What are they made from?
Contains Coconut oil, castor oil, essential oils, SCI - natural (from coconut oil), baby mild foaming agent. Essential Oils: Lemon, grapefruit, tea tree, gingergrass, peppermint, lime
Where do they come from?
Handmade in the UK
Are they sustainable?
Coconut oil – Can be wet or dry processed. Dry processing gives a higher yield but results in a poorer quality product. Wet processing is more expensive and needs more equipment, methods include electrolysis and steam distillation. Roughly, 1000 coconuts = 70 litres of coconut oil. As with any oil, a lot of the original plant is needed to make a small amount of oil. Refined coconut oil creates a higher yield, and this is mostly what is used in cosmetic products such as this unless otherwise stated. Using coconut oil in soap is good for those in hard water areas, as coconut oil dissolves more easily in hard water than other oils, allowing the soap to lather up better.
Castor oil is used as a replacement for petroleum-based substances in many products. It is a much greener alternative as it is renewable, unlike oil.
Sodium Coco-Sulfate – The foaming agent. A gentle, but effective surfactant made of coconut oil. SCS is made using ONLY COCONUT as the raw material. It sounds similar to, but is not the same as Sodium Lauryl Sulphate, which is often made out of palm oil and other petroleum derivatives, and for some people is an irritant. Sodium Coco-Sulfate however, is not as harsh and doesn’t contain any palm oil, so is known to be a more eco-friendly and safer, albeit more expensive, alternative to traditional SLS’s.
BTMS-50 – A combination of behentrimonium methosulfate (which is derived from rapeseed oil), cetyl alcohol and butylene glycol (counteracts the dehydrating properties of the alcohol). Mild and non-irritating. Most ingredient lists normally list the separate ingredients that make BTMS-50 rather than the combined chemical.
Essential Oils - Essential oil production generally uses steam distillation which has no environmental concerns, but it takes a lot of plants to make only a small amount of essential oil.
Peppermint oil – the most commonly used mint, actually a hybrid between two other mint species, this plant is nati