Our Eco Label Dictionary

We want our products to be as kind to you as they are to the planet. That means going back to nature. Keeping things like surfactants, parabens and silicones to a minimum, as well as being vegan, cruelty-free and as close to zero-waste as we possibly can. These words can get thrown around a lot these days, and while they’re everyday vocab for us, you might not know exactly what they mean. We think labels matter, so let’s break it down.

Surfactants

A surfactant is anything that ends in Sulfate or Sulphate, most often Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS) and Sodium Laureth Sulphate (SLES). These are what give cleansing products their foamy lather. As soft as they sound, these ingredients can be really harsh - especially if you have a sensitive skin condition, or colour your hair. While we keep SLS and SLES out of all our products, we do add a plant-derived alternative - Ammonium Laureth Sulphate (ALES) - which is biodegradable, safe for your skin, and won’t strip coloured hair. If you’re looking for something completely sulphate-free, try our zero waste shampoo bars!

Parabens

Parabens are a type of preservative used in the beauty industry to lengthen shelf life. The ugly truth? These nasties can mimic oestrogen and disrupt our natural hormonal balance. They’ve been linked to abnormal growth in breast cells, as well as other problems affecting our immune and nervous systems. Frankly, nothing we put on our skin should have that kind of effect on our body. Our products are proudly paraben-free.  

Silicones

Silicones are added to products to make them smooth and spreadable, but it turns out this rubber-like ingredient is pretty tough to wash off. What you’re left with is a type of ‘second skin’, interrupting the natural balance of oils in your skin and hair. That’s never good. More than that, silicones take an average of 400-500 years to decompose, so to stop them swirling down our drains and into our oceans, we keep them out of all our products. 

Vegan & Cruelty-Free

Our products are Vegan Society and Cruelty-Free International certified. When we say 100% vegan, we mean we’ve used no animal derived ingredients in our formulations. Only plants allowed. And because animals are our friends (and they’re adorable), we’ll never test our products or ingredients on them. 

Zero-Waste & Plastic-Free 

Between our plastics policy and refill availability we like to think we’re passing on as little of the plastics problem to our customers as possible. But the gold standard in sustainability is zero waste. That’s right. Products with absolutely zero plastic footprint. And our soap bars, shampoo bars and conditioner bars do just that. Zero plastic. Zero sulphates. And zero compromises.

Organic

While many of our ingredients are organic, we’re not a certified organic product. Since 1974, our aim has been to make natural products affordable for everyone. And while organic produce continues to become more accessible, it can still be prohibitively expensive for our needs. When we can go organic, we do. But when we can’t, we choose the best quality, sustainable alternative.

Recycled & Recyclable

Our 400ml bottles have been recycled and recyclable since 1999. It’s why they’ve always had that funny grey tinge. Because if we’re going to use plastics (and unfortunately we do still need to), then we want to ensure that as much of that plastic as possible is already in existence. One day, we hope we’ll find a way to ditch it for good. Until then we’re doing all we can to use as little of it as we can.