hot cars and steamy bathroom shelves.

Can I use these while pregnant?

This is a question for your healthcare provider, not for us. Individual circumstances vary and we're not in a position to advise on yours.

What we can tell you plainly: our formulas contain no synthetic retinoids and no synthetic fragrance. Bring the ingredient list to your appointment — it's on every product page, and we're happy to email a full panel if that's easier.

Using Our Products

How do I use a goat milk moisturizer?

Cleanse, then apply while your skin is still slightly damp — that's the step most people skip and it makes a real difference. Massage in gently until it disappears. Morning and evening.

Start with a pea-sized amount. These creams go further than you'd expect, and using more doesn't get you more.

Can I use this with the rest of my routine?

Yes. Apply thinnest to thickest — serums and treatments first, our cream last as your moisturizing step. It layers well and rarely conflicts with anything.

If you're using a prescription retinoid, plenty of our customers use Face Cream as the moisturizer in that routine. Follow whatever your dermatologist told you about timing and frequency.

How long until I see a difference?

Most people notice skin feeling softer and more comfortable within the first week — that's the emollients doing their job, and it's fast.

Visible changes in texture and tone generally take three to four weeks of consistent use. The longer-term differences build over two to three months.

Skincare is cumulative. Using it every day for a month beats using a lot of it twice.

Can I use face cream on the rest of me?

Absolutely. Neck and décolletage especially — they age alongside your face and get a fraction of the attention. Hand Cream is built specifically for hands that work. Active Cream and Muscle Cream are formulated for full-body use.

Can men use these?

Yes, and many do. Skin isn't gendered, and the concerns men most often raise — post-shave irritation, oiliness handled badly by stripping products, thicker skin that needs a cream that actually absorbs — are ones these formulas handle well.

The men in our family use them daily. Active Cream and Muscle Cream tend to be the entry point.

About Our Farm & Practices

Where is your farm?

Rural Southwest Washington State, outside Battle Ground, in the Pacific Northwest. Portland, Oregon is the nearest major city, but we're firmly on the Washington side of the river. We've been in this region over thirty-five years.

The goats are here, the cleanroom is here, and every product is made here.

How did this start?

In 2013, someone in our family got seriously ill — the beginning of six years of hospital visits. Three goats named Sierra, Sienna, and Annie arrived that same year as comfort animals.

They helped, in the way animals do: by being there, making noise when you came down the hill, and giving you something warm to put your hands on during a bad week. Meanwhile we became researchers by necessity, learning to read studies and trace ingredients back to their sources.

Lisa had already spent thirty years formulating in the kitchen for a household of athletes. When the crisis eased and the kids were grown, those two things came together. Artisan The Goat was founded in 2017.

Sierra, Sienna, and Annie have since passed. Everything here traces back to them.

How are your goats treated?

Like the reason this company exists — because they are.

Names, not numbers. Space to roam, good feed, and daily attention from people who know each animal's personality and health history. Goats got our family through the hardest stretch of our lives. Treating them well is gratitude before it's ethics.

How do you milk your goats? Does it hurt them?

It doesn't. Dairy goats produce milk after kidding and need regular milking for their own comfort — an unmilked doe is an uncomfortable doe.

Ours line up for it. It relieves pressure, there's food involved, and they get attention. We keep the herd at a size we can genuinely manage, and milking here is a calm routine rather than an industrial process.

Don't the baby goats need the colostrum?

They do, and they get it first — all of it, before we take anything.

Colostrum is critical to a newborn's immunity and we never take what a kid requires. A doe produces more than her kids can consume in those first hours. Once we're certain the babies are fed and thriving, we collect only the surplus. It's a small amount per goat, and that's the honest reason Colostrum Cream costs what it does.

Who actually runs this?

A family. Lisa formulates and founded the company. Frank handles business operations. Our six grown children contribute across product testing, operations, and strategy — three of them hold master's degrees in business, which is why the back end runs better than most kitchen-table companies.

When you email us, you're reaching a family member. There's no support desk here.

Orders & Shipping

Do you ship internationally?

Not yet — we currently ship within the United States. Join our email list and we'll let you know when that changes.

How long does shipping take?

Orders ship within 1–3 business days from our Washington State facility. Most domestic orders arrive within 5–7 business days. You'll get tracking as soon as it's on its way.

What if I don't love it?

Contact us within 30 days and we'll make it right — replacement, exchange, or refund.

We stand behind what we make. This is a family business and your trust is worth more to us than any single order.

Do you offer samples?

We include them with orders when we can. If you're deciding between products or working around a specific concern, email us and we'll do our best.

Why do you call yourselves "the generous company"?

Because we don't think good ingredients should require a $150 price tag, and in this category they usually do.

We can price the way we do because there's no middleman: our own herd, our own cleanroom, our own family doing the work. We've spent our whole lives buying carefully and comparing prices, and we'd rather respect your budget than test what the market will bear.

Do you sell wholesale?

We work with a small number of retailers, spas, and boutiques who share our approach. Send us a note about your business and we'll see whether it's a fit.