What are marine safe formulas and why do we have them?

Everywhere we look people are talking about sustainability and clean skincare.  But what does this actually mean?

Elise spent a lot of time researching brands on the market for teenagers when she was looking for skincare for her 3 children.  She was worried by what she saw “there wasn’t a lot of transparency with regards to ingredients in teen skincare, I wanted something that I knew wasn’t going to strip their skins of the natural oils and that would work in harmony to keep their skins balanced and looking the best they could” 

She has strong family ties to Hawaii where environmental awareness is paramount. Therefore it was key for her when it came to formulating her range.  “sustainability and eco awareness is innate in the Hawaiian culture, I knew that I needed those values at the heart of anything I did”.  She sought out award winning formulator, Nausheen Qureshi, who creates environmentally responsible formulations for brands:  “our lab has been involved in a lot of research looking at what happens to skincare ingredients that are washed down household drains into large bodies of water. We have also looked at all the research that has been done so far in this field, which is still very much a work in progress. We are starting to understand that some ingredients “stick together” in bodies of water, some ingredients affect marine plants and animals and we look to remove these ingredients from our products” . 

As such, the SKWAD products have been formulated with this ethos in mind, so when you wash your face, you know that whatever goes down the sink won’t be doing harm to the marine environment. People in Hawaii always try to ‘live pono’ which means they live with a conscious decision to do the right thing in terms of self, others, and the environment.

We would love to hear what you think of our formulas! See more of our mottos here