The Hidden World of Bodycare

by Linda Quiring on Monday, October 26th, 2009

My message, when asked about body, hair and skin care has ALWAYS been, “READ THE LABELS.”  When Saltspring Soapworks began, back in ’79…there WERE no labels…..or more correctly, they didn’t really say anything.

In the U.S., ingredient listings were mandatory, in order of appearance.   Usually, the 1st ingredient was water!  But in Canada…we didn’t need to do this.  I began to do it anyway, thinking that our ingredients were so special people would want to know about them.  Also, we had nothing to hide.

One day, we had a visit from the owner of one of Canada’s largest “natural” body care companies.  He had one line of products that  we didn’t make…and he felt we could sell in our shops.  He was known as quite a “guru” in the emerging natural market.  He gave me a few free samples,  including shampoo.  As we sat there in my office, I smelled the shampoo: it was wonderful, pure essential oils.

I looked at the label,  it all looked great! “But,” I said naively, “where’s the surfactant?”  That’s inside talk for the detergent, the cleansing agent or whatever.  Something had to make this shampoo lather.  “Oh,” he said, “its  sodium lauryl sulfate.”

“But, but, ” I gulped, “it’s not on the label.”  His response floored me, and I still remember it,  of course.

“We only list ACTIVE ingredients,” he said.  “People don’t like to read about  all the chemicals and preservatives.”

“Oh,” I thought…..ACTIVE INGREDIENTS???!!!!

So there you have it.  Hidden ingredients.  Also, aren’t you glad they’re protecting us???

And they are still doing it.  So are we!  We just discovered one of our nice food-grade extracts had propylene glycol in it….hidden away in something we thought was 100% coconut.  Immediately, it was scrapped, of course…we don’t knowingly do this and we are looking for that 100% natural replacement.

Others, it seems, aren’t so picky.       If you find a hidden ingredient, let us know.  We’ll send you something nice!

Linda

Confessions of a Body Lotion Junky!

by Linda Quiring on Monday, October 19th, 2009

I am a confessed Body Lotion Junky.
Ever since I was 11, I have been obsessed with Hand
and Body Lotions.
Everywhere we went, you would find me in the shops,
searching out the lotion testers (you name it, I’ve tried it)

I was always searching for the BEST LOTION. When I say best, I mean:

BEST SMELLING, BEST FEELING, BEST INGREDIENTS, simply BEST!

I even used to mix 2-3 different types of lotions to create my own scent.

(Sometimes this did not work out so well)

At any given time I had 4-6 different bottles of lotions rattling around in my

cupboard-did I mention that I was obsessed?

A few years ago my mother-in-law and BOSS! (more on that another time) invented

LAVENDER BODY SOUFFLE and now I must confess, I am monogamous with my Body Lotion.

Although sometimes I relapse and use the Gardeners Hand Therapy Cream (Another great invention)

after a long day battling vicious weeds and thorns in my overgrown garden.

Now that I am down to one (well two) natural lotions, I use them more frequently (using up what I

have on hand) thus my lotion is always fresh and i am not ending up with lots of half full bottles of

old product-YUCK!

How about you- how many old bottles of lotion do you have kicking around your cupboard?

Would you rather have 1 or 2 great quality, fresh, natural lotions (With a shelf life of 8-10 months)  that you use up before replacing

or a couple of old lotions loaded with up with preservatives and cheap ingredients that have a

shelf life of 5 + years!!

Let me know, I would love to hear your comments.

Amber Quiring.

MORE HIDDEN INGREDIENTS!

by Linda Quiring on Monday, October 12th, 2009

I found a great organic Body Lotion. It worked so well and smelled so nice, I wanted to reinvent it for Saltspring Soapworks. “What a great formula,” I thought but noticed there was no preservative.

Without a preservative, you’d need to keep it in the fridge, or it would only last 2 or 3 weeks! But, when I asked my chemist for help with a formula, he found some hidden ingredients.

The 1st ingredient was a lovely herbal extract and although it was alcohol-based, I knew not all alcohols were bad (red wine??) Turns out that herbal extract contained some other things, including the preservative! Slightly misleading????

Someone showed me an organic hair conditioner, which cost twice as much as ours and wanted to know if it was twice as good. Hidden among a long list of nice things; essentail oils, herbal extracts, vegetable oils, was a long word I’d never seen before.

Googling it, I found it was the preservative, and contained a solvent used in nail polish remover, among other things. Not recommended for body care.

You paid HOW MUCH for this ‘organic’ conditioner???

So, forget about reading labels. What to do? I given it a lot of thought, and think I’ve found the solution. It’s the same old thing: small and local. Like you want to know the farmer who grows your food. That your green peas don’t come from China. (Sorry China).

Find someone you can trust, someone close by that you can hold accountable. We field questions from customers about our ingredients constantly…and we don’t mislead people about what’s in our product.

If you find a hidden ingredients somewhere…let uf know. We’ll send you something nice!

Linda Quiring

Founder,

Saltspring Soapworks