When I started with SELF one thing was immediately clear: it had to be a pure and authentic product. Skin care that you are sure is good for you and for nature. The packaging is actually just as important as the contents, because a natural cream in a polluting packaging? That absolutely does not fit with our philosophy! Yet I still regularly get questions about the packaging: why we chose jars, whether the active ingredients are not lost, whether the packaging is sustainable and/whether we have already thought about refills. I would be happy to give you an answer to all these questions!
Our raw materials and ingredients
I consciously chose healthy plastic instead of glass for our primary and secondary packaging. Why? I have two good reasons for this: firstly, it is much safer in the bathroom, especially if there are small children walking around, it can happen that your potty suddenly ends up on the floor. In addition, it is also less harmful to nature. The recycling process of plastic is less laborious, less water is needed, this ensures energy recovery and there are also fewer CO2 emissions.
You have of course read a lot about plastic pollution in the media lately, but with SELF I consciously chose healthy plastic. There are so many different types of plastic and one type is not the same as the other. There are really big differences! Our packaging contains polyethylene (PE) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). These substances are approved for cosmetics and food and do not contain traces of phthalates or emollients, estrogen-like materials or bisphenol A, also known as BPA. This means you can be sure that no substances end up in the product!
All our products are recyclable: the bottles can be placed in the PMD bag, the jars can be placed in the mixed bag and the wooden lids can be thrown in with residual waste.
Why jars?
According to magazines and other sources on the internet, it is best to choose tubes or pumps, because active ingredients such as vitamin A in a jar are lost more quickly when they come into contact with oxygen. In addition, more bacteria would end up in a jar because you dip your fingers in the cream. Time for clarification!
It is absolutely not true that a tube or pump is better than a jar. You must close both packages and the active ingredients continue to work. Before I started with SELF , the products were subjected to a thorough test to see whether the product is stable and continues to function properly. In skin care, stable vitamins are used that are not converted into an active form by oxygen, but by the skin enzymes in your skin. In other words: the vitamins remain stable until you apply it to your skin.
It is also a wrong idea that pots are a breeding ground for bacteria. Yes, bacteria will certainly end up in your jar, but that also happens with the cap of a tube or a pump. Bacteria are everywhere, including on your favorite pump. Before you start panicking and disinfecting, don't worry because this can't hurt at all! There are already billions of bacteria on our skin and we constantly come into contact with bacteria. Just think of the door handles, your keyboard or mobile phone, they are full of bacteria.
Before applying your skin care, you can first wash your hands and, if necessary, apply the cream with our bamboo spatulas.
Refills
A question I get very regularly: “Have you already thought about refills?” Yes, we definitely thought about that! At SELF we use natural ingredients and we also want to extend that philosophy to our packaging. We want to bring a sustainable product to the market, one that you know is good for yourself and nature.
But developing a refill is actually not that easy. We can make separate replaceable refills, but we don't know how our customers store their jars. For example, there may still be residues and/or the wooden cap is not clean. In this way we can no longer guarantee the quality of our products. A number of brands have already gone before us and brought refills onto the market. After a while, most people gave up these refills because it turned out not to be that good after all.
Do you have a question?
Our products are recyclable and in this way we still contribute to the environment. Do you have any questions about the products or packaging? Be sure to send an email to team@nauralself.eu!
