Ingredients, The Short List
Our ingredient list is about one-third as long as the most liquid hand soap lists. We just don’t need that much stuff in our soap! Many of our competitor’s liquid soaps use additives to assist in foaming and thickening the soap. For example, a major and much talked about additive called sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) – often added as a foaming and dispersing agent – is present in most commercial liquid hand soap. Most often used in shampoos, SLS is known to remove oils from the skin, and can cause skin and eye irritation. Unlike Method, we do not use sodium lauryl sulfate. Not only does our soap lather up beautifully on its own, we would never want to add an ingredient that literally strips away the benefits of our soap. Our intention is to make our soap both hard working and mild, sticking to the purest soap “recipe” possible.
Our concerns are not limited to the effects these additives have on our skin and bodies, they extend to what happens when these chemicals go down the drain and enter our waterways. Our feeling is that additives such as sodium lauryl sulfate and cocamide DEA are not only not necessary but potentially harmful to the environment.
Our Liquid Soap:
Castile soap is a natural, vegetable oil soap that has been around for hundreds of years. Castile soap isn’t a brand but a type of soap made exclusively from vegetable oil (often olive oil) rather than animal fat or synthetic substances. The simple nature of the soap means a lesser environmental impact due to reduced waste stream during manufacture and also faster biodegradability.
In our castile soap, we use a combination of extra virgin olive and coconut oils to create a soap that cleans effectively without being aggressive – a soap that leaves the skin silky-smooth and refreshed. Our natural liquid soap has a high level of glycerine with no sulfates, surfactants or detergents. It is mild to the skin while offering great natural cleaning power.
Olive oil is a fantastic emollient, which means that it softens and smooths your skin. Products with Olive Oil are especially good for prematurely aged, dry or irritated skin.
Our Bar Soap:
Our bar soap is considered “pure soap” which means that there are no detergents, no Sulfates or Surfactes, and no alcohol. So real and pure is our bar soap, the FDA does not require that the ingredients be listed.
Local vs. Global
Our research indicates that most commercial soap products are made overseas in several different countries. In contrast, our soap is made and bottled in the USA, right here in Northern California. The benefits of local production include reduced carbon footprint, procuring local ingredients when possible, hiring local people – enhancing the local economy, and employing family businesses like ourselves, whenever possible.
Going Green as a Lifestyle
For us, going green means simply using recipes and ingredients that were developed before the industrial and chemical revolutions – using ingredients that are pure and locally procured, when possible, and keeping production within our local economy. Green is not a marketing tool for us, we just happened to have embraced a lifestyle and business philosophy that falls within the definition of “being green.”
Beyond the trend, we truly are green in our lifestyle – we strive to keep business and our business relationships personal and manageable. We live in a small community that is much like a village, and we enjoy sending our kids to the local school, which happens to be an environmental magnet school that embraces place-based education. The campus is on 50 acres with a nature trail and salmon filled creek…how green is that?! Our campus has just finished construction on the first gold Leed certified green building on a California public school campus. Learn more at: http://ftp.harmony.k12.ca.us/greenschool/index.shtml
Style with Substance
We have always had a thing for vintage, particularly retro-modern – a contemporary take on classic aesthetic. Turns out this is extremely popular these days. More than ever, people are gravitating towards the comfort zone of nostalgia – a simpler life, a return to “home” and the familiar.
Our “look” is not sterile or omni-present. Nor is it passé. Our soap packaging conveys imagery and style that speak to everyone – we zero in on personality and help consumers to express their individualism. Paired with a luxurious, effective soap product, we have created something special and have set ourselves apart from the rest of the soap market. Why not have it all? Great soap AND gorgeous design! (Not to mention the best fragrances out there, which happen to be uniquely ours, by the way).