GREAT PRODUCTS - WITH A PURPOSEFUL MISSION EVOHE - OMG AMAZING AND THEN HURRAW GREAT FOR WINTER LIP BALM

DON’T USE PRODUCTS WITH PALM OIL!!!! UNLESS YOU KNOW THE SOURCE!
 
Palm oil is an edible oil from the fruit of the African oil palm and its use is PROLIFIC due to its versatility, high yield, and low cost.
 
Palm oil monoculture is responsible for catastrophic deforestation and animal deaths in Indonesia and Malaysia.
 
Palm oil is a hidden ingredient in almost every way it is used: food, cleaning products, makeup, body care, and bio fuels.
 
For body care and detergents, it is used to make synthesised ingredients with names such as Glycerine, Emulsifying Wax, Stearic Acid, Polyglyceryl Dipolyhydroxystearate, Caprylic Triglyceride and Cetyl Alcohol.
 
99% of "sustainable palm oil" claims have always been unreliable. The industry self-regulating body the RSPO has a complex certification scheme that allows non-certified oil use such as GreenPalm to be labelled “sustainable”.
The only 100% certain way to know if the palm oil used in your product is sustainable is to trace it back to plantation where it was grown, and this is almost impossible.
 
The complex supply chain, hidden nature of palm oil use, and the fuzzy certification scheme have allowed manufacturers to get away with the guise of “sustainable palm oil” for too long.
 
Palm oil is easy and cheap to use. However, if the true environmental cost was factored in (including carbon dioxide released when peatlands are decimated and wildlife deaths), and full traceability to source required, it would be more expensive and less appealing to use.
 
If a product is certified Cruelty Free, Organic or Vegan, this is no indicator of it being palm free.
 
There is a significant "glossing over" going on with natural and organic brands, as most are using palm oil derived ingredients and are not disclosing it on their ingredients listing - some without realising they are using palm, and most with no idea of where the palm oil was grown.
 
Many brands claim that they are Cruelty Free and tell us everything they do not contain, but they do not tell us that they do contain palm oil, which is hidden under names such as Plant Surfactant, Stearic Acid and Caprylic Triglyceride, because their suppliers can not guarantee what plant oil will be used to manufacture an ingredient. Brands need to know what is being used in their products, and unless they fully disclose all ingredients, you the consumer can not make a choice.
 
We have learned that it is not possible to rely on a brand's assurances that they use "sustainable palm" because they generally have not obtained thorough and legally binding commitments from their suppliers. The problem is they use ingredients that their manufacturer buys from other suppliers. There are too many links in the chain and when inputs change for commercial reasons no one tells us. Some suppliers state because they are Certified Organic it means the palm input is sustainable - this is not true.
 
Any body product that is creamy such as moisturisers, liquid makeup, or sunscreen requires an emulsifying agent to bind the water and oil together into a cream. That emulsifier is more than likely to be a palm oil-derived ingredient. Similarly, most plant-based detergents (or surfactants) are derived from palm or coconut, and the two are interchanged depending on seasonality and cost. If a brand tells us that their Stearic Acid, for example, is not palm-oil derived, we ask for a written guarantee of this. Once we asked for this, we found they could not guarantee it would not be palm.
 
In addition to its most common appearance as Glycerine or Glycerin, palm oil is used extensively in the cosmetics and skin care industry in synthesised ingredients (made by chemical reactions) that are not really natural anymore in
any case, such as Emulsifying Wax, Stearic Acid, Polyglyceryl Dipolyhydroxystearate, Cetyl Alcohol, and Caprylic Triglyceride. Skin care manufacturers buy these ingredients from a producer who purchased the palm oil from a distrubutor, usually from a bulk mixed pool of palm oil from sources around the world. You can see how it is difficult for the manufacturer of your moisturiser to know where the palm oil used in the emulsifying agent is grown.