We decided at the brand's very beginning that we would assess each ingredient for its safety, beauty and impact on its environment. That means excluding the major toxins many of us know about today, but also the questionable ingredients that are often widely used in the industry. The truth is there are a whole host of ingredients out there that are used by beauty companies for a quick fix but are damaging in the long run. We can think of silicones as a classic example. So many beauty products use silicones as a main ingredient because they are an easy and cheap way to impart a silky, smooth feel, but the truth is they suffocate skin and hair cells and can clog up pores with regular use. In perfumery, phthalates are a big culprit. Not only are they hormone disruptors but they were widely abused in perfumery to extend the longevity of fragrances by binding the scent molecules together like a plastic glue. While you'll still find phthalates in some perfumes today, the fragrance world has been moving slowly away from using phthalates, thanks to the European Union who have banned them in perfumery. But there are new ingredients to watch out for all the time. 

Our fragrances contain a very high percentage of naturals compared to other luxury fragrances. But our belief is that just as there are good naturals there are bad naturals, and just as there are safe synthetics, so are there unsafe or low quality synthetics that we avoid. Our reasoning behind this is because many naturals actually contain a very high load of allergens and many synthetics actually offer a solid safety profile with minimal to no irritants. For context, it's worthwhile to look at a little perfumery history. In the 19th Century, perfumes were completely natural creations. It wasn't until the 1900s when the fizzy aldehydes and first synthetic musks came to be widely used. And as the perfume industry became more established and more accessible to a broader audience, difficult to get ingredients became even rarer which led to the rise of more synthetics. In fact, synthetics were sometimes created to replace particularly irritating naturals. It's only more recently that with better technology (today's perfume labs are the often the most sophisticated in the beauty world) and serious studies that certain ingredients, both natural and synthetic became highly regulated or banned altogether. It's a wonderful thing that clean fragrance is now the forefront of ingredient safety. Still, in the end, the natural vs. synthetic question is far more complex than many beauty companies will admit. Our philosophy is one of balance: we prefer naturals for their complexity and beauty, but we will use synthetics when they are the safer or more sustainable option.