When I started Ceylon Soap Company, one of my aims was that I wanted to get rid of all the dozens of plastic bottles that clogged up my bathroom. That was when I realised that many things I needed for my daily personal care routine just was not available in anything other than single use plastic. Whether it was shower gel, shampoo, conditioner or even face-wash, it was a real challenge finding luxury, good quality products in packaging that isn’t plastic, and lets not even bother talking about the chemicals involved in all these every day essentials.
Because plastics are cheap, versatile and strong, since the 1960’s when it first came into use, plastics use has grown exponentially and will continue to unless we the consumer start to say “NO”. It is now a well-recognised fact that if plastic use continues at current pace by 2050 there will be more plastics in our oceans than fish. There is already proof that micro particles of plastic which get consumed by fish is slowly but surely ending up in the human food chain, so you too are eating plastic!
More than half of plastic production today is geared towards single use, which includes the containers used in most of our favourite personal care products. Worse still, less than 20% of plastics are recycled around the world. So whilst recycling might appear like an excellent solution this is not happening in practice and most of it ends up in the sea.
This is an area where we the consumer can force a change, if we choose not to consume products that are only provided in single use packaging. Manufacturers will be forced to make real changes, instead of just ignoring the problem or pretending to encourage recycling which has been attempted for 40 years and has achieved next to no results. Even real luxury products are still being made in plastic packaging, which isn’t necessary considering the premiums charged for these products.
At Ceylon Soap our main aim has been to create really luxury products that work and give people that same amazing feeling of wellbeing and happiness as all these luxury brands, but with 100% biodegradable packaging and by taking real effort to reduce and make packaging as efficient as possible to ensure minimum waste.
My initial plan so far has been to create a bar for most items in my bathroom that comes as liquid. Thus, by making the item solid I can achieve my eco packaging dream very easily. Formulating recipes that give consumers the luxury that they are used to has not been easy, but it’s been a very fulfilling and exciting process. Through trial and error I have discovered that it is possible to create shower bars/soap bars which lasts as long as any bottle of shower gel and feels just as amazing on the skin.
I have also discovered that I could achieve this without using any harmful chemicals or laboratory produced ingredients such as sodium lauryl sulphates or sodium laureth sulfates (SLS and SLES respectively) which are irritants and with no need for preservatives. I have now formulated a luxury product for shampoos, conditioners and face wash bars and all these come as solid bars so you can enjoy the same amazing bathing experience, less the chemicals and destruction to our planet.
