FAQ - questions we're asked regularly.
Q 1. What's so different about the Zing brand?
A. 1. DRIVEN BY NEED
Our brand was established many years ago after our Founder Kirsty had suffered extensively from allergies and asthma triggered by synthetic products. Kirsty was surprised to discover that most 'natural' brands use synthetic ingredients particularly fragrance oils and started making her own purist products.
We seek to make our products as pure and as safe as they can possibly be. All formulae use naturally sourced bases and fragrances (sublime essential oils which are botanically sourced - unlike most synthetic options).
A. 2. TRANSPARENCY, TRACEABILITY AND PURITY
We make all our own products in our own open door studio workshop. Come in and see what we're doing; we've nothing to hide. Most natural brands infer an artisan method but in fact outsource production.
We're the only eco brand we know of to have commissioned extensive purity testing - successfully, to make sure the ingredients we're buying and the processes we're using ensure the safest end products for our customers.
Q 2. Are your Skincare and Perfumes totally Organic?
A 2. Our Facial Skincare, Body Oils, Hand and Body Butters and Perfumes are composed no less than 90% Certified Organic Ingredients. Some are composed of 100% Certified Organic Ingredients. We source around 90% of our skincare and perfumery organic essential oils from organic essential oil brands of the highest repute.
Q 3. I buy Soy Wax candles elsewhere. They're much healthier right?
A: Well in principle they're vastly safer than petrochemical based candles, however the vast majority of Soy wax candles are still fragranced artificially using, you've guessed it...synthetic fragrance oils, making the candle no safer than a petrochemical based one!
Q 4. Seriously I'm confused now. How do I know your candles are any safer than most others?
A: In addition to providing full transparency and access to our ingredients and methods in an open door workshop, we're developing a more stringent sourcing procedure for our supplies. We're also working with the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow to take a number of steps to help satisfy us that our products are the safest on the market. Through chemical analysis of a wide range of samples they've already concluded that our products contain waxes and fragrances (pure essential oils) consistent with ingredients of a botanical source. A different blueprint appears in candles which have let's say used a petrochemical based wax and/or synthetic fragrances. The department has also taken a wide range of samples of our waxes/essential oil blends/handling and storage equipment/finished products and shown them to be free of phthalates which are commonly found in synthetic fragrance oils and have sometimes been found in adulterated pure essential oils. Synthetic fragrance oils and phthalates are now strongly linked to cancer, asthma, autism, birth defects and endocrine disruption. Additionally In a short term project one of the chemistry students was asked to determine that our products were free 'of the most dangerous chemicals in pregnancy for the developing foetus'. We didn't know what he would be looking for but we later learned he'd compiled a list of the best known teratogens and found our products to be free of these. Not all pure essential oils are safe in pregnancy particularly in the early stages. We have some knowledge in this field and are happy to create a candle for you that your midwife, aromatherapist or doctor is happy with. We continue to work with The Department on a long term basis on a number of projects as we move towards establishing a standard operating procedure.
Q 5. Are you candles totally Organic?
A. No. The candles themselves are not entirely Organic as the greatest weight of the candle is is the soy wax which is impossible to source in a Certified Organic format. We do not class or ever declare our candles to be Organic per se for this reason. However we use a wide selection of Certified Organic Essential Oils in our candles. If you want assurance that your particular candle uses purely organic essential oils then do speak with us. We may need to charge a supplement in this case depending upon the cost involved.
Q 6. Why can't you do me a coloured candle?
A. It's virtually impossible to colour candle wax satisfactorily using natural ingredients. That's why when you see candles in an array of colours they will be usually dyed using synthetic dyes. We feel our natural ivory toned wax looks pleasing anyway.
Q 7. Are your products approved by any certification body?
A. No. This is a costly and time consuming exercise for a small artisan company, however we recognise that this is a step we want to take as the company grows to provide greater reassurance for our customers. It should be noted however that many of the certification bodies do permit what we would regard as undesirable ingredients at small measure in products that they certify natural or organic. At Zing we use the purest of ingredients, all nature sourced and of the highest quality we can get our hands on. We do operate an open door workshop offering full transparency regarding processes and ingredients used which is most unusual in this industry.
Q 8. Are your products Vegan?
A: All of our products are Vegan/Vegan friendly apart from our Eco Marine Algae Facial Cleansing Masque, our Fabacado Hand and Body Butter and our Solid Organic Perfumes as these incorporate Certified Organic Beeswax.
Q 9. I hear that even essential oils can be allergenic?
A. Absolutely right! We have carefully formulated our skincare, candles, and perfumes to be ultra low in allergens. We consider our all sourced from nature aromas to be relatively subtle but safe. There's one piece of legislation for perfumes/skincare and a different one for candles/home fragrancing. You may see allergen information on our products (EU legislation). These allergens are naturally occurring components of botanically sourced pure essential oils.
If you have a known allergy to any particular ingredient or essential oil and would like us to create a singular product from scratch to be as sure as we can be that there are no trace allergens from other ingredients we're happy to do this for you.
With skincare and perfumes we are required to list all ingredients including the allergens present in the essential oils at over 0.001% on stay on (not rinse off) products. Manufacturers of skincare/perfumes using synthetic fragrance don't have to declare what's in their fragrance! If you see the words parfum, aroma or fragrance it is very likely that synthetics are being used as you wouldn't need to use any of these terms if your product was fragranced only with pure essential oils.
If you'd like any more information or a chat please email us or give us a ring. Kirsty will be able to chat directly and on a personal level with you.