Our Ingredients

"Earth's elements of air, earth, fire, water and spirit provide for all our needs in life. We look to nature as the source for gentle, effective products for your skin. Elemental ingredients - oils, flowers, fruit, leaves, roots, minerals and water - are carefully selected and infused with our spirit - in the form of love for what we do and our sincere intention for you and your health to be enriched by the use of our natural skin products."

- Lynn Cummings, Soap Artisan

Pure & Natural, Toxin Free

The amount of harmful chemicals in conventional bath and body care is bad news for your health and the environment. Our products are handcrafted in small batches using safe and healthy natural ingredients. All ingredients are fully disclosed. A full ingredient listing for each product is provided here on our website, displayed at our farmers' market booth and is included on our packaging. This way you can make informed decisions about the choices you make for you and your family.

For tips, guides and more information on harmful chemicals in beauty care, go to Environmental Defence Canada's Just Beautiful Campaign page.

Social Responsibility

We know that our purchasing power has a positive impact on the world we live in, so we choose to source our ingredients carefully. Every product that bears our name includes socially responsible and ethically sourced ingredients. We include certified organic ingredients in our formulas where possible, and we grow many of the flowers and herbs that go into our pure and natural products, all pesticide and herbicide free. We also support local. Many of our suppliers are locally based businesses here in Nova Scotia.

Shea Butter

Our supply of fair trade, organic shea butter comes from a women's cooperative in Ghana. By sourcing shea from the cooperative, we are helping them bring economic stability to their community, create jobs and help nurture the well being of thousands of women producers and their families.

Palm Oil

The supplier for our certified organic and fair trade palm oil is an RSPO (Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil) member. Our sustainable palm oil is produced in Colombia.

What is RSPO? In response to the urgent and pressing global call for sustainably produced palm oil, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004 with the objective of promoting the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders. RSPO is a large, international group of palm oil producers, palm oil buyers, and environmental and social groups including the World Wildlife Fund working to define, implement and promote better practices for sustainable palm oil production.

We strongly feel that purchasing palm oil from an organic supply chain that supports social and ecological sustainability is the right thing to do. We feel that our purchasing power choice is being proactive not reactive. Supporting RSPO sustainable palm oil is a more effective way in creating change in the palm oil industry than a full out boycott.

Wanting to be kept informed and to support palm oil sustainability, Earth Elementals took measures to become an RSPO supply chain associate member in 2014. As an RSPO member, we can contribute constructively towards promoting the growth and use of sustainable palm oil to protect people, planet and profit.

Cocoa Butter

Our cocoa butter is organic and fair trade certified produced in Peru. By supporting fair trade certified cocoa butter, we help to foster decent working conditions and a fair wage. This also means that thriving farmer and worker communities will have more control over their futures and will protect the environment in which they live and work. It's also about a choice to support farmers and families, not producers who use child slavery and child labour.

Herbs and Botanicals

We grow and forage, gather, and dry many of our healing herbs and botanicals ourselves. Although the plants that we grow are not certified organic, they are grown herbicide and pesticide free ensuring a high quality ingredient for your skin.

Essential Oils

Essential oils are derived from plant material. They cannot be duplicated in a lab. Essential oils offer therapeutic properties that fragrance oils/"parfum" cannot duplicate. Essentially, synthetics contain no "life force" energy, lacking any healing or medicinal value. Synthetic fragrance ingredients can trigger allergies and asthma. Some are linked with cancer and neurotoxicity, and some are harmful to fish and other wildlife.

This is why we choose to scent our products with pure, quality plant essential oils, some of which are certified organic.

Committed to Environment

From botanically based ingredients to reusing packing materials for shipments, we are committed to reducing our carbon footprint. Here are some ways we do so:

In Our Studio

Compost
Recycle paper, cardboard, plastics, glass
Reuse packing material and boxes for shipments
Install energy efficient lighting and energy efficient appliances
Remembering to flip those light switches off when not in use
Continue to reduce our consumption of water; one big way we do so is using rain barrels in the growing season

Our Packaging

Soap boxes are made from 100% recycled paper
Our product line includes earth friendly glass bottle and jar packaging
Bath & body oil, deodorant and lip balm that come in plastic bottles and tubes are completely recyclable

Our Products

Our botanically based product line is biodegradable, safe and gentle to the environment

No Animal Testing

We do not conduct animal testing, and we do not commission third parties to conduct animal testing on our behalf. We ask that our suppliers do not conduct animal testing, and we do not purchase from suppliers who implement testing on animals on any level.

We prefer to source time tested, safe ingredients and test our products on human volunteers.

All of our products are vegetarian friendly (a few products contain beeswax and/or honey), 75% being vegan friendly.