The phrase 'plant-derived' appears on a lot of cleaning and body care products, and it means different things depending on who is writing the label. Having spent six years as a product formulator before opening this store, Haruki Nishimura has a specific view on what the phrase should mean and what questions are worth asking.
What a surfactant does ¶
A surfactant is the ingredient that does the actual cleaning. It is a molecule with one end that attracts water and one end that attracts oil and grease. When you wash your hands or your dishes, the surfactant lifts the grease away from the surface and lets water rinse it off. Every soap, shampoo, dish soap, and laundry detergent contains at least one surfactant. The question is where it comes from and how it was processed.
The palm oil problem ¶
Most conventional surfactants are derived from palm kernel oil, which is cheap, widely available, and effective. The problem is that palm oil production is one of the leading drivers of deforestation in Southeast Asia. A product labelled 'plant-derived' can still be palm-derived. The more useful question to ask is whether the surfactant is palm-free, and if so, what it is derived from instead. The Shiga dish soap we stock uses a coconut and corn-derived surfactant base. The supplier can document this.
What 'coconut-derived' actually involves ¶
Coconut-derived surfactants start with coconut oil, which is processed through a series of chemical reactions. Typically saponification or sulfonation. To produce the final surfactant molecule. The end product is not coconut oil; it is a manufactured chemical that happens to have coconut oil as its raw material. This is not a criticism. The process is well-understood and the resulting surfactants are generally mild and biodegradable. But it is worth knowing that 'coconut-derived' describes the origin, not the final form.
How to read a supplier data sheet ¶
Every product on our dispensers has a printed data sheet posted beside it. The data sheet lists the INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients) names for each ingredient, the supplier's name and contact details, and the raw material origin for the primary surfactant. If you want to understand what you are refilling, start with the INCI name of the first ingredient after water. That is almost always the primary surfactant. If you are unsure what it means, ask us or look it up on the CosIng database, which is publicly accessible.
We post data sheets because we think customers deserve to know what they are buying. If a sheet is unclear or you want more detail on a specific ingredient, email hello@reedvaultgate.com and we will get you a direct answer from the supplier.