We all love body washes, shampoos, and cleansers that provide us with big bubbly lather. We love to emerge from our showers feeling squeaky clean. We love having grease and oil removed from our bodies as well as our dishes, floors, counters and clothes.

Most cleaning products contain artificial chemicals that help produce this big bubbly lather and helps to easily and effectively remove grease and oil. These chemicals are commonly referred to SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate) and SLES (Sodium Laureth Sulfate). These chemicals are referred to as surfactants and they are foaming and cleansing agents that act like soap but are not soap. These surfactants are also the same chemicals that are used in car washes and garage and engine cleaners. Don’t you think that is a bit harsh for your skin?

Aside from being harsh on your skin, the most troublesome questions with adding SLS and SLES chemicals to our bath and body products are the potential long-term toxicology and environmental effects. There is no absolute conclusive evidence that these chemicals are carcinogenic or cancer-causing. There are concerns, however, regarding how our skin reacts to repeated exposure to them and what effect the absorption has on our bodies over the years.

The number of people reporting cases of eczema, dermatitis and skin allergies seems to have sky-rocketed with the increased prevalence of these surfactants and other artificial ingredients that fill our products.  Also, consider the millions of people everyday in the U.S. that rinse away shampoos, detergents, cleaning agents and toothpastes down the drain into our water systems. The effects of surfactants in our water system and influence on marine life is still being studied. Although the FDA has not deemed these to be hazardous enough to ban I ask you to consider these points:

Your skin is your largest organ and it absorbs what you put onto it. Think of the number of times you wash your hands, body and shampoo your hair. Think of the detergents you use to wash your clothes then wear against your body. Think of the number of times you spray a household cleaner and wash your dishes. Obviously, no one has died instantly from cleaning and being exposed to SLS and SLES surfactants. Just as smoking one cigarette doesn’t kill you instantly. It’s the cumulative, long-term effects that need to be studied. I find it interesting that these surfactants concern enough people in Europe and Central America because those chemicals are banned in the European Union and Central America. Yes, that’s right banned.

So, why (by some estimates over 90%) do so many cleaning products here in the USA contain SLS and SLES? Because these are very effective and very cheap cleansers. These chemicals are very cheap and easy to formulate. The cosmetics industry is a multi-billion dollar industry and when so many companies already use these chemicals in so many of our products it is in their best financial interest to continue to use them.

There are a growing number of companies, like ours, that are realizing the importance of eliminating these surfactant chemicals and proving that you can still get big bubbles and lather to cut through grease and grime without over-stripping and harshly irritating your skin. The picture above shows our bubbles from our liquid hand soap. Check out our bath bars, liquid soaps and body washes. You won’t find SLS and SLES or other artificial surfactants in any of our products.

Our products clean and foam the old fashioned way – we use acids (natural, organic oils such as coconut, olive, and jojoba to name a few) and combine with lye (sodium hydroxide and water) to react and create soap, also known as saponification. We scent our products using essential oils from plants, most of which are organic. Unfortunately, the cost to use higher quality organic oils and botanical ingredients is higher than using cheap alternatives such as SLS and SLES.

Please be aware though that some companies are faking a ride on the “green washing” bandwagon and appearing to make their products better for you by leaving out SLS and SLES but instead use other petrochemicals by many different names that raise their own safety questions. Some just flat out lie and label their products as natural and organic even while still containing these surfactants and other questionable chemicals.

Christy