Five Things We Refuse to Put in Our Products (And What We Use Instead)

Every natural product brand has a list of things they don't use. The list only means something if it's paired with honest disclosure about what fills the function instead. Here's ours.

1. Synthetic fragrance

"Fragrance" or "parfum" on an ingredient label represents a proprietary blend that can contain dozens of undisclosed compounds - including phthalates, synthetic musks, and known sensitizers. Fragrance is one of the most common causes of contact dermatitis and indoor air quality degradation in cleaning and personal care products. The fact that it's a standard ingredient in most conventional products doesn't make it acceptable for ours.

What we use instead: Named essential oils listed specifically on every ingredient label. When a Sea Spray Soap product is scented, you can read exactly what produces that scent. Our unscented products contain no fragrance chemistry of any kind - not masked, not replaced with "natural fragrance blend," just absent.

2. Methylisothiazolinone (MI) and methylchloroisothiazolinone (MCI)

These preservatives are effective at preventing microbial growth in water-based formulas, which is why they're common in liquid soaps and cleaning products. They're also strong sensitizers that cause contact dermatitis at high rates in people with frequent skin exposure. The EU has significantly restricted their use in products that don't rinse off; they remain less regulated in the United States. For products used on hands multiple times daily, the cumulative exposure risk is not acceptable to us.

What we use instead: The solid bar format eliminates the need for preservation chemistry in our dish soap and body care bars - no water means no preservation requirement. For liquid formulas, we use preservation systems* with better skin compatibility profiles. Our highest-exposure products are solid format specifically to avoid this category of chemistry.

3. Optical brighteners

Optical brighteners coat fabric fibers and reflect UV light to make laundry appear brighter than it is. They're a cosmetic trick that produces visible results while building up on fabric over time, reducing the performance of natural fibers, and contributing to skin contact with synthetic compounds in everything you wear and sleep in. "Brighter" isn't "cleaner." It's a coating.

What we use instead: a saponified coconut oil base for the actual cleaning work, sodium percarbonate (oxygen bleach) to brighten colors and whites without chlorine or UV-reflective compounds, and washing soda for hard water management. Clean laundry is clean. It doesn't glow under UV light, and that's fine.

4. Sodium lauryl sulfate in daily-contact formulas

SLS is an effective surfactant that works by aggressively disrupting surface tension and lifting oils. It works equally well on food grease and on your skin's protective oil barrier. For products with repeated daily skin contact, dish soap used multiple times per day, hand soap, body wash, the accumulated stripping effect on the skin barrier is a real problem, particularly for people with sensitive or reactive skin.

What we use instead, by product type:

Solid dish soap and laundry soap: Cold process formulations built from saponified plant oils and tallow. The superfat in our dish bars leaves conditioning oils in the finished product to buffer the washing action against the skin barrier.

Foaming hand soap tablets: Sodium lauryl sulfoacetate (SLSa) and sodium cocoyl isethionate (SCI), both gentler surfactants derived from coconut and palm sources. They produce the foam and cleaning action you'd expect from a hand soap without the barrier disruption SLS causes.

Toilet bombs: Sodium coco sulfate (SCS), a surfactant chosen for its cleaning performance on toilet bowl surfaces. Toilet bombs aren't a skin-contact product, so the formulation prioritizes effectiveness on porcelain and waste residue.

Each formula is matched to what the product actually does and how it touches the body.

5. Undisclosed "fragrance" under any other name

This includes "natural fragrance," "aroma," "fragrance blend," and "botanical fragrance." All of these are variations on the same non-disclosure. We list every ingredient in every product specifically because the alternative is asking customers to trust a proprietary blend that could contain anything legal, and that's not a relationship we want to have with the people using our products.

What we use instead: Full ingredient disclosure, always. If it's in the formula, it's on the label by name. If it's not on the label, it's not in the formula.

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