An Ingredient Dossier
The Seed the Raspberry Industry Throws Away
Before the seed, the berry — Rubus idaeus
Every raspberry harvest in the Pacific Northwest produces two things: the fruit, and the seed left behind once that fruit is pressed into puree and juice. The industry has always had an answer for the fruit. For most of its history, it has not had one for the seed — the farmers who grow it have little use for it, and it has gone out with the rest of the byproduct, harvest after harvest.
Berry Beautiful exists because a family on a small island in the Puget Sound decided that seed was worth keeping. Today they collect it directly from growers in Whatcom County, Washington, during the brief window when the harvest is running, dry it below 120°F to stabilize it, and spend the rest of the year turning it into cold-pressed oil, a handful of small batches at a time — no solvents, no bleaching, no deodorizing.
Researchers have since catalogued what that seed actually contains: a cold-pressed oil naturally rich in linoleic and α-linolenic acid, carrying a dense mix of tocopherols and carotenoids, documented in the peer-reviewed literature on Rubus idaeus seed oil composition.
Most of the raspberry industry treats the seed as a leftover. Berry Beautiful treats it as the whole reason they exist.
I.Three Names on One Island
Ask Berry Beautiful how their oil gets made, and the answer comes with names attached, not departments. Erin Kommer owns the business and runs sales and operations — and is also the one who dries the seed in Whatcom County every harvest season. Bob does the pressing and filtering, mechanically, at their food-grade facility on Vashon Island. Ivonne handles packaging and shipping, and grows the lavender, calendula, and other botanicals that go into the family’s own small skincare line.
They pressed their first eight years of oil in a rented space in Tukwila. In 2018, Erin and Bob built their own food-grade facility on the Vashon Island property — a pressing room, a seed store, a clean room for filling, and a packing room — so that every step, from dried seed to sealed bottle, could stay in the family’s hands.
The Seed, Four Ways
Katie didn’t find Berry Beautiful by accident. Before red raspberry seed oil earned a place in her formulations, she researched it and tested it exhaustively, and Berry Beautiful’s oil was the one that held up. When it came time to buy at scale, she wrote to them directly, asking about wholesale and whether they could document every batch. A phone call with Erin followed that same morning — unhurried, generous with detail, the kind of conversation that tells you exactly who you’re doing business with before the paperwork ever does. Within a couple of hours, his Certificate of Analysis for the current lot was in her inbox.
Harvest season in the Pacific Northwest
A harvester working the rows
II.Why We Choose the Way We Choose
Buttercup doesn’t source from the biggest name in a category. Katie sources from whoever could not fake the standard if they tried — producers who handle their ingredient with their own hands and put their own names on it. Berry Beautiful fits that exactly: one family, one island, a Certificate of Analysis behind every batch they press, and a byproduct they chose to take seriously when almost no one else in their industry does.
That is the bar every ingredient partner has to clear before their name appears on this site: not just the right ingredient, but a producer who stands behind it personally — whose process you could walk into unannounced and watch happen exactly as they told you it does. Berry Beautiful had already cleared it on Katie’s workbench before she ever reached out. The call with Erin only confirmed it.
On File
A USDA and Washington State Department of Agriculture Certified Organic manufacturer, with a Certificate of Analysis on file for every batch pressed.
III.Where It Lives at Buttercup
Berry Beautiful’s red raspberry seed oil is part of Sun Lovers SalvAura™ — pressed by the same family, batch after batch.
A seed the industry throws away. A family that decided otherwise. That’s the standard we build Buttercup around.
Erin, Bob, and Ivonne — Vashon Island, Washington.