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

STILL FRESH!!!

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a fine shop I found in the Palm Springs area….selling ‘fresh’ and ‘organic’ skin, hair and body care.  I was impressed, although it turned out that everything wasn’t organic all the time….which was a little confusing…there was no way to know what was organic and what wasn’t.

Also, I had trouble with the FRESH idea and that these things had to be refrigerated.  I learned this after I had bought a couple of things….and didn’t like them being in the fridge….and  the ‘bio-dynamic’ ingredients inside only lasted a few days, I think….although the product itself would last for a year if refrigerated!

But…we’ve been having a really cold spring! After a few weeks in the warm desert sun and sands of Palm Springs…it is absolutely freezing!  Here it is March 8th, on Salt Spring Island, in what we call “The Banana Belt” of Canada and it is snowing even as I sit here.   The weather did solve my problem though…I put my two “fresh” products on the windowsill just outside the bathroom door that leads to the sauna.  I whip the door open, grab the jar and bottle, whisk them inside…smooth and spray on the products and out they go!  Works really well. ….except they are cold….but I don’t have to run all the way to the kitchen.

So, what’s the big deal???  Only that I THINK THESE PRODUCTS ARE WONDERFUL!!  They make my skin feel great,,,,no fragrance or chemical smells….and I really think my skin looks better; smoother, softer, less dry and YOUNGER!!!  (at my age…this last is really important).

Although I felt the products were expensive…they were not anywhere near the $158 per month I just saw advertised for some wonderful clinically-tested skin care for ‘mature skin’).

So..now I am a convert…I know how to make fresh products…we started out Salt Spring Soapworks in the kitchen, after all.    But, once we started selling our products in shops…I was convinced by even the really natural chemists we needed to have a preservative system to keep our natural ingredients clean and fresh.

We’ve always made everything in really small batches, don’t ship them all over the world, or warehouse them.  So we can use about 1/10th of the preservatives most companies do. We’ve also used the best most natural ones we could find.

The whole experience with “Fresh”  has made me feel there is a way to go back to our roots….maybe WE will get little mini-ice paks to sell our skin care…and make people keep it in the fridge…..it’s worth a try!

Linda

p.s.  I don’t really mind smelling like a cucumber!

p.s.p.s. Let me know how you feel about this??? Want really fresh products??
100% pure, natural, fresh and organic?? Want to keep them in the fridge???