by Tim Lydon
on the Copper River Delta
It’s been over twenty years, but Lauren Padawer still remembers the moment she fell in love with Copper River mud. While visiting Alaska for a rafting trip, her group stopped for lunch and a midday dip in the river’s cold-water eddies. She was mesmerized when her bare feet sank into the river’s soothing mud, which consists of fine silt that glaciers grind from the surrounding mountains.
“I left that trip wanting to know where that mud came from,” Padawer tells Alaska magazine. Soon after, she moved to Alaska and within a few years launched her first soaps derived from Copper River silt.
Today, Padawer’s Alaska Glacial Essentials Skincare, based in Cordova, offers an array of cleansers, moisturizers, creams, toners, and more. They’re sold by over 40 retailers in Alaska and online to customers across the U.S. and beyond. Her original signature product is a mud mask called the Glacial Facial, which uses silt to exfoliate and purify skin. Some products are also “supercharged” with wild Alaskan botanicals.
But her main stay remains Copper River silt, which she harvests by hand under a permit from the Chugach National Forest. Clad in rain gear and XTRATUFs, she shovels the mud into five-gallon buckets from the river’s delta near Cordova, then drives it back to her at-home processing facility, which she calls her “mud room.”
“It has a huge mineral profile,” she says of the silt, explaining that the Copper River drains five mountain ranges, each actively shaped by glaciers. Some, like the Wrangell and Saint Elias ranges, are volcanic, while the Talkeetnas and others are more tectonic in origin. It all adds up to a unique mineral diversity that Padawer says helps detoxify and nourish the skin.
“And it’s sustainable,” she adds, with the Copper River depositing 100 million tons of silt in its delta each year. Sustainability and dedicating a share of her revenue to favorite causes are core values for Padawer. And when her hands are not in the mud, she enjoys skiing, sea kayaking, hiking, and spending time with her family.
Visit alaskaglacial.com.
Comments are closed.