Someone just returned a product they bought last Christmas…..they didn’t  know it was a natural product, made fresh daily and  not preserved.   When they used it recently, it was a little ’sticky.’   We want everyone to be happy, so we replaced it.

I wondered aloud if other companies get these kinds of returns, and our fantastic shipping angel,  Diane, replied, “perhaps it’s because they hold us to a higher standard!”

I repeated this to another business person, and they agreed that we are basically, “famous for being green, clean, etc.”  That’s good, actually, THAT’S GREAT!!!

Although I am constantly amazed at how few returns we get,  another thing that happens occasionally, is that someone returns a product that seems to smell ‘off.’  But often…it smells O.K. to us and we just can’t figure it out.  Recently, though, someone returned a product and it had been made just a week before.  We passed the product around…and six  of us just couldn’t figure out what was wrong.  Then, BOING! I got it!  I guess that’s why I have the big desk.

Firstly, we use only food-grade oils in our products.  Most, if not all, large commercial companies use some form of mineral oil, aka ‘petrochemicals.’ There is basically no smell to mineral oil, while our expensive nut and vegetable oils do have an actual smell of their own.

Secondly, we use as little fragrance in our products as possible, not to save $$$$, but because  almost 95% of reactions to body care products are fragrance-related.

So, the scent in some of our products may be light, with a slight aroma of the natural oils coming through. In time, I hope more products have this problem; smelling too natural.  I talked to a few locals and friends who use our products  and they all agreed they love that our products do have a nice, light, clean scent…and most used the word, “natural.”

I hope we continue to be held “to a higher standard.”

Bye for now,

Linda

Even more funny stuff.  A recent issue of Profit magazine contained a short news brief entitled, “Green Sheen.”  It reported on the government’s recent crackdown on “greenwashing,” which it describes as “the practice of disingenuously marketing one’s products as green.”

It also quotes a “recent report by environmental marketing firm Terra Choice.  It found that 98% of the 2,219 SUPPOSEDLY (my emphasis !) green products it investigated committed at least one of the seven greenwashing “sins,” including “being too vague, (e.g., “all-natural”), making claims that are irrelevant, and fibbing!”

98%!!???  That sound like a lot, doesn’t it?  And yes, they ACTUALLY SAID FIBBING!  Apparently, the Competition Bureau of Canada (didn’t know we had one!) just fined seven retailers who were fibbing.

I hope we aren’t fibbing.  We try, honestly we do.  We recently caught ourselves using something that we are always railing against; propylene glycol.  We were importing a really nice herbal extract, and just found somewhere on the shipping documents that it actually contained propylene glycol.  We thought it was a pure extract,,,so of course, we discontinued it, and did manage to find one without that pesky ingredient.

But, we are too picky.   Another VERY large soap company uses it as the first or second ingredient in their soaps.  Also, it can be found in really natural (so-called) toothepaste and yes, folks…we are actually eating it!  It is in lots of food products, as a thickener I guess, including ice cream.

So,  if you catch us fibbing, let us know.  If you catch someone else fibbing, let them know.

Good Luck!

Linda

Bye for now,

Linda Quiring

Body odor!

People don’t like to talk about it, yet it’s a normal body function. Now that I think of it,
there are a lot of normal body functions we don’t like to talk about.

I suppose we think if we don’t talk about it,- it doesn’t exist.Well guess what, it does exist!!
We can see it, we can hear it and yes, we CAN smell it!
Speaking of smell, I had a customer in my store recently
she was very distressed because she had just found out
that her “natural” deodorant she had been using for years
is…….full of chemicals and strange ingredients she didn’t understand.

Recent studies have found that the dyes and perfumes in most deodorants
are causing allergic reactions, rashes,itching and eczema!
So, what to do!!!

Alive Magazine Oct. 2009 issue says:

“Try natural Deodorant Stones made from mineral salts such as Potassium Allum
that eliminate odor-causing bacteria. Fragrance and Alcohol free and non-staining,
these stones last for six months to two years making them cost effective.
“Not only have I been selling these Deodorant Stones for over ten years I have
also been using them myself for over ten years!
I was so happy to be able to help this woman choose a safe, healthy alternative.
I also suggest saving the crystal when it gets too small to navigate around your pit area
you can use the small bit for your feet, eliminating foot odor,
thus granting you one less normal body function to talk about. Bonus!!
Amber Quiring

My message, when asked about body, hair and skin care has ALWAYS been, “READ THE LABELS.”  When Saltspring Soapworks began, back in ‘79…there WERE no labels…..or more correctly, they didn’t really say anything.

In the U.S., ingredient listings were mandatory, in order of appearance.   Usually, the 1st ingredient was water!  But in Canada…we didn’t need to do this.  I began to do it anyway, thinking that our ingredients were so special people would want to know about them.  Also, we had nothing to hide.

One day, we had a visit from the owner of one of Canada’s largest “natural” body care companies.  He had one line of products that  we didn’t make…and he felt we could sell in our shops.  He was known as quite a “guru” in the emerging natural market.  He gave me a few free samples,  including shampoo.  As we sat there in my office, I smelled the shampoo: it was wonderful, pure essential oils.

I looked at the label,  it all looked great! “But,” I said naively, “where’s the surfactant?”  That’s inside talk for the detergent, the cleansing agent or whatever.  Something had to make this shampoo lather.  “Oh,” he said, “its  sodium lauryl sulfate.”

“But, but, ” I gulped, “it’s not on the label.”  His response floored me, and I still remember it,  of course.

“We only list ACTIVE ingredients,” he said.  “People don’t like to read about  all the chemicals and preservatives.”

“Oh,” I thought…..ACTIVE INGREDIENTS???!!!!

So there you have it.  Hidden ingredients.  Also, aren’t you glad they’re protecting us???

And they are still doing it.  So are we!  We just discovered one of our nice food-grade extracts had propylene glycol in it….hidden away in something we thought was 100% coconut.  Immediately, it was scrapped, of course…we don’t knowingly do this and we are looking for that 100% natural replacement.

Others, it seems, aren’t so picky.       If you find a hidden ingredient, let us know.  We’ll send you something nice!

Linda

I am a confessed Body Lotion Junky.
Ever since I was 11, I have been obsessed with Hand
and Body Lotions.
Everywhere we went, you would find me in the shops,
searching out the lotion testers (you name it, I’ve tried it)

I was always searching for the BEST LOTION. When I say best, I mean:

BEST SMELLING, BEST FEELING, BEST INGREDIENTS, simply BEST!

I even used to mix 2-3 different types of lotions to create my own scent.

(Sometimes this did not work out so well)

At any given time I had 4-6 different bottles of lotions rattling around in my

cupboard-did I mention that I was obsessed?

A few years ago my mother-in-law and BOSS! (more on that another time) invented

LAVENDER BODY SOUFFLE and now I must confess, I am monogamous with my Body Lotion.

Although sometimes I relapse and use the Gardeners Hand Therapy Cream (Another great invention)

after a long day battling vicious weeds and thorns in my overgrown garden.

Now that I am down to one (well two) natural lotions, I use them more frequently (using up what I

have on hand) thus my lotion is always fresh and i am not ending up with lots of half full bottles of

old product-YUCK!

How about you- how many old bottles of lotion do you have kicking around your cupboard?

Would you rather have 1 or 2 great quality, fresh, natural lotions (With a shelf life of 8-10 months)  that you use up before replacing

or a couple of old lotions loaded with up with preservatives and cheap ingredients that have a

shelf life of 5 + years!!

Let me know, I would love to hear your comments.

Amber Quiring.

I found a great organic Body Lotion. It worked so well and smelled so nice, I wanted to reinvent it for Saltspring Soapworks. “What a great formula,” I thought but noticed there was no preservative.

Without a preservative, you’d need to keep it in the fridge, or it would only last 2 or 3 weeks! But, when I asked my chemist for help with a formula, he found some hidden ingredients.

The 1st ingredient was a lovely herbal extract and although it was alcohol-based, I knew not all alcohols were bad (red wine??) Turns out that herbal extract contained some other things, including the preservative! Slightly misleading????

Someone showed me an organic hair conditioner, which cost twice as much as ours and wanted to know if it was twice as good. Hidden among a long list of nice things; essentail oils, herbal extracts, vegetable oils, was a long word I’d never seen before.

Googling it, I found it was the preservative, and contained a solvent used in nail polish remover, among other things. Not recommended for body care.

You paid HOW MUCH for this ‘organic’ conditioner???

So, forget about reading labels. What to do? I given it a lot of thought, and think I’ve found the solution. It’s the same old thing: small and local. Like you want to know the farmer who grows your food. That your green peas don’t come from China. (Sorry China).

Find someone you can trust, someone close by that you can hold accountable. We field questions from customers about our ingredients constantly…and we don’t mislead people about what’s in our product.

If you find a hidden ingredients somewhere…let uf know. We’ll send you something nice!

Linda Quiring

Founder,

Saltspring Soapworks

I can’t believe it!  After all of my posts about ‘organic’ I’m still harping on it.   It seems every week brings a new development in the world of  ‘organic’ body care.  Why do I use ‘ marks?  Because….I’m still trying to figure out what ‘organic’ means and folks, I’ve been making body care for over 30 years!

My brother-in-law makes and sells noodle soup.  We go on holidays with them sometimes, and even down in Arizona in a little town, he’ll run into the latest shop  or market and see if there’s any noodle soup.  Does he need more noodle soup? No, he’s looking to see what brand is selling where.  “Oh,” he’ll say, “so and so brand is being discounted at the dollar store.” Sometimes, it’s “what a good idea! They’ve put hot peppers in the noodle soup!” and he’s inspired to try something new.  You get the drift.

So, now I don’t feel so silly running around wherever I go buying soap and body care products.  Yes, I can write it off, too!  It’s R&D (research and development!)

Down there in never-never-land I found the most wonderful organic products made in the U.S.A.  “These are the kind of products we want to make,” I thought.  “What wonderful, clean, healthy ingredients!  Now, could we do something like this??”

The answer is NO!!  Well, we could, but why would we want to?

Firstly, how about an organic natural soap that uses Canola Oil for a base…or since canola has gotten such a bad name, how about calling it Rapeseed Oil…Only, it is not really a good oil for soapmaking….it is about the last thing on the list you would use to make a fine handmade bar of soap.  Why use it?  I think it would be because it is readily available, and pretty darn cheap.

What’s better..or a better value?  How about an organic body care product that is 85% organic but the 15% is synthetic ingredients made from petrochemicals?  Is this better than a 100% natural product, made from 100% plant-based ingredients but that is only 10 or 25% organic?

How about a company that calls itself “______________ Organics” but uses mostly non-organic and synthetic chemicals along with a small amount of natural and organic ingredients? Is this O.K.?  Confusing? Fraudulent? (more on this later, see my next blog)

How about a company that sets itself up to certify organic products, sells companies it’s eco-logo and then certifies products that contain synthetic petrochemicals in fragrances, etc.

All I can say is, “READ THE LABELS!”   “READ THE LABELS!”

Linda

It’s FLU SEASON!  But….I’m not worried….I’m not going to get it.  I never, well, almost never get flu.  I also never get the vaccine.  My secret?  I don’t avoid people or cough into my sleeve, stay home or avoid public places.  BUT, I do wash my hands a lot; not obsessively I think, perhaps a little compulsively.

For instance, on the ferry, I NEVER EVER grab the handrail….4000 people have grabbed it that day from everywhere in the world…and I also wash my hands every time I come home from being out in public.

Which leads me to the Ounce mentioned above.  This week our local newspaper, the Gulf Islands Driftwood, had a big feature about H1N1!! oh no…the dreaded H1N1!!!!

I didn’t read all the article…I tend to change the radio station when they talk about ‘that flu’ and I don’t have T.V.  I don’t read the big city papers….and so, I don’t put ‘the flu’ bug in my consciousness.  BUT….I do follow the Driftwood’s No. One Big Tip for avoiding ‘the flu,’ and I quote:

“Wash hand frequently with soap and water for 20 seconds.”

That was easy.

One thing…most commercial soaps people use are now ’syndets’ or synthetic detergent bars.  Do they work the same as real soap?  I’m not sure.  Does anyone out there know the answer to this?

Anyway, we have soap.  Lots of soap, REAL soap  Soap in all different colors of the rainbow.  We have lots of different scents and fragrances; West Coast Fir, Chamomile, Lavender, etc.etc.etc.

So, you have lots of lovely choices on how to avoid ‘the flu.’

And handwashing appears not only be good for prevention..but also, THE NO. l PREVENTION TIP!

Again, that was easy!

Bye for now,

Linda

I was wandering around downtown Victoria, waiting for an appointment..and found a body care shop that looked interesting!  They had some delightful new products……a salt scrub and a sugar scrub…..well, maybe not so new.  We’ve been making our Salt Spring Soapworks saltscrub for almost ten years and the sugar for six or seven.  But hey, the jars were beautiful!  Wish I was a big multi-national and could afford containers like that!

They also cost a LOT more than our scrubs…..over 30% more!  So, time to check the ingredients….let’s see….natural oils….sea salts….natural sugar…pretty good so far….the scents were all 100% pure essential oils…this looks really good…..If I didn’t have a bathroom full of delightful scrubs….I might have bought one.

BUT!  HEY! WAIT!  There were also quite a few things that looked really scary. Like chemicals and preservatives…yes, these jars were preserved enough to last for years!  And apparently, some people keep these kinds of products for years.

Occasionally we get a complaint that our scrubs have gone ‘off’ and don’t smell good anymore.  Sometimes they actually get a bit hard.  We usually ask how long they’ve had it…we will of course take back instantly, anything that isn’t up to our high  standards!  But usually, it turns out the product has been around for awhile….one lady brought back a Cranberry Scrub from Christmas in the middle of summer…well, by now it’s 8 or 9 months old.

A friend once complained to me that her scrub had gone ‘off.’  I asked how long she’d had it and she replied that I’d given it to her for her birthday A COUPLE OF YEARS BEFORE!!!!  If I don’t love something enough to use it up in 2 or 3 months, or I find it at the back of the bathroom cupboard….out it goes!!!

So……I need to ask!!Would you rather have a completely natural/organic product that’s handmade in small batches…and lasts 2 or 3 months max…..or a wonderful product full of preservatives that will still be hanging in there when you find it under the towels in 2011???  And…do you want to pay $12 more to have all those nice preservatives??

One men’s product made by the other guy…..and with a natural scrub in it…..has seven, 7, yes, SEVEN preservatives!

But for something like the scrubs…or massage oils, or bathbombs….that will last for a few months with none at all…..that we make up FRESH each week…why not skip the convenience of loooonnnnngggg shelf life for a CLEAN, FRESH product!

Let us know what YOU prefer….

Linda Quiring

Just when we think, O.K.  the paraben thing is over..the SLS thing is over…no one in the known world is using them in body products anymore…now…another BIG NO NO!!!

Now, it’s the PALM OIL!!  Yes, we use Palm Oil in our famous Artisan soaps….and sometimes it’s Palm Kernal Oil.  But now,,,,,another larger soap and body care company has a really large campaign going that Palm Oil is really bad; bad for the environment mostly, bad for orangutans, and something else, I forget.

I just found out about this campaign, but it explains why in the past few months we have had a couple, not many, calls about our use of Palm Oil.  The first time, we consulted with our supplier, and found that no, our palm oil wasn’t coming from the places where it is unsustainably grown that the company is boycotting.  I called the lady who inquired, but she still believed that just generally, palm oil must be bad.

I asked her what she would suggest we use..and she said soya.  Well,  our research has shown that vast areas of Latin America are being decimated for soya production by mostly American companies.    Canola is Canadian….but is all GMO….so what to use, what to use.?..olive oil is nice..but too soft for a really good soap…we just add a bit to superfat the soap, and also, we use coconut….again…just enough to create a good lather…but it’s too drying to use by itself….mixed with palm oil…the French and Italians say it makes the best soap in the world…and they should know!!

The company boycotting the palm is using ‘rapeseed’ instead.  When I grew up on the Prairies,,,fields of rapeseed were everywhere….but the name was not politically correct, or even nice, and it was changed to ‘Canola,’ short for Canadian “ola” or oil.  However….it appears that about 100% of Canola is now GMO….remember Percy Smeizer??  Why would anyone want to drop Palm Oil from their soap and add GMO canola?

Not sure…but they are calling it ‘rapeseed oil’ again…and apparently it is not GMO.  Also,,,it is way easier to grow than Palm Oil, which is obtained from a tree, not a weed, the Canadian Prairies are now covered with canola …and well, it is famous for being really, really CHEAP!!!!

Are we going to change over??  Don’t think so…actually, it is also famous for making really, really BAD soap!

I’ll keep you posted, but in the meantime…I think our blend of Palm, Coconut and Olive makes about the finest bar in the world…this after 30 years of soapmaking!  If anyone out there has more information on the  canola/rapeseed question  vs palm or palm kernal vs soya….let us know!

Bye for now, and enjoy the last day of August…..(or was that today?)

Linda