When Less is More!

Now, we are all striving to make our products as green as possible.  At Salt Spring Island Soapworks, we are researching PCR bottles…post-consumer recycled that is.  Just so much better!  And we are constantly looking at new forms of packaging…like containers that melt.  It gets a bit complicated; we reseached bio-degradable bags only to find out that they truly weren’t…just sort of degraded a little faster than the 1000 years it takes regular plastic in the landfill.

A wealth of new ideas and products is hitting the market, along with some things, like the PCR that actually look great!  I saw a line of 100% organic, or nearly, 100% organic on my holiday last winter.  I even bought a couple of things..which were nice, but VERY expensive.  Part of the expense, I’m sure, was the lovely packaging.  Now don’t get me wrong, I loved their packaging.  If we were a bigger richer company, we might do this too!

But, wait a minute!  Why does a jar of 100% organic moisturizer need a box, anyway?  Wouldn’t a really eco-friendly jar be enough packaging?  Why do a cleanser, toner, mask and body wash all need boxes?  If I bought the whole lovely line of skin care, I WOULD HAVE SIX BOXES!!!

Someone else, a really big European skin care line is introducing a new jar of priceless anti-aging cream, and talking a lot about their, yes, THE BOX!  How bio-degradable and green it is.  How environmentally friendly.  How unnecessary, actually.

So, don’t buy into the idea that too much packaging is O.K. if it’s green, or looks green, or might be green.  Even if it is, it isn’t.  More packaging is what we WAN’T!    Not what we NEED!

Bye for now,

Linda

Somehow, there is something wrong with this picture.

ECO-FRIENDLY OR ECO-FAKE????

Sorry to keep on harping about the Green Thing….but…we really  want to bring you the best  skin, hair and body care on the planet.  We keep dumping things that could possibly be harmful, and, we keep adding  exciting new ingredients….years ago (remember, we’ve been doing this for 30 years !) they were saying ‘natural’ was a fad.  Now, suppliers and manufacturers can hardly wait to be the first with  cleaner, more pure ingredients for the paradigm shift in skin care, i.e. PURE! FRESH! CLEAN!

But, things  aren’t as simple as they seem.  We insist a product be ONE HUNDRED PER CENT NATURAL to be called a natural product, and ONE HUNDRED PER CENT ORGANIC to be called an organic product….1 or 2 percent just doesn’t make it!  Do you want to discover your new expensive organic shampoo only has 1% organic ingredients, maybe the essential oils that scent it…and the rest is only ‘natural’ or sometimes….even synthetic!

The reason I am ranting again about this today…is I think I finally saw the ultimate Eco-Fake product!  A rising star with a wonderful ‘green, natural, eco-friendly’ etc. website has just introduced a line of skin body and hair care!  Yes,,,it is all about ORGANIC, ORGANIC, ORGANIC.  But a quick glance at the ingredients (does anybody else read this stuff??) shows not only are most of the ingredients not organic, they are not even natural, and actually, quite the same things you would find in a 16oz bottle of really cheap shampoo at the $$ store or drugstore. The small amount of ‘organic’ in this product is only there for show, for the marketing buzz, and to get those big $$$$!!!!

So, all I can say is…..read the labels….and then google the words you can’t read, pronounce or understand!

Bye for now,

Linda