Organic Magic Balm Arnica-Menthol - 2 oz. Dr. Bronners

Dr. Bronners - Organic Magic Balm Arnica-Menthol - 2 oz. (57 g)

Dr. Bronner's Organic Magic Balm Arnica-Menthol is USDA Organic. This balm helps cool and soothe sore muscles and achy joints with a potent blend of arnica, camphor, menthol and peppermint oils. Dr. Bronners base of organic beeswax and organic oils, avocado, coconut, olive, jojoba and hemp, nourish and moisturize skin with no synthetic ingredients! Dr. Bronner's Organic Magic Balm is cruelty free and Non-GMO.

• USDA Organic
• Non-GMO
• Cruelty Free
• Relieve & Relax
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Frequently Asked Questions

Which of Dr. Bronners products are vegan? Do they test their products on animals?
All of Dr. Bronner's products sold in the U.S. and Canada are Certified Vegan, except for their Organic Lip Balms and Organic Body Balms, which contain organic beeswax. All of their products carry the "Leaping Bunny" seal, which indicates that they are cruelty-free and that there is no animal testing done with them.

Although Dr. Bronner's product lines are otherwise vegan, they do use certified organic beeswax in their lip and body balms. They have not yet been able to find a certified organic plant-based wax, and Sue Kastensen, the creator of Dr. Bronner's balms, insisted that she had not found a plant-based alternative that could substitute for the amazing qualities of natural beeswax. Based on her experience, and her extensive training and mentoring under the Native American herbalist Keewaydinoquay, Sue formulated her original lip balms with just avocado oil and beeswax, because beeswax has natural antibacterial and sunblock qualities and provides a superior barrier to keep moisture in. Dr. Bronner's buy their certified organic beeswax from Zambia, where they have confirmed that the queen bees are not killed each year, a practice sometimes employed in conventional beekeeping to maximize yields.

Are Dr. Bronners products free of gluten, corn, soy and nuts? Why are you having an allergic reaction?
In general, Dr. Bronner's products are gluten-free, and they do not contain any common allergens such as soy or nuts. However, there are a few exceptions: their Shaving Gels, Lotions and Hair Crèmes contain xanthan gum derived from non-GMO corn, and their Castile Liquid Soaps, Castile Bar Soaps, Pump Soaps, and Shaving Gels contain citric acid derived from non-GMO corn. If you are having an allergic reaction, then it is possible that you are sensitive to one of the essential oils that are in their products, such as peppermint oil or lavender oil. If you have sensitive skin, then they recommend using our Unscented Baby-Mild varieties, which contain no essential oils.

About Dr. Bronner's

Dr. Bronner's is synonymous with Old-World quality and time-honored simplicity, which can be traced back to the family's German-Jewish soapmaking tradition. Born in 1908 to a Jewish family that had been making soap since 1858, Emanuel Bronner was the third generation certified as a master-soapmaker under the guild system of the time. In 1929, he brought his formulas for high-quality liquid and bar soaps to America, starting Dr. Bronner's

Magic Soaps in its current form in 1948.
Renowned for their quality, versatility and eco-friendliness, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps enjoyed a small but loyal following in the early years. In the late 1960s, however, soap sales started to explode, due to the unsurpassed ecological quality combined with Dr. Bronner's urgent message to realize our transcendent unity across religious and ethnic divides. Word-of-mouth soon made Dr. Bronner's the iconic soap of that era, and in the decades that followed the soaps spread into every health food store in the U.S. and then into the mainstream as well -- winning over fans from all walks of life on the way to becoming the number-one-selling natural brand of soap in North America.

The 4th and 5th generations of the Bronner family who run the company today continue to make our unsurpassed soaps with care and integrity. 2008 marks both the 60th anniversary of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps in America and the 150th anniversary of our family's first soapmaking activity in southern Germany. Dr. Bonners strive to honor their heritage with progressive business practices, while devoting profits to worthwhile causes and charities worldwide.

Dr. Bronner's Timeline

• 1858 Soapmaking Begins
  First Certificate of Soap-Manufacture issued to Emmanuel Heilbronner. Manufacture of soaps begins in the basement of the Heilbronner home in the Jewish quarter of Laupheim, Germany. The family also manufactures candles for the Jewish sabbath.
• 1880-90's Heilbronn Factory
  Heilbronners innovate the first liquid castile soap and supply public washrooms across Germany. Much larger factory in Heilbronn, Germany opens. Bar soap sold across Germany under the 'Madaform' brand. The three Heilbronner sons of Emanuel including the youngest, Berthold, are running the family soap business.
• 1908 Dr. Bronner Born
  Emanuel (Emil) Heilbronner born to Berthold and Franciska, the only male heir of the three Heilbronner brothers. Younger sisters Luise and Lotte are born two and ten years later.
• 1920's Apprenticeship
  Emil is apprenticed to another Jewish soap-making family in Southern Germany, according to the tradition of the time. Subsequently attends the guild system trade school and receives his Soapmaking Master certificate. Then attends University and receives a degree in Chemistry.
• 1929 Leaves to U.S.
  Emil's powerful personality, Zionist ideals and ideas for more modern soap-making lead to repeated clashes with his father and uncles. Emil emigrates to the U.S.
• 1930's Children Born
  Emil works as a consultant to various U.S. soap and chemical specialty manufacturers, primarily in factory design and product development. Emil drops 'Heil' from his last name with rise of Hitler. Meets and marries first wife Paula, a Catholic hotel maid. Emil and Paula bear a daughter and two sons, Ellen (1934), Ralph (1936) and Jim (1938).
• 1936 Lotte
  Lotte, as part of the Zionist movement, emigrates to then Palestine and joins the Ein Gev kibbutz, located on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee by the Golan Heights. (Lotte currently resides in Haifa, with children and grandchildren living throughout Israel.
• 1938 Vacation
  Emil's sisters unsuccessfully attempt to persuade their parents to leave Germany for America, during a family vacation in Switzerland.
• 1940's Parents Murdered
  The Nazis nationalize the soap factory in Heilbronn. Dr. Bronner's parents Berthold and Franciscka are deported to and eventually murdered in the death camps, Auschwitz and Theriesenstadt.
• 1940's Wife Dies; Peace Plan Begins
  Dr. Bronner's wife Paula becomes sick and is hospitalized, dying in 1944. Emil adopts honorific "Dr." in deference to his university degree, but never actually got a doctorate. However, with his intensity, immense scientific knowledge, and thick German accent, no one would ever challenge him about it. Begins urgent mission to convince Roosevelt, Eisenhower and other American leaders, as well as the American public, about his vision for world peace across ethnic and faith traditions, and about the dangers of Communism alongside Fascism. So devoted is he to this mission that he leaves his children to be raised in various foster homes.
• 1945 Crucifixion/Institutionalization
  Fred Walker (willingly) crucified for "Dr. Bronner's Peace Plan" on a Chicago bridge; Dr. Bronner had no direct involvement. In part due to his increasing notoriety, Dr. Bronner arrested while speaking without a permit at the University of Chicago, and was institutionalized in the Elgin State Insane asylum for vehemently espousing his views. Undergoes shock treatments which were thought to be the miracle cures of the time, which he blamed for his subsequent declining eyesight and blindness in the 1960's. He escapes some months later and travels to Los Angeles, where he is fond of saying he fit right in.
• 1948 Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps Founded
  The first incarnation of the current Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps company begins. Begins manufacture of famous liquid Peppermint soap and health food seasonings. Dr. Bronner was pleased that the company's founding coincided with Israel's. To see a very interesting video about this time, visit Uncle Ralph's video diaries, "Visit to an Insane Asylum".
• 1950's Pershing Square
  Dr. Bronner lectures primarily in Pershing Square in LA, a hot-bed of activism of all stripes. He sees the need for the world to unite before it destroys itself, and he exhorts all people to unite as one, to respect each other and the environment, and he encourages all religions to recognize their universal similarities inspired by the same divine source. Dr. Bronner sees planetariums as being the 'All-One!' temples of the future, where humanity can realize how vanishingly trivial their differences are on Spaceship Earth in the celestial majesty of Creation. On the side, he sells his Peppermint soap. He soon realizes that many people are taking the soap and leaving without listening to him speak. In response, Dr. Bronner begins to write his philosophy in dense tiny script on the labels of each bottle. In the meantime, sons Jim and Ralph periodically help with the business, Ralph more with the labels and messages, and Jim with the actual production. Ralph becomes a school teacher in Wisconsin, and Jim spends eight years in the Navy.
• 1960's/70's Counterculture Explosion
  Young people, primarily members of the counter-culture, come to love the soap with which they could do everything: from washing their VW vans, to cleaning their bell-bottoms, to washing themselves by the nearby lake. They also groove on the label's call to peace and the fact that Dr. Bronner is a real person, not some corporate mascot. Word-of-mouth soon makes Dr. Bronner's the iconic soap of that era. Dr. Bronner moves the bottling and shipping plant to Escondido, CA (North County San Diego) in the 60's. He meets and marries Gladys, his wife until he dies. Jim is now overseeing manufacture of the soap in the Los Angeles facility full-time, and he becomes the Vice President of R&D and Production.
• 1980's On the March
  Dr. Bronner's soaps spread into every health food store in the U.S. and then into the mainstream as well, winning over fans from all walks of life. Ralph Bronner continues to work with Dr. Bronner on refining the message on the bottles. Jim Bronner launches his own chemical consulting company, Bronner Chemical and Technical Consulting, inventing among other things a fire-fighting foam concentrate used in forest and structure fires throughout the U.S. today. His son David Bronner works in the company during high school and college summers.
• 1990's Jim, Ralph & Trudy
  Sons Jim and Ralph Bronner and Jim's wife Trudy Bronner assume formal control of Dr. Bronner's due to Dr. Bronner's failing health. Jim is full-time President, with Uncle Ralph as Vice-President serving as the company spokesperson, and Trudy serving as Treasurer/CFO. A generous health benefit and profit-sharing plan for all Dr. Bronner's employees is implemented. Ralph Bronner travels the country, visiting health food stores, playing guitar and befriending people from all walks of life, particularly those working in 'human,' as opposed to 'corporate,' charities which Dr. Bronner's supports with donations.
• 1997 Dr. Bronner Dies
  Dr. Bronner passes away with advanced Parkinson's among family and friends. On the same day, his great-granddaughter Maya Lin-Bronner is born to grandson David Bronner and his wife Kris Lin-Bronner.
• 1998 Jim Bronner Dies
  Jim Bronner passes away from cancer, having spent a year training his son David Bronner in the business, who had also worked extensively in Bronner Chemical growing up. Under Jim's direction and Trudy's execution, a $1.4 million 1000-acre parcel of wilderness is donated to the Boys & Girls Club of San Diego, which is resold eight years later by the club with the Bronner family's permission to the Nature Conservancy for $2.5 million, to service San Diego's poorer and disadvantaged youth. (Trudy is a current board member of the San Diego Boys & Girls Club.)
• 1998 Enter Crazy Fox
  David along with mom Trudy and Uncle Ralph begin running the company. David is only 25, but has graduated from Harvard, lived in Amsterdam for a few months after, worked as a mental health counselor for two years, and had gotten pretty ecological and passionate about many things, reflected in his vegan diet and advocacy for hemp. His middle name is "Emanuel" and has the "crazy like a fox" Dr. Bronner gene.
• 2000 Enter the Ninja
  After extensive customer trials with customers, hemp seed oil is added as a superfatting ingredient in the soap, due to overwhelming support for the smoother lather and less drying afterfeel imparted by hemp oil's unsurpassed Essential Fatty Acids. David's well-traveled brother Michael joins the company, moving from Japan where he had taught English for three years after graduating from Brown University (where he spent a semester in Ethiopia), and manages operations and purchasing. Before long, Mike is coordinating Dr. Bronner's soaps into various countries around the world.
• 2001 DEA DOA
  DEA under the Bush administration attempts to destroy the US hemp industry, issuing regulations purporting to interpret existing law to declare hemp illegal, and seizing shipments of hemp seed and oil at the Canadian border. Dr. Bronner's funds and coordinates the hemp industry's protracted and ultimately successful litigation with the DEA, culminating in a clean defeat of DEA on February 6, 2004 (Bob Marley's birthday) in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
• 2003 Certified Organic
  Dr. Bronner's becomes the largest personal care company to be certified under the USDA's National Organic Program, with bar and liquid soaps certified by the highly reputable certifier Oregon Tilth. Dr. Bronner's also pioneers 100% post-consumer plastic bottles for its liquid soaps.
• 2003 Elevated Social Responsibility
  Family executives implement a 5 to 1 compensation cap between the top salaried and lowest wage warehouse position. The health plan for all employees is improved to a no-deductible "Preferred" PPO (vs HMO) plan. All profits not needed for business development or debt retirement, are dedicated to supporting various progressive causes and charities.
• 2003 Uncle Ralph
  Uncle Ralph begins his off-off-broadway one-man show, telling various touching and amazing stories about his life, his father and Dr. Bronner's as a company. The company partners with a Japanese firm to introduce Dr. Bronner's soaps to the Japanese market. By the end of the year, Dr. Bronner's is the top- selling brand of natural liquid and bar soap in Japan, just as in North America.
• 2005 USDA Organic Victory
  The USDA due to lobbying by various interests as well as being understaffed and unable to deal with the systemic organic labeling fraud in personal care, attempts to kick certified bodycare companies out of the National Organic Program, which it says is reserved for organic food. Dr. Bronner's coordinates litigation with the Organic Consumers Association against USDA in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. The USDA has a change of heart, and issues a formal policy statement explicitly affirming non-food products like personal care can continue to be certified under the National Organic Program so long as it abides by the same rigorous standards as organic food.
• 2006 Fair Trade Constructive Capitalism
  Dr. Bronner's begins comprehensive project to source all major materials, including organic coconut, palm, olive and hemp oils from certified fair trade sources. Large investments are made in setting up a fair trade coconut oil project "Serindipol" in post-tsunami Sri Lanka. For the olive oil, Dr. Bronner's coordinates and funds fair trade and organic certification for the Canaan Fair Trade project in the West Bank, as well as Jewish and Arab-Israeli producers in Israel.. In partnership with the NGO Fearless Planet, organic sustainable palm oil is sourced on fair trade terms from farmers and a women-owned mill out of Ghana. Hemp Oil comes from the Canadian supplier Farmer Direct that is certified "Fair Deal", the North American version of Fair Trade.
• 2007 Certified Fair Trade
  Dr. Bronner's is formally certified as a Fair Trade company by the respected Swiss certifier IMO, who also certified all the individual projects that supply the raw materials for our soaps.
• Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox
  "Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox" is an independent production that was not financed by the Bronner family or Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps in any way. However the film has moved the Bronner family to let people know about it.The film features footage of Dr. Bronner, his fourth wife Gladys Bronner, late son Jim Bronner and the late Eldridge Cleaver of the Black Panthers which was shot, directed and produced by Stewart Nelsen in the early 1980's.
• 2008 60th/150th Anniversary!
  Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps celebrates its 60th anniversary and 150th year of making soap in the family for five generations, with a new line of USDA organic products.
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Activism
In total over the last five years, Dr. Bronner's spending on social and environmental causes and charities has roughly matched their total after-tax income, and they intend to keep doing so as circumstances allow.Total compensation of executives is capped at five times that of theirlowest-paid position.

Employees annually receive 15% of salary paid into a retirement/profit-sharing plan, up to 25% of salary as a bonus, and a no-deductible PPO health insurance plan for themselves and their families.The over 30,000 words spread across all the soap labels were Dr. Bronner's life work of searching every religion and philosophy for "Full Truths" that can be summed up in two beautiful sentences:

• Constructive capitalism is where you share the profit with the workers and the earth from which you made it!
• We are all brothers and sisters and we should take care of each other and spaceship earth!

In following these principles, the Bronner family dedicates profits to "Human Projects" all over Spaceship Earth - from fresh water wells in Ghana to orphanages in Haiti and China; from helping organic farm projects to donating over 1,200 acres of land to the San Diego County Boys and Girls Club. In sharing with their workers, they annually give profit-sharing and bonuses totaling over $10,000 per employee for warehouse positions. Major causes and focuses right now include fighting for organic integrity in personal care, recommercialization of industrial hemp in the US, and promotion of "Fair Trade" certification of product supply chains to ensure fair wages and prices are paid.

Dr. Bronner would be happy to know the business is running better and more socially responsibly than ever.

Dr. Bronner's All-One Mission
Dr. Bronner's is a family business committed to honoring the vision of their founder Dr. E.H. Bronner by making socially and environmentally responsible products of the highest quality, and by dedicating Dr. Bronner's profits to help make a better world. ALL-ONE!