When we first started developing our sun balm we had 3 goals in mind;
The first goal, use natural ingredients:
We spent hours researching different ingredients and their benefits they provide to our skin. Our skin is the largest organ of our body so what we put on our skin will get absorbed into our body, if you can't eat it then it shouldn't be on your skin.
We looked for minimally processed products and ones that contained a natural SPF. we wanted simplicity. Hydrating and moisturizing properties were a must. Any form of chemicals were out of the question, no chemical UV filters as they have the potential to be toxic to our bodies and the world we live in. We didn't want cheap seed oils as these cause inflammation and they use petro chemicals to create them. And with that in mind we made the decision to use beef tallow, non nano zinc oxide, coconut oil, cacao butter and beeswax. We also use natural essential oil of peppermint to add fragrance to our scented range of sun balms.
Our second goal, make it affordable:
Unfortunately we can't compete with the big guys that use chemical UV filters. These products are very cheap to make and this is exactly why they use them. Cheaper to make means larger profits. Any product that is grown in nature and involves manual labour is going to be more expensive but if it comes from nature it is more then likely better for you. We would rather make less money and have more people be able to afford a good quality product then sell a good quality product at a higher price. We are a small business and our cost for production is fairly high and we still need to make a profit but if our costs do come down then so will the price of our sun balms.
Our third goal, be plastic free:
At the moment we use aluminium packaging with plastic labeling on all our products. we are constantly searching for cost effective methods for our packaging that does not use plastic. Unfortunately we will never be 100% plastic free as the ingredients/materials we purchase do come with plastic, whether it be plastic packaging, plastic layers, sellotape etc.
We understand that we do not live in a perfect world and people will leave their sun balm tins behind at the beach, on a walk, maybe leave it on the roof of their car and they drive off with it landing in a ditch. whatever it may be there is all ways a chance of unintentional littering or the tins being thrown into the rubbish and ending up in a landfill. This has made us think long and hard and brings us to our ultimate goal of not just being plastic free but completely biodegradable! so keep an eye out for our new biodegradable packaging in the near future!
Thank you for taking the time to read our blog,
Elih Neville