Information On Our Products, Ingredients & Packaging.

Packaging:

Botanica Basics believes that packaging should be as minimal as possible while at the same time  acknowledging the weighty issues of customer safety, labeling regulations and our product's integrity.


How and why we wrap and package our Handcrafted Soaps:

We label our Handcrafted Soap with a 30% PCR paper cigar style band and then shrink wrap the bars with an open ended wrap to protect the bars.  You can smell and see the soap and also read the ingredient list.  While there are many who sell naked  soap bars, that is not condusive to our way of doing business.  While our soap is covered under the regulations of both the USFTC and USFDA  and if marketed/sold strictly as soap do not have to have the ingredients listed, we are a firm believer in ingredient listings.  If someone has issues with certain ingredients, they need to know what's in the soap. Handouts and signs mean nothing.  If received as a gift, how would the recipient know what's in the soap?  Naked bars means a lack of ingredients listing or a hodgepodge list of  "may contain..."  or a series of  "may contain...and/or..." as far as ingredients go. That is not a complete and actually not even the legal way to list ingredients if they are to be declared.    Also, naked bars are in our minds very unsanitary.  People handle the soap at the Farmers Markets and in the stores that carry our soaps.  The soap must be transported to theses venues.  Yes, it's soap, it can and will be rinsed off.  But we think your soap should be as clean as possible when you get it.

How and why we package our Butters, Balms and other non soap products:

We use either plastic PET or HDPE tubes, jars and pump bottles for most of our other products.  Several are food grade.  Using these allows our customers to:

1.  Have a better protected product.  Certain types of plastic containers do not hold up well with regard stability and protection of natural/natural based Bath & Body products. 

2.  PET (#1) and HDPE (#2) are the most common plastic materials that recycling centers accept. Depending on the region, finding main stream, accept all plastics recycling centers is not easy.  Here in Polk County MO, our center only takes #1 and #2.  The further away from major metro areas, the harder it is. Our customers shouldn't have to worry about this.  So we try to make it easier for them by using PET and HDPE so they can be turned into the local recyling centers.  While we would love to be able to accept our used containers to reuse or even refill them for our local customers, we do not have the necessary space, logistical, legal or sterilization capabilities for doing this.

We do not use glass in any form!  While glass is the utmost in recycling capabilities, it adds 120% or more to shipping charges and even more importantly, glass in a bathroom is dangerous! We wrote on this in a past blog post.  If you missed it when we first wrote about it, when you get a chance, please read it.   http://blog.botanicabasics.com/2009/04/03/priceless--uh-methinks-not.aspx 

How and why we package for gifts and/or mailing:

When mailing out non-gift purchases, depending on the number of soap bars and other products in the order, we place the soaps in a plain kraft bag to contain them and then place them in the shipping box with paper, bubble wrap or packing peanuts (all recycled) for protection.   A dented and banged up bar is not how we'd like your soap to arrive. However, many times we have customers tell us they don't mind the dings and dents, to just stick the soaps in the smallest box or a padded envelope and mail it,  no extra padding or wrapping!  Our Farmers Market Customers do the same, just stick it in thier pockets, market bags or purses.

Gift baskets and boxes are where we (and you) splurge a bit.  You want your gift to say something and we'll help you say it, but as environmently friendly as possible. When making a gift basket or box, we strive to use components that are created from as much PCW/Recycled material as possible. The availibilty of natural filler and wrapping materials manufactured from recycled paper products and recycled wood shavings has increased dramaticly in the last 5 years and the quality is as good if not better than "virgin" products.  The exception to this is our Kraft window boxes.  These cute little boxes are "virgin" and are much better than recycled boxes. These food grade boxes allow us to make adorable gift boxes and still maintain our standards of minimal packaging with much less impact to the environment. The boxes are non-bleached and use 25-30% less fiber than other box materials.  While not recycled, these boxes use less material than common board boxes, aren't bleached with strong chemicals, and have an organic look true to their environmentally responsible make-up.  They are a good green solution and unquestionably safe for food which makes them a superb gift box packaging  for our soap and other Bath & Body products.

For more information on these boxes, please read here:  BRB Boxes 
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