FAQ
1. Do you use preservatives in your products.
We choose to use preservatives in our products and use different preservatives in each of our skin care formulations depending on the ingredients. Because we use a lot of fresh raw ingredients spoilage would happen very quickly and not only would the product have a very short shelf life, but harmful mould and bacteria would form. Like food, natural skin care products begin growing colonies of the nasties as soon as it has been cooled. Think of it this way, would you eat a plate of cooked carrots after it has been left on your counter for a couple of days? Likely not, because they have already started to spoil.
All of our preservatives are natural and EcoCert. A quick chat with our friends and customers has confirmed that given the choice of using spoiled products versus ones with a friendly preservative, the preserved ones won hands down.
Some skin care products don't require preservatives like a powered form of face mask.
There is a lot of controversy over the use of preservatives and the "free from" topic comes up often. While consumers want natural skin care products to be free from harmful chemicals, they also want the products to be free from moulds, fungus and bacteria.
We remain watchful of new preserving techniques and ingredients.
2. Do you use synthetic colours in your products?
We don’t use any synthetic colourant in our products. Any of our skin care products that are coloured are coloured by plant material. Over time the colour might fade or change because of the nature of plant materials. Our soap is made with clays and natural colours from ingredients like beet root or annatto powder.
3. Do you use synthetic fragrances in your products?
Most often we use a combination or blend of essential oils to scent our products. Sometimes we use natural scents (plant derived) because we are unable replicate a certain yummy scent we are looking for like strawberries. If we are not using essential oils to "fragrance" our products, you can be sure we are using plant based oils.
4. Do you sell vegan products?
Most of our products are vegan. The only non-vegan ingredient used in a small number of our products is beeswax. Our beeswax comes from our farm or from other local B.C. farms where we know the bees are cared for with kindness and respect.
5. Do you support animal testing?
We are against cruelty to animals in any way, shape or form. We do not purchase ingredients from companies who test on animals.
6. Does Galiano Island Soap Works produce certified organic products?
Although we use certified organic ingredients as much as possible and all of our farm grown raw materials are grown organically (completely free of herbicides and pesticides and synthetic fertilizers), our farm is not certified.
7. Does Galiano Island Soap Works use chemical ingredients in any products?
We use only ingredients that are natural or derived from natural sources and we research and select very carefully. All of our products are 99.5% natural. keep in mind that all plants are made of chemicals so don't be frightened off by an ingredient name that you can't read or spell. We do not use synthetic chemicals.
8. Do you use palm oil?
We do not use palm oil in any of our skin care products. A long time ago we used palm oil in our soap in favour of camelina oil because research showed that it is a great choice for our skin. Camelina is grown in Canada which means we are supporting some fellow Canadian farmers in Saskatchewan. We feel better about not contributing to the environmental issues associated with production of palm wax.
