Zymöl really started with Roots, Arthur Haley’s famous book that was made into a mini-series. That series is what made me decide to see where my German great grandmother came from. She was a Rothschild, the one that was disowned for marrying a Dane. So, we went to Germany and visited her birthplace. It was one of those villages noted for great food and lots of wonderful wine. That’s where I saw the antique carriages.
There were a lot of horse drawn carriages there, they were wooden but they looked like metal. They put clay over the wood, let it dry, sanded it, and painted it with enamel. I saw craftsmen polishing and protecting the finish with something that had a horrible smell, comprised of pork and beef fat, fermented lard, suet, and sap extracted from the evergreen trees that are native to Germany. Being a vegetarian, I decided it might be a good idea without the lard, so I brought some back to the USA with me.
I began by replacing the oils and using the specific gravity of the lards and tallow with highly saturated plant oils such as Coconut and Banana. Carnauba replaced heavy thick Suet. The Evergreen Oil was retained. Then the concoction was spun at super high speed to make it a wax emulsion.
I liked what we had, but it didn’t work, it was missing something! It didn’t have the live culture of fermented fats. There were no enzymes. It needed a re-agent. I finally settled on plant sugars and propolis, which is what bees use to convert plant oils into wax. This natural agent made Zymöl an enzymatic emollient like you find in beer or yogurt or a sourdough bread base.
That’s where the “Zym” in Zymöl came from. It’s also one of the things that makes Zymöl different. Oxygen is the catalyst that makes enzymes work. So, Zymöl is not a wax until it’s applied. The last half of the name came from the German word for oil, öl – complete with the umlaut – representing the various natural oils used in the formula.
The Cosmetics Company for Cars
In the world of making cosmetics, sourcing naturally derived materials became much easier than trying to obtain, ship, and store hazardous materials, although the costs were 3-10 times more. Our research led us on to a brilliant man named Harvey Kornhaber, the lead chemist for Revlon. Harvey directed us to many sources of elite, natural materials to help us compound what we needed to develop.
After the wax, the first on the customer’s list was a car wash soap, not a detergent. We use three different oils to make our Auto Wash, Titanium Wash, and Clear soaps. We use Coconut, Olive, and Tallow. The results are soaps that make water wetter, and not chemically abrade the finish like all detergents.
We then decided we needed a non-abrasive cleaner to remove dirt, grease, oil, and old wax from paint surfaces to give our wax a clean place to bond to. HD-Cleanse was born. A surface cleaner rich in oils like Coconut, Apricot Kernel, Cocoa, and Lemon Seed, SiO2 nano polishing particles were added to remove hairline scratches.
Acid Free Wheel Wash
Customers told us they didn’t like the acidic wheel cleaners currently on the market, so with the help of a Florida Citrus company and Coors Beer, we developed a new Wheel Wash that removes brake dust on contact. Zymöl Brite Wheel Wash uses the oils from Lemon, Orange, and Grapefruit rind pressings. We distill and blend the oils, and the result is a natural, citric solvent that won’t affect aluminum, magnesium, steel, or chrome wheels.
Secondhand Plastic
Our plastic containers are created with post-consumer materials, which are easily recycled once customers are done with them. Our shipping packaging uses post-consumer corrugated and junk mail shred (replacing packing peanuts). We even invested in a specialized container packing system from Italy called Geami, which uses recycled paper to produce accordion-fluted wrapping material.
Recognizing Zymöl’s Green
We won the e2000 Award for being the most ecological company in the U.S. but for 40+ years we never considered our company Green . . . we just considered it Zymöl.
Listen to Chuck Bennett recount the Zymöl origin and evolution on GTM’s Break/Fix Podcast
