A word about preservatives

So why do 7 Elements products can stay fresh for about 12 months and why we don't use preservatives? 

First of all, there is no need for us to extend the shelf life of our products. We mostly deal with end customers who get the products as fresh as possible. 

Second, our current products don't contain any water (ok, you'll see water/agua on the ingredients list of our soaps and solid shampoos, but the process is such that water just goes through the "soap making" reaction and completely evaporates by the time the soap is ready to be sold). So since there is no water that can create bacteria-friendly environment, there is no need to "preserve" our products.

Therefore please note that our products stay fresh without any preservative as long as water is not introduced into the container during use - so be sure to take care of your natural care products!

Third, in some products we use natural preservatives such as Vitamin E. Natural preservatives are not as strong as manufactured-ones, but again - we don't need to create an extremely long shelf life of our products. They are made to be enjoyed while using not only by looking at them :)

And forth, oils, butters and other natural ingredients we use to make our products stay fresh for 12-18 months (some even much longer). So the "final results" stay fresh for a minimum of 12 months!

Hope this was helpful! Now... how many times did I write "preservative" and "product" in this post?? :))

Love,

Anya

7 Elements goes International!

Our very first international order is about to be sent! It includes all sorts of wonderful things - Body Butters, Gourmet soaps, Pure soaps and Bath Bombs. Veery Exciting times!!! 

Scale of home-made products

Scale of home-made beauty products can be relatively small... Each product is carefully formulated (and it usually takes several formulas to reach that ideal one) and tested (no animal testing here at 7 Elements of course!). Every ingredient is selected to meet the needs of various skin types and personal tastes, measured and mixed (with lots of positive thoughts to it). And small batches help ensuring that all the natural raw materials and end products are fresh.


Pitcher filled with "Starlight" liquid, ready to pour! Mmmm, I can still feel the smell! 

About 7 Elements, this blog and me

Hello and welcome to 7 Elements blog and shop! I thought I would share with you the 7 Elements story.

Few years back for some reason I decided to go thought the labels of my bathroom products - shampoo, shower gel, lotion, etc.. At first I felt overwhelmed by the amount of unknown and hard-to-pronounce ingredients. Then I started learning, reading, comparing. This research made me realise how many dangerous chemicals I expose myself to! Each day... every day! Mass-produced items contain a large amount of synthetic chemicals - to make the shelf life longer, production cheaper and manufacturing process faster. And many of those chemicals are linked to various serious diseases - from skin irritation to cancer! Keeping in mind that I (like any other women) have quite a few items at my bathroom counter it didn't sound good at all... 

So that's when I seriously started considering making my own personal care products! By doing that I always know what goes into each product and eventually ends up on my skin! But it wasn't until recent that I actually started creating and producing hand-made cosmetics - the timing wasn't right before, I had a full time job and a different  mindset. 

As we know it when a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize this dream (the Alchemist). During the last year me and my husband moved to a new country, become new parents (and looooving it!!) and choose to be even more environmentally conscious in our every day choices. So doing natural cosmetics seemed to be a logical thing to do. Of course I could always go and buy everything I need, but I actually love making things, doing good for people and doing good for the environment. 

As I got into the world of natural skin care I keep learning and experimenting and I love doing that! I started by doing soaps, but since the natural soap curing process takes about 4-6 weeks (that means the  soap can't be used during this period) I made other things. I am enjoying the whole experience - choosing the raw-materials, creating the formula, testing it in small batches, making the packaging and using the products! I hope you'll enjoy using them to! 

Love,

Anya