How to label "FO" when wanting "natural" advertising

[Soapsavvy]

WOW, that's interesting. Thanks for sharing!

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Also bear in mind, the more people play fast and loose with these sorts of things, the more problems will come and that will (not might, WILL) result in more actually legislation

 

[rainycityjen]

I use more FOs than EOs, but I do try to buy phthalate-free FOs when I can, and label them as such. When people who use my soap ask, I tell them that essential oils are not necessarily safer, less irritating, or more ecologically friendly ... it all depends on your source and usage.

 

[paillo]

I use more FOs than EOs, but I do try to buy phthalate-free FOs when I can, and label them as such. When people who use my soap ask, I tell them that essential oils are not necessarily safer, less irritating, or more ecologically friendly ... it all depends on your source and usage.

Good point about phthalate free. I won't order anything with phthalates for fragrance, or parabens for cosmetic products, and need to include that when I describe products. And good point on the second ones too, FOs and EOs

 

[gsc]

boy it's good to hear from all of you

I by no means want to be dishonest about the labeling of my product. That is why I was reaching out to all of you for your advice. I want to make my soap as natural as possible, but I would never advertise my soap is all natural if there is FO in it and not EO.

 

[topofmurrayhill]

I by no means want to be dishonest about the labeling of my product. That is why I was reaching out to all of you for your advice. I want to make my soap as natural as possible, but I would never advertise my soap is all natural if there is FO in it and not EO.

It doesn't matter whether you use FO. Did you make your soap with a chemical reaction or did you find it in your garden? If you searched high and low, wandering through nature, could you you harvest some soap to sell? Can you dig it out of the ground or drill for it? Does it fall out of the sky?

When a factory takes raw materials and puts them through a process that includes chemical reactions to produce a useful substance to sell, we call that substance synthetic, not natural. It doesn't matter where the raw materials come from. And that's how you make soap in your kitchen factory.

You can make it uncolored and unscented out of organic oils, and it will be a man-made product. It doesn't fit even the broadest, most common-sense definition of a natural product.

 

[reinbeau]

Well, I'll argue that being 'man made' doesn't make it 'unnatural'. We are, after all, part of nature. Seriously.

But as for the term 'natural' it's a buzzword, a marketing term, something to attract someone to your product. I wouldn't use it. I might use hand crafted, hand made, pure soap, whatever, but not 'natural'. It's been misused and/or abused enough.

 

[TeresaT]

To take TOMH's comment one step further, just because something is "natural," that is "of the earth," does not mean it is superior in quality. I can buy "natural" iron oxide or "synthetic" iron oxide to color my soap. I will buy the synthetic every time. Something found in nature has to be purified before it can be used. Something synthesized in a laboratory is already pure and ready to use. Iron oxide is rust. I'm not going to pick up a pipe, scrape the rust off of it and use that for my soap. But I could. Because it's 100% natural. Just like oleander. (Yes, this is over-simplifying it, but not by much.)