With our new Multi Purpose formula announced last week, we wanted to take a bit of time to offer a sneak peak into our journey as well as the final ingredients list.
The road to creating and owning a formula that meets all of our requirements is always longer and bumpier than we anticipate, but we are so grateful to have reached our destination. Our priority was to create a safe, versatile and effective home and body Multi Purpose Cleanser that of course, matched the performance of our original formula, but with some improvements.
In a nutshell, we wanted the formula to:
- Contain all-natural, plant-based ingredients that are proven to be safe
- Contain ingredients rated a “1 or 2” on EWG Skin Deep
- Cause no irritation or harm to human health
- Be an all-purpose cleaner that can be used on all surfaces to cut grease and removes residues, without leaving a residue (which our previous formula could do depending on the surface)
- Have a safe preservative to assure the stability of the formula
- Be free of alcohol ethoxylate surfactants
- Have an even easier and more eco-friendly refill option to further reduce packaging
Sounds easy enough, right? :)
In the spirit of transparency, we decided a long time ago to follow the food and cosmetic standard of labeling instead of the cleaning industry’s, which doesn’t regulate or require ingredients to be listed in any particular order OR even to be listed at all – that’s why you see generic terms like ‘non-ionic surfactants’ (of which there are plenty, good and bad, so it’s a very broad term which doesn’t tell you much about the safety of a formulation).
So without further delay, here is a list of our new Multi Purpose ingredients.
- Aqua: just good ol’ distilled H2O
- Decyl glucoside: A naturally-derived surfactant cleanser derived from coconut. Due to its mild nature, it is often used in skincare products and baby products as well as fruit and veggie sprays (EWG rating: 2)
- Sodium bicarbonate: soda bicarbonate, aka baking soda (EWG rating: 1)
- Lauryl glucoside: A plant-derived surfactant that’s made by being combined with glucose (from corn or potato). It is commonly used in skincare products due to its mild nature, and it is also earth-friendly and biodegradable (EWG rating: 2)
- Alkyl polyglucoside: Alkyl polyglucoside is a biodegradable ingredient derived from plant starch and fatty alcohol from coconuts (EWG rating: 1)
- Sodium gluconate: Sodium gluconate is the sodium salt of gluconic acid, produced by fermentation of glucose. It is non-toxic and readily biodegradable (EWG rating: 1)
- Sodium carbonate: also known by its common name, washing soda. EWG rating: 1
- Essential Oils: Eucalyptus globulus (eucalyptus) essential oil, Citrus aurantium dulcis (orange) essential oil, Lavandula (lavender) essential oil, Lavandula x intermedia (lavandin) essential oil
- Sodium benzoate: A food-grade, biodegradable preservative made from the salt of benzoic acid, which also widely used in cosmetics products (EWG rating: 1-2)
Along with the formula change, our eco-friendly refill for our Multi Purpose is also coming along for the transformation.
Instead of the 1L concentrated refill, the refill will now come in the form of the (non-concentrate) 3L refill box. A super easy, no-mess and convenient way to fill up your 500ml Multi Purpose straight from the box tap.
Why is it better?
- You get more refills with each purchase – six instead of four!
- By moving away from the 1L glass bottles, which are heavy and expensive, we are further reducing the carbon footprint of transporting packaging. We can get a lot more 3L boxes here with each shipment, as they are packed flat!
If you have an existing 500ml Multi Purpose, you can obviously keep refilling it with the new refill.
For some, it may seem like just a cleaning product, but for us, it means much more, it’s a journey to a much greater end: helping people create a healthy, low-waste home all across the region and making improvements along the way in our products and footprint as we do so.
We hope you like the new Multi Purpose :)