About Us
| Who are we? |
| It all started in early 2006 after reading the Guardian columnist, Leo Hickman's excellent book called 'A life stripped bare - my year of trying to live ethically'. We always try to be aware of the impact our lives have on the environment, and Leo's book confirmed many of our beliefs (reduce, reuse, recycle, eating healthy, locally sourced - and ideally organic - produce, cutting back on travel, trying to buy ethically, and so on), but one section really opened our eyes! We thought that the 'nice' ph neutral body care products that are 'kind to your skin', were actually kind to our skin. It came as a bit of a shock then, when the book told us how many synthetic chemicals there are in most well known body care products. Reading further we were told that up to 60% of what we put on our skin is absorbed, and up to 80% of what you put in your mouth - this rallied us into action. The combination of one of us being a researcher and the other an accountant made us search for more information and facts. After reading loads of web sites and magazines, we were very confused by the amount of conflicting information out there about the chemicals in body care products and the effects they allegedly have. But we identified a key list of chemicals (see our chemical concerns section) and decided to avoid these - if the verdict on their safety was inconclusive then our thinking was to avoid them; better safe than sorry is our motto! The next stage of our journey was to buy natural body care products - but there are so many of them, we didn't know one brand from another, let alone what they were like to use. But we took the plunge, spent quite a lot of money and tried some products. Some shower gels didn't foam, some soaps just disintegrated and some toothpastes were like putty and some were very pricey for everyday use - but eventually we found some products that we really liked and they were just as good as our usual brands. After speaking to a lot of our friends, we realised that other people are interested in natural body care products but don't know where to start. And so, hey presto ………………………Eco-a-go-go was born! |
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| How are we different? |
| One thing we noticed when going to health food shops and also a couple of organic fairs was that you really have to know your oats (or in this case your chemicals) to understand what the advertising claims like SLS free, Paraben free and Phthalate free mean, and why that's a good thing. So we tell you what we have found out in our chemical concerns section and make sure our products avoid these. Labelling is another mine field. Unlike food there are no regulations about the words 'natural' or 'organic' on the packaging of body care products, which is very misleading. This means even if a product only has 1% of organic aloe vera in it, you are able to plaster the words organic over the packaging - NOT FAIR we cry! So all our products are legitimately and fully labelled. |
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| Our aim |
| So, our aim in setting up Eco-a-go-go is to make it easy for people to use body care products which are kind to the skin, the environment and also on the purse or wallet! The benefits of all the products we supply are: • free from the main chemical concerns we are aware of (check our chemical concerns section for more info) • we buy them from nice ethical companies • organic claims are reliable • suitable for Vegetarians and Vegans • not tested on animals To help you decide whether a product is right for you, on each product's page: • we've reviewed and explained why we are supplying the product • we've tested all the products ourselves (or where we don't use the products ourselves, we have tested it on family and friends (not animals!) and asked them to give an honest review) • we've provided the manufacturer's description • we've provided the product's ingredients, and • we've provided information on packaging |
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| Our Way |
| Our way is to be ethical, professional and fair in all aspects of running our business. If ever you feel that we have let you down in anyway, please let us know, and we will do our best to put things right and put a smile back on your face. We set up our business to help people use body care products that are better for them. We also want to maintain our personal values and minimise our impact on the environment in the way we run our business and live our lives. We want to try and help customers do the same by supplying ethical products from ethical companies with minimal packaging. We will also be looking to expand our range with more lovely products for you to enjoy. We are not just in business to make a profit; we want to make a difference to the world we live in and to peoples' lives. It sounds like something a Miss World contestant would say, but it's true! |
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| Helping us to help you |
| We are a young company based in West Wales. To help us to grow and to help you: • please leave a review when you use a product to help other customers • please get in touch and tell us what you think about the web site, the company and the products • please tell us about any other nice products which you think we'd be interested in selling • please contribute to the issue of chemicals by contacting us with new information or joining in our blog • if you have any feedback at all we'd really like to hear from you. Gary O & Gary R |
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