Blog

Posts tagged preservatives
The problem with men...

FACT FILES ON HANDMADE, PURE ORGANIC SOAP

Blokes love our organic soap! It never ceases to astound us that men are the biggest users of our organic soap range. It certainly wasn’t something that we were expecting…not by any stretch of our imagination- but there it is!

Most men wander up to us at the markets- a little embarrassed to begin with- but the conversation generally runs like this:

Us: Hi! Have you used our soaps before? Would you like us to explain the soaps to you?

Bloke: Yeah, that’d be good. My skin gets really dry. My wife buys those damn body-washes. I hate them! I hate pumping the bottle- I hate the flowery smell…I just hate them! I just want to grab a cake of soap & have a shower…but she insists body-washes are better…yet my skin never used to be dry.

We explain our organic soap range- that we don’t use chemicals or fragrances, and that our organic soaps are naturally moisturising.

Most men usually choose our ‘coci’ soap on the basis that they can use it for shaving and as a shampoo as well. They walk away with their purchase in our brown paper bag- hidden under their armpit. The whole scene is vaguely reminiscent of the embarrassed purchase of condoms from a female shop assistant. Ah- but then they come back saying that they loved our soap- their skin has been great- and the next purchase is completed with confidence.

Then we have females who are shopping for soap for their husband or son…either with dry skin or eczema. The conversation generally goes like this:

Woman: I’m looking for soap for my husband. He drives me nuts…he’s hung up on the past and wants to use soap. He reckons that the body-wash makes his skin dry and irritated.

Us: I take it that you don’t have dry skin yourself then?

Woman: No…well I do…everyone does, particularly in winter- but I use moisturiser after I’ve showered. He can’t be bothered! Anyway, I think he just doesn’t like the smell of the body-wash…and he’s stubborn- says he hates fiddling with it all.

So we explain our organic soap range, and that body-washes can be harsh on the skin because of the petrochemicals, and preservatives used to provide a shelf life, and that we don’t add fragrance to our soaps because they are common irritants to the skin. We explain that our soaps are highly moisturising because of the naturally achieved glycerine content…the most moisturising ingredient used in the cosmetic industry- and because of the organic plant oils that we select…which gently nurture the skin without stripping it.

The woman begrudgingly usually buys a ‘coci’ soap then utters a complaint about the extra cleaning she’ll have to do…because soaps are so messy. We comment that in fact there won’t be any difference…that it’s the chemicals used in commercial soaps that cause the residual scum.

We usually wonder afterwards…has the woman in fact ‘heard’ anything that we’ve said? We think blokes are pretty damn switched on to soap with good reason.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious...

FACT FILES ON HANDMADE, PURE ORGANIC SOAP

...a word used to represent the longest word in English- a nonsense word used by children. Don't you ever wonder who comes up with the names of various chemicals? We can scrutinise product labels, but remain mystified as to what the ingredients might actually be...but conclude that they've got to be okay, or they wouldn't be allowed to be included in a consumable product. Some of the most circumspect chemicals are used as preservatives in personal care products.

The following is a list of preservatives used in products, that we'd personally avoid all contact with until clinical studies are conclusive: 2-bromo-2 nitrophane/Bronopol; Diazolidinyl urea; DMDM hydantoin; Formaldehyde; Imidazolidinyl urea; Parabens- Benzlparaben, Butylparaben, Ethylparaben, Methylparaben, Propylparaben; Methylchloroisthiazolinone; Methylisothiazolinone; Methylisothiazoline; Phenocyethanol. Can you even pronounce them? There's a clue!

The following preservatives aren't currently 'in question' over health risks...but use your judgement: Benzalkonium chloride; BHA/Butylated hydroxyanisole; BHT/Butylated hydroxytoluene; Ethylenediamine; Ethylenediamine: Methyeneamine; Methylchloroisothiazolinane; Methyldibromoglutaronitrite; Quaternium-15; Resorcinol; Thimerosal; Triclocaban; Triclosan. Do you bother to jot the ingredients down and research what they are before buying that product?

Apologies for any spelling mistakes made, but therein lies a simple rule to adopt when reading labels- if you can't spell it...if you can't pronounce it...if the ingredient appears as a nonsense word to you...do you really want to risk putting it on your skin?

A popular commercial "beauty cream bar" soap is marketed "Soap is Harsh...**** is Different"- with its 26 mainly synthetic, petrochemical based ingredients- a truly alarming prospect! Our bodies are not meant to process petrochemicals.

ilo ORGANICS soaps contain generally 4 ingredients: a blend of selected saponified organic plant oils and natural glycerine- produced as a by-product of the soap-making process. There are no chemicals, no preservatives, no colouring agents and no fragrance compounds in our soaps...nothing hard to pronounce at all. Use our soaps with confidence!