We aim to avoid unnecessary chemicals in our life and live as toxic free as possible to protect our mind and body. But ‘natural’ can also be very confusing and there is nothing to regulate what ‘natural’ should be when it comes to products and cosmetics. So we want to explain what natural means to us.
Why we choose natural
In a world where we add a multitude of products to our bodies on a daily basis, it made us question how toxic and inflammatory we are making our bodies.
Our skin is our largest organ and so it feels only right to make sure everything we smother over it, is as natural and toxin free as possible. There are many things we cannot control in our life, but we can control what we put on and in our bodies, and ultimately that impacts on our whole being.
We are not saying all chemicals are bad, but when ingredients are used that are known cancer causers and endocrine disruptors (which affects hormones and mood) we wanted to be able to distinguish between the bad and the good. However, this can be hard with an ingredients list that is almost impossible to distinguish. Particularly as some ingredients can go under various names, for example, phthalates are an ingredient regularly included in the list of what to avoid, particularly during pregnancy, but these can be present under the label of ‘fragrance’. This is why keeping everything completely natural is important to us, so we can create an ingredients list that, even if you don’t speak latin, (and we don’t) it can be easily translated to English without any confusion. When you use a plant based oil, the name on the ingredients list tells you which plant and which part of the plant it comes from. Chemically produced scents are listed under the simplified term ‘fragrance’ or ‘parfum’ as they generally consist of many synthetic ingredients. This can be a problem for people with allergies or skin sensitivities and it can result in them choosing an un-fragranced product, perhaps unnecessarily. It is worth noting that some natural cosmetic companies use the term ‘fragrance’ to hide their trade secrets when it comes to scent, so it isn’t always bad, but we choose to list all our ingredients so we aren’t hiding anything.
Natural not naturally derived
We consider natural products to mean, plant based products that are minimally processed from the plants natural state.
When we calculate how ‘natural’ our products are, we mean natural, not naturally derived. When exploring with making natural lotions, it became clear that although many of the ingredients required to make the lotion started out as a coconut, for example, they had clearly been through many processes to create something that now resembles more plastic beads than coconut. It therefore strengthened the idea that keeping it simple with oils, was definitely the best way to keep things ‘natural’.
We use 100% pure essential oils made using steam distillation to ensure no unnecessary fillers have been added to dilute the oil. For our carrier oils, we use expeller pressed (which uses pressure and consequently an element of heat) or cold pressed and filtered carrier oils in our blends to retain as much of the nutrient value of the plants as possible.
Keeping it honest
Some of our products are not quite 100% natural. This is because we use benzoin resin in some of our products for its wonderful benefits for wellbeing. The resin comes from Styrax trees but is too thick to use unless mixed with dipropolyene glycol, an alcohol. Dipropylene glycol helps retain moisture in the skin, keeping it hydrated, while also acting to drive the oils deeper into the skin. It is 100% biodegradable and considered safe to use without any health concerns even in high doses. We therefore feel that the positive effects of the benzoin on our wellbeing, and with no known negative effects on health, that it is a valuable addition to our products.
All skincare products have to be assessed to ensure they are safe. However, chemically produced cosmetics continue to use some ingredients known to cause health issues and so must be limited to ‘safe levels’. However, consider the amount of different products you use and put on your body in one day and this could amount to chemical overload.
Essential oils have to go through the same testing and safe dose levels, however, the consequences of using essential oils are not toxic to the body. Essential oils are a super strength concentration of an oil and therefore have to be used in safe doses to prevent becoming sensitive to the oil or burning the skin. As long as the concentrations are safe within the carrier oils, they should not have any detrimental effects, while in fact they can help support our minds and bodies. We feel removing anything remotely detrimental to our health can only be a good thing.
What is Tocopherol
Tocopherol is another name for vitamin E and acts as a preservative. We use a natural tocopherol made from distilled sunflower oil to provide an oil high in vitamin E. Although not necessary as our products do not contain water, we add this as a preservative to prolong the life of the more delicate oils in our blends.
In summary
Our aim is to use natural product to support our busy and anxiety filled lives on a daily basis, to not only relax our minds but to also support our bodies without piling in the chemicals. Oils can not only be used to nourish the skin but the essential oils soothe the muscles as well as having therapeutic effects on the mind and body to calm and support wellness.
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