The short answer is simply, "quality". A product can only be as good as the sum of its parts, and if you begin with the very best available ingredients, there's a chance your finished products will be the very best available, too.

At WoodSprite, it's always been about the highest quality--quality products, quality service, quality people. And it is our belief that the stringent standards of organic farming and processing produces the finest quality raw ingredients in the world today. Fruits are fresher, herbs livelier, flavors richer and oils more nutritious. Using good soil, fewer pollutants and sustainable farming practices makes for tastier crops and a healthier, cleaner planet. It just makes good sense.  Using organic ingredients in our body care products also makes good sense...our skin is the largest organ of our bodies, and is our first defense against the elements.  Our skin also readily absorbs those elements, delivering them directly into our bloodstreams, so it only makes good sense to ensure that the ingredients we put onto our skin are those we would want in our bodies. 

What Organic Means

WoodSprite Organic Body products are the real thing; we do not add only a smattering of certified organic ingredients to "dress up" our organic content. WoodSprite Organic Soaps are made with only the finest food-grade oils, specifically chosen for the properties they bring to soap. In a base of Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Organic Coconut Oil and Organic Palm Oil, we add Organic Shea Butter, Organic Sunflower Oil or Organic Sweet Almond Oil for their nutritive and moisturizing characteristics in our organic soaps. Additionally, we use only certified organic herbs or spices for color and texture. This makes our soaps and body care products anywhere from 70% to 100% certified organic in content. As more of our most commonly used natural ingredients are becoming available in certified organic form (such as pure essential oils and other nut and fruit oils), we are adding them to our repertoire. Of course, we don't have to do this; we are making these changes because we believe it is the right thing to do. Whatever part we can take in making our world cleaner, safer and more beautiful, we do because it is so important to us. And whatever it takes to bring you the most luxurious, deliciously pampering and wonderfully delightful natural products available, we'll do that, too. It is part of our ever-present quest to be the best.

Organic farming and processing is a method of agriculture that uses few or no chemical fertilizers, insecticides or pesticides and favors instead good practices such as natural composting, companion planting, crop rotation and diversity and completely eschews the use of genetically-modified-organisms (GMOs). These are actually methods that humans successfully employed for thousands of years before the industrial boom of the early 1900s, when tractors and machinery and heavy chemicals became the standardized way of agriculture, and this "commercial farming" is still the predominant form of agriculture today. However, polluted air, land and water; bland or hormone-laden foods and the unmitigated surge of GMOs has prompted a massive outcry for more organically grown crops, and organics are fast on the rise.

Confusion:  Organics in Skin Care

A matter that has caused quite a bit of confusion is the use of the term "organic" on product packaging. It is important to understand that "certified organic" standards apply to foods and food packaging, but no standards as yet have been extensively considered for skincare.  Obtaining "organic certification" on skin care products means that the processor must meet the standards of organic food products, but as of this writing, there still have been no specific standards created or established for skin care or body care products.  This means that, despite the fact that WoodSprite soaps are made with organic agricultural ingredients, they cannot be considered "certified organic" because the soapmaking process requires the use of water (not certifiable) and lye (a mineral; also not certifiable), ingredients which consist of more than 30% of a complete soap formula.  Why are water and minerals (including natural clays, sea salts as well as lye) not certifiable under the USDA organic program?  Because they are not considered agricultural products. Despite the fact that water and minerals are natural, because they have not been grown or cultivated by humans, they are not considered organic.  This does apply to food products as well.  And so, despite the fact that a soap may contain all certified organic oils, herbs and essential oils, it cannot be "certified" organic, because of the necessary content of water and lye.  Unfortunately, this means that any old soap using ANY combination of synthetic ingredients cannot be differentiated from a natural, organic vegetable soap using certified organic ingredients.   Frustrating?  Yes.  And many commercial companies recognizing the rising demand for organic ingredients in consumer products have adopted "green" marketing strategies and employ use of "natural" or "organic" wording on the fronts of product labels to purposely mislead and cash in on the new interest in natural products. Sadly, despite the best efforts by our government to establish a clear definition of "organic", it is a deeply flawed and incomplete standard thus far, and it is ultimately left up to consumers to educate themselves by learning to read the BACK of the label, scrutinizing the ingredients list of a given product in order to determine a product's purity or degree of "organic" content. 

What our ingredients lists will show is, while WoodSprite Organic Soaps and Body Care Products are made with absolutely natural, "certified organic" ingredients, the finished products are not yet "certified organic". A facility may be "certified organic" under organic food handling standards, and we are looking to receive this certification in the near future. Once approved, most WoodSprite products will be authorized to bear the USDA "certified organic" seal.  The process of obtaining certification is very expensive (if not prohibitive) for small artisan businesses like ours, and the paper auditing is complex, but we feel the investment of effort and resources will be worth it in the end.  This will simply mean that our operating practices will meet "certified organic" food handling and processing standards. At that point, our finished products will be allowed to bear the USDA "certified organic" symbol.  In the meantime, we'd like to point out that, any of the ingredients listed on our website or packaging with an asterisk (*) bearing the wording, "certified organic", means that the ingredient has been sourced from a USDA certified organic grower/processor/handler, and qualifies for organic certification of the finished product, once inspected by an authorized certifier.

Luckily, consumers are becoming more savvy and are voting for true organics with their pocketbooks. They know how to differentiate between quality natural ingredients and commercially "greenwashed" labels. That's why we proudly disclose full ingredients listings for all WoodSprite Organic Olive Oil Soaps and our Spa & Body products, on the labels and on our website. We are proud of the efforts we've made to bring you only the best nature has to offer, and we know that our ingredients speak for themselves. However, if you ever have any questions about or products or our dedication to a sustainable Earth for all, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Jacquelyn Ramsey, President
WoodSprite Organic Body

If you have questions about any WoodSprite Organic Body product, please feel free to Contact Us and we will be happy to help. For more information on organics in general, we invite you to explore our Organic Links page, or our extensive Frequently Asked Questions page.