Friendly Soap
Skin friendly, Animal friendly, Earth friendly
Plastic Free Vegan Soap
HAPPY TO BE DIFFERENT
Our founders Rob and Geoff grew up in Hebden Bridge, in West Yorkshire, back in the 1970s. A hotbed of alternative, hippy and punk culture back then, the town sparked and shaped what’s become their lifelong interest in radical political thought and social and environmental justice.
Rallying against the capitalist model and looking for fairer ways of doing things came naturally to Rob and Geoff. On top of that, their stunning Pennine surroundings gave them an instinctive connection to nature. Hardly surprising then that, like many Hebden residents, the two friends found work at the now legendary Suma Wholefoods Co-operative
As well as a bunch of useful business skills, at Suma Rob and Geoff learnt that you really can run a successful enterprise where ethics come before profit. Inspired, aware, and more prepared than ever, they decided in 2008 that the time was right to do their own thing. Friendly Soap was born.
Nowadays, Rob and Geoff might have a grey hair or two and go to bed a bit earlier, but they still have the same passionately held values and convictions as they did growing up. It’s just that now they’ve got a thriving ethical business of their own to channel them through.
FRIENDLY MANUFACTURING
Right from day one we made it our mission to do something simple: create high-quality products that tick as many ethical boxes as possible. We didn’t just want to make soaps that are cruelty-free or use less packaging: we wanted true all-rounders that leave customers feeling as conscientious as they feel clean. If we’re really honest, the process has been a lot harder to perfect than we first expected. To reach where we are now though, it’s been well worth the effort.
Our ranges contain no animal products or by-products and have never been tested on animals, which means we’ve really earned our registration with Cruelty free International and The Vegan Society. Our ancient cold-process method means our soap is totally biodegradable and free from by-products too, so there’s literally no waste.
In terms of energy use, we pour, cut, stamp and pack our soaps by hand in the UK, so we’re talking lots of calories but a small carbon footprint. Our packaging is pretty special too, because it’s made from materials that are 100% recycled as well as recyclable. Plastic doesn’t get a look in, and our parcels for delivery use brown paper tape. Heck, we even use poppy seeds and hemp bran instead of microbeads.
A million miles from conventional detergents, we don’t use harmful preservatives or foaming agents because there’s no real need for SLS or Parabens. The silky-smooth lather produced by our soaps is all down to careful ingredient choice and our cold-process method of making them. What about our Shea butter? Bought from a women’s worker cooperative in Ghana. Coconut oil? Taken from coconuts guaranteed not to be harvested by slave monkeys.
We’re sure you get the picture by now. In a nutshell, we’ve gone as far as we can to have as little impact as possible on our planet and its wildlife. And anywhere we do have an impact, we’ve tried our best to make it a positive one by supporting communities who could use a helping hand. It’s mission accomplished then, right? No chance. We reckon there’s always room for improvement, so watch this space…
FABULOUS SOAP
Ethical credentials are great, but you’re probably wondering whether our products actually work? We certainly would. Well, you can relax, because these are feel-good products in every sense.
Our soaps are lovely bits of natural luxury. They’re packed with cleansing goodness, smell divine and can help with many things from wrestling those wrinkles to fighting off bugs (yes, even the creepy crawly types as well as coughs and colds).
Beautifully gentle, they make a rich, creamy lather you wouldn’t believe, and they won’t dry your skin because they’re full of naturally-occurring glycerine. We also use plant-based oils like coconut oil, olive oil, shea butter and cocoa butter too, so each different soap has its own magical ability to nourish and restore your skin.
For extra variety and to make sure there’s a soap you’ll fall in love with, we use essential oils, flowers, spices and herbs. These give each product its own special colour, scent and healing magic and, in the case of poppy seeds and hemp bran, the power to gently exfoliate.
Cruelty Free International
Friendly Soap believes that beauty products should be cruelty free. We are proud to be Leaping Bunny approved. A global programme, Leaping Bunny requires cruelty free standards over and above legal requirements.
All of our own brand cosmetic and personal care products are approved under the Cruelty Free International Leaping Bunny programme, the internationally recognisable gold standard for cruelty free products.
We adhere to a fixed cut-off date policy and proactively monitor our suppliers to ensure that our products continue to adhere to the Leaping Bunny criteria. Our supplier monitoring system is also independently audited.
For more information about Cruelty Free International, Leaping Bunny and Leaping Bunny criteria, please visit the Cruelty Free International website.
The Vegan Society
In 1944 The Vegan Society created the word ‘vegan’ – Their Trademark is the authentic international vegan standard. Today, products must pass the following criteria to be eligible for registration. A dedicated and experienced team check each individual product application against the criteria, and query any potential inclusion of animal ingredients, including those not present in the final product. Working with manufacturers, audits for products at high-risk of cross contamination with animal ingredients are carried out to give vegan consumers further reassurance. They renew the registration of each product annually to ensure information is accurate and up to date.
For more information visit The Vegan Society website.
Living Wage Foundation
Accredited Living Wage employers have been certified by the Living Wage Foundation.
A living wage employer ensures that all employees aged 18 and over, including certain classes of contracted staff, are paid at least the living wage.
The employer also agrees to increase the amount which it pays to employees by the same amount as any increase in the living wage within six months of the date of the official announcement.
For more information visit: www.livingwage.org.uk.
Fair Tax Mark Certification
The Fair Tax Mark certification scheme was launched in February 2014 and seeks to encourage and recognise organisations that pay the right amount of corporation tax at the right time and in the right place.
They operate as a not-for-profit social enterprise and believe that companies paying tax responsibly should be celebrated, and any race to the bottom resisted.
Fair Tax Mark Statement of Friendly Soap Ltd (February 2020)
For more info visit the Fair Tax Mark Website
Our eco friendly website host
Ecologi – Helping organisations become climate positive.
Our web hosts have signed up with Ecologi – a Bristol-based organisation that plants carbon-capturing trees and runs Gold Standard sustainability projects around the world. So far they’ve planted over 300,000 trees and made their entire workforce “Climate Positive”. They’re hoping to hit 1 million this year as part of the milliontreepledge.org.
Our pallets are eco-wrapped
Omegatech® – Protecting the environment from waste plastic.
Omegatech® Bio is a high strength oxo-biodegradable pallet wrapping film that offers outstanding pallet stability but is able to break down in natural conditions, helping to reduce the world-wide issue of plastic waste.
For more information visit our supplier, Kingfisher.
Ethical Consumer Best Buy Label
At the heart of the ethical consumer movement, since 1989.
They are an independent, not-for-profit, multi-stakeholder co-operative with open membership, based in Manchester.
Consumer product labels now appear on an increasing number of ethical products and services. The Ethical Consumer Best Buy Label helps shoppers choose genuinely ethical products and services.
It’s a unique label that looks in detail at the ethical record of the company behind the product and the environmental and ethical record of the product itself. We believe that this approach helps shoppers avoid falling for ethical and environmental claims that turn out to be little more than greenwash.
For more info visit the Ethical Consumer website.
100% Recycled Multiprint
The card stock that Friendly boxes are made from.
Using zero virgin fibres.
The raw material used for the production of Multiprint is made up of 100% recovered paper:
Approximately 30% pre consumer waste and 70% post consumer waste.
For more information, visit our suppliers website.
Celloglas Eco
The lining inside Friendly conditioner boxes.
Cellogreen® films have been developed to suit environmental changes within the print industry, offering an alternative to OPP films. Giving Celloglas a range of biodegradable and recyclable film laminates for use by ethical companies.
For more information, visit our suppliers website.
Migasa
Spanish olive oil
Friendly Soap use olive oil from a company that guarantees not to use the super-intensive, night-time harvesting methods that leads to a great number of bird deaths.
For more information, visit our suppliers website.
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