Our story began in Hamilton. My husband and I decided that we wanted to do something really interesting, something that would be useful. We had no experience in farming, as we could not even think that we would ever do this. Our first farm was built in the Caistor Center. We worked hard. Finally, we are one step closer to our goal.

One of the symbols of our farm is a large and proud bird – the ostrich. When people come to the farm, they first go to the ostriches, because these are unusual birds that can boast of their beauty and good health. The more we learn about ostriches, the more we fall in love with them. They are elegant, amazing, beautiful, and very quiet birds.

Do you know what ostriches are famous for? Not only because they are some of the largest non-fly birds in the whole world. Ostriches boast the strongest immunity and a huge amount of antibodies, which are found in huge quantities in ostrich eggs. Numerous studies have shown that ostrich antibodies can neutralize the virus and subsequent infection of the body. Ostrich antibodies are also widely used in the production of cosmetics. They help to create a unique formula that has a beneficial effect on our health.

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We are excited to announce that we created a new and innovative moisturizing product containing Ostrich Yolk and Ostrich Oil.

Say goodbye to dry skin, meet our moisturizer featuring two hydration powerhouses: ostrich yolk and ostrich oil!

Daily Moisturizer, our lightweight cream brings back the hydration and youthful glow to your skin. This dream moisturizer is perfect for all skin types and uses 95% natural ingredients. Especially the ostrich yolk and ostrich oil from local Ostrich land Ontario!

Did you know that ostriches have the strongest immune system of any land animal? Natural antibodies and peptides are abundantly found in the ostrich egg yolk that is perfect for hydration and bringing that youthful glow to your skin. That’s why we chose to formulate with Ostrich egg yolk!

Our Yolk-Infused Daily Moisturizer is formulated to be lightweight for the morning, hydration all day, and then nourishing enough to be your night cream too! It melts right into your skin for that perfect all-day, all-night, natural glow.

We formulated this cream around the high-quality ostrich oil and ostrich yolk coming from Ostrich land Ontario, they are surrounded by nature and we are equally inspired to use natural ingredients that have scientific data for being amazing on the skin! Using mostly natural ingredients can also reduce sensitive skin irritations from synthetic alternatives.

Rumors had it that the beautiful Cleopatra and the Queen of Sheba used ostrich oil… No wonder these natural ingredients have stood the test of time!

Let’s explore together the benefits of Ostrich Oil, Ostrich Yolk (Lecithin?), Hyaluronic Acid, Vitamin E, Shea Butter, and Lavender oil.

Ostrich Oil

You can’t see it and you can’t feel it, but water is constantly evaporating out of our skin! This evaporation is called transepidermal water loss (TEWL) and makes your skin feel drier, even accentuating the appearance of any fine lines and wrinkles. That’s why we need a balance of oils in the skin to keep the water in.

Ostrich oil is full of essential fatty acids and vitamins that hydrate the skin and restore the balance of natural oils in your skin, reducing TEWL from the skin’s surface. Hydrated skin is plump skin and brings back that youthful glow.

Hydrated skin is happy skin! 

Ostrich Yolk

Did you know that 1 ostrich egg is equal to 20-24 chicken eggs? That’s a lot of nutrients in just one egg!

In our moisturizer formula (and what we were measuring out the other day!), we harnessed the nutrients of ostrich yolk. Ostrich yolk contains lots of vitamin E and lecithin. Vitamin E is an antioxidant that helps strengthen (bicep emoji) our skin barriers to prevent seeing the early signs of aging in our skin. But what’s lecithin? Lecithin is an emollient that makes skin softer, smoother, and overall, more hydrated.

Eggs aren’t just for eating, try adding an egg yolk face mask to your skincare routine!

Hyaluronic Acid

We’ve heard so much talk about hyaluronic acid in mainstream media lately, but what is it? Hyaluronic acid is our skin’s natural humectant, which means it pulls in moisture and holds it. In your skincare, the hyaluronic acid draws water from the deeper layers of your skin to keep the moisture in your upper layers. It can hold up to 1000 times its weight it water within the cells on the surface of our skin to keep our skin hydrated!

Our formula contains hyaluronic acid to moisturize and increase skin elasticity, improving the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

Shea Butter

Rich, creamy, moisturizing, who doesn’t love shea butter in their skincare products? Shea butter is a natural ingredient that smooths and softens skin. It works as an occlusive, creating a physical barrier to seal moisture into the skin.

We added shea butter to our formula to give it that luxurious feeling on the skin and provide long-lasting moisturization.

CCT is RSPO certified

Have you seen caprylic/capric triglyceride on the ingredients list of your skincare before?

This occlusive oil that softens and hydrates the skin is derived from RSPO certified palm oil! That means it meets the global standard for palm oil is sustainably harvested in the tropics.

We want to make products that take care of our beautiful Earth and having transparency in the supply chain is important to us.

Vitamin E

You might already be getting some Vitamin E in your food, but did you know about the wonders that this vitamin family does for the skin? Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant that protects against environmental stressors causing dry and damaged skin, such as pollution and UV rays.

We used vitamin E in our formula to replenish and hydrate the skin while strengthening our skin’s defense against the environment. 

Lavender Oil

Let’s talk about fragrance! The debate between fragrance and fragrance-free might never end but we added natural lavender oil to very gently perfume our formula.

The Lavandula Angustifolia oil gives this product a light natural scent upon application. Lavender oil is also believed to have calm, anti-inflammatory properties on the skin, and can regulate sebaceous gland activity to normalize sebum production and improve the appearance of dry skin.

Luxurious yet simple! But it’s not your typical face cream: it’s not in a jar. We put our cream in an airless pump component to make sure our special ostrich oil and ostrich yolk extract ingredients don’t get contaminated and remain perfectly fresh every time you use the cream.

All you need is 2 pumps for your full face and the lightweight texture will go a long way!

Everyone knows the benefits of antibodies, as they protect the human body from viruses and infections. Due to their natural, beneficial properties, antibodies fight viruses and have a positive effect on our body, relieve inflammation and have an overwhelming ability to neutralize viruses.

Why are ostrich antibodies our salvation? Ostriches are highly immune. It is this fact that affects the effectiveness of their antibodies. Ostrich antibodies are about 20 times more effective at fighting viruses.

For the first time, ostriches were noticed by Professor Yasuhiro Tsukamoto of the Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Kyoto Prefecture University. His numerous studies have shown that ostrich antibodies are able to neutralize the virus and subsequent infection of the body.

A huge amount of antibodies are found in the ostrich egg. In size, it is about 30 times larger than a hen’s egg. Its useful components and antibodies are sufficient for successful production. Therefore, ostrich eggs began to be widely used in various industries. For example, in our time, it is very important to observe the mask regime in order to stop the Covid-19 pandemic. The first commercial product was an ostrich antibody mask. If the mask is coated with ostrich antibodies, the antibodies will neutralize any virus that comes into contact with the mask. This approach will provide strong protection that will help us fight the pandemic and prevent further contamination of the world.

Ostrich antibodies are also widely used in the production of cosmetics. They help to create a unique formula that has a beneficial effect on our health. Thanks to the natural composition, our skin is literally renewed, receives useful components and becomes brighter, more radiant and healthy.

Forget celebrities and their high-priced moisturizers. A team of Seneca Cosmetic Science students has developed an all-natural face cream that may just hold the secret to softer and smoother skin.

And they have Yelena Anikeyeva and her ostriches to thank.

“If you touch my skin, you’ll see how crazy soft it is,” said Ms. Anikeyeva, founder and CEO of Ostrich Land and owner of its online store, Power of Ostrich, which is partnering with Seneca on a suite of applied research projects looking at the benefits of ostrich oil and ostrich egg white, yolk and shells.

Ms. Anikeyeva, her husband, Vladimir, and their son, Alexsey, are ostrich farmers in the Niagara Region. They initially teamed up with Seneca on a cosmetic science capstone project, for which the Seneca team developed a moisturizing face cream using ostrich oil and egg yolk.

“Ostriches have the most powerful immune system of any land animal,” Ms. Anikeyeva said. “For some people, ostrich oil works like a miracle. Look at me, I work outside every day, but my skin looks like I work in an office.”

Ms. Anikeyeva is now working with the Seneca Centre for Innovation in Life Sciences on two new projects.

The first is to design and formulate an eczema cream infused with ostrich oil and yolk. It will be co-led by Sonal Kamath and Sharon Robertson, both professors in the School of Biological Sciences & Applied Chemistry. They will supervise a Cosmetic Science student, who will be a full-time research assistant on this project.

The resulting prototype cream will add to Power of Ostrich’s product line.

“With an ostrich egg, you get more fatty acids because it’s bigger than a chicken egg,” Ms. Robertson said. “You are putting all this concentrated stuff into a very thick yolk, which has a lot of antioxidants to help the skin to rejuvenate itself. It’s like you are double dipping and getting twice the amount of the good things.”

The second project with Power of Ostrich will investigate antibodies found in ostrich eggs and extracting them to potentially fight eczema, acne and other skin disorders. This project will be co-led by Dr. Frank Merante and Bryan Chalk and supported by two part-time student research assistants.

Dr. Merante, who previously worked on developing chicken antibodies as part of his PhD, says they will get about four to five grams of antibodies from each ostrich egg. 

This is desirable as an ostrich can lay up to 100 eggs a year in Africa and 50 in Canada, and they can live for 60 years in captivity,” he said. “The avian species are clever. They load up their yolk with antibodies, which then get transferred into the embryo. Everything the mother bird is immune to gets passed on the chicks.”

With the same theory in mind, the team has been monitoring an ostrich farm in British Columbia working on developing antibodies against COVID-19.

“If an ostrich is vaccinated against COVID-19 using a vaccine or similar protein, then the yolk from her eggs could theoretically contain antibodies against the virus or another pathogen of interest,” said Dr. Merante.

The goal for Seneca’s ostrich egg-related applied research is to develop a procedure that can be implemented for large-scale productions of antibodies for cosmetic and immunodiagnostic applications.

“Utilizing ostrich eggs as a resource could be really impactful across several disciplines, including cosmetics, diagnostics and therapeutics,” Dr. Merante said. “It’s fascinating.”

https://www.senecacollege.ca/news-and-events/seneca-news/harnessing-the-most-powerful-immune-system-of-any-land-animal.html

Ostriches are the most mysterious creatures in the world. Their sheer size is astounding, and their inability to fly raises many questions about their origin. But one of the most interesting facts about ostriches is the health benefits of ostrich oil and the history of ostrich eggs.

Did you know that the oldest known New World globes were engraved on an ostrich egg in Florence around the very early 1500s? Ostrich eggs with images were also found in Egypt around 6.400 thousand years BC. The ostrich has been around for 70 million years! These animals are carriers of the strongest immunity, and ostrich eggs have incredibly useful properties that have a positive effect on our body.

Ostrich oil can boast of the same properties, which is very often used for cosmetic purposes, for example, it is added to the composition of skin care cosmetics. Historical documents report extensive use of ostrich oil by ancient Egyptian, Roman and African cultures over 3000 years ago. Ostrich yolk and oil help to strengthen the skin to prevent early signs of aging. They have a beneficial effect on the skin and help to effectively get rid of dryness, preventing the appearance of flaking, small wounds and damage to the skin. This is probably why all the women from the ruling dynasty looked younger than their years and could boast of perfectly smooth and even skin. 

Ostrich fat and ostrich eggs have gained recognition in Australia, where they have been used by healers to treat various diseases and recover from injuries. In ancient Rome, they were also used for medical purposes.

For a long time, the oil was not widespread, which is explained by the habitat of birds – they live in Africa, Australia and the Middle East. However, after the beginning of the era of great geographical discoveries and the introduction of ostriches to the countries of the Old World, it gained fame throughout the world.

Today, ostrich oil and ostrich eggs are actively used in cosmetology, they are taken as a basis for the production of creams and masks that have a healing and rejuvenating effect. By the way, in ancient Rome, ostrich oil and egg ointment cost a fortune, only people of noble blood could afford it. At the moment, ostrich oil and eggs are available to everyone, however, they have not lost their value even after so many years

Ostrich oil is high in Omega 3, 6 and 9, the skin loving Essential Fatty Acids. We know that the fatty acids are very important for cell growth, division and recovery. Some research shows that when the essential fatty acids, omega 3 and omega 6, are applied to wounds, they will show improvement. It is thought that it is the content of the Essential Fatty Acids in ostrich oil is why many find relief to skin problems. Ostrich oil is non-comedogenic, in other words, does not clog pores. 

Ostrich oil is not a modern discovery but one reportedly used by ancient cultures to help heal and repair skin. It is said that Cleopatra and Nephrites, the Queen of Sheba used ostrich oil to maintain their beauty. Others used it to heal burns and reduce scarring, heal lesions and reduce skin irritations such as eczema, dermatitis and psoriasis.

Ostrich oil is an ideal ingredient to help maintain a soft and healthy skin as it contains these three fatty acids necessary for rejuvenating and repairing skin cells damaged through every day stress, exposure to weather, injury and aging.

Ostrich oil contains Omega 6 ( Lineic ) , Omega 9 ( Oleic ) Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s) and certain Vitamins and Amino Acids to help maintain the health of your skin membranes. Ostrich Oil penetrates deeply into the skin unlike petroleum based products and provides a luxurious moisture for hours without clogging pores.

Ostriches convert the vegetable oil in seeds to an animal fat that is extremely high in EFA’s. The Myelin Sheath, which insulates our nerves, consists of EFA’s and when the body lacks these, our nerves become irritated and inflamed which can cause many nerve and skin conditions. Because it replenishes the EFA’s, it is naturally soothing.

Ostriches are fed a vegetarian , all natural feed so no animal by-products, no growth hormones or antibiotics. This means a pure natural oil that is great for your skin.

Ostrich Oil can be combined with a number of Essential Oils to promote relief of many ailments.

There have been reports of Ostrich Oil, along with added Tea Tree oil, that has helped patients undergoing radiation treatments for Cancer. The oil has helped to relieve the painful aspects of burns. In addition, some have reported Ostrich Oil helping with Multiple Sclerosis leg cramps. These are based on individuals and are not a scientific study. We make no guarantees.

Ostrich Oil can separate if it is stored at lower temperatures and you may find the oil  ” creamy ” at this point. Placing it in warm water for a short period of time will return the oil again.

Most people have heard that an ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain. Here are eight more interesting facts about these odd birds that you may not know:

1. Feeding: Ostriches will eat anything including grass, plants, fruits, flowers, seeds and even insects and reptiles.
2. Digestion: Ostriches don’t have teeth so they swallow small rocks to crush the food they take in. This is done in a part of the throat called the gizzard.
3. Foot structure: Ostriches only have two toes per foot. The big toe is on the inside and has a big, sharp nail for protection. The smaller toe is on the outside for balance.
4. Water needs: Ostriches can go without water for several days as they can source metabolic water from the plants they eat. They will drink a fair amount of water if available. Ostriches drink by scooping up water into their gular pouch and then lifting their heads to let the water move down their throats.
5. Breeding colours: When ready to mate the male ostrich’s legs turn deep red to show the females and other males that they are ready for action.
6. Mating dance: Male ostriches do a mating dance for females to impress her. If the dance is good enough a female will mate with the particular male but only after playing hard to get for quite a while!
7. Female dominance: Female ostriches can lay their eggs in a communal nest. The dominant female will lay her eggs first and position them in the middle of the nest. The weaker females eggs are placed on the outer edges. If there are too many eggs when they need to be incubated the dominant female will discard some of the weaker females eggs to make space.
8. Speed: Adult ostriches can run about 70 km/h (40 miles/h) which makes them difficult to catch.

https://www.kariega.co.za/blog/9-facts-about-ostriches