What inspired the creation of your company, and when did it start?

Our founder comes from a background in chemistry and nutrition, and they started Simply by Nature a couple years ago after getting tired of not being able to readily find products that were up to their standards.

What is your brand’s mission, and what causes drive you and your team?

We want to provide a complete line of truly natural body care products that are clean, effective, and affordable. Toothpaste, deodorant, even toner, these things shouldn’t be a luxury – no one should be paying $20 for deodorant, you know?

How is your brand socially responsible?

We keep our team small and our overhead low so that we can afford to pay our team well, donate products to organizations we think are awesome, all while keeping costs low for consumers. This year we’re really excited about donating tons of our Probiotic Deodorant to Clean Vibes Trading Post, an awesome non-profit that incentivizes recycling at music festivals like Bonnaroo and Outside Lands. We’re still young, but already are researching environmental preservation groups we want to donate some of our profits to next year too!

What does your brand do to lower its ecological impact and/or promote environmental health and well-being?

It might sound silly, but just running as small a company as possible makes a really big difference. Less people, less computers, less electricity, less everything. Juniper Ridge is another great company that’s does that. Their crazy field lab van is sort of famous, but it’s not just an image thing – those folks keep it to the bare minimum and more companies (and people!) could learn from that example.

In terms of production practices: We work with an awesome eco-printing company in California to produce our environmentally friendlier labels. They have options for fully biodegradable papers, labels made from stone (don’t ask me how), all kinds of crazy stuff.

Minimizing plastic is huge for us. We currently pack everything in glass, and are working on developing a proprietary biodegradable tube for our toothpastes and Body Butter that we plan on releasing around the end of this year.

Also, I mentioned earlier that a couple of us are going to be starting our Retailer Tour soon, after which point we’ll be on the road for a solid 6 months. For that trip we’ll be camping 85% of the time and driving a Prius all the way, which equals a massive reduction in potential waste that would have come from airfare and hotels. We’ll be blogging the whole way with low-impact travel tips, photos, and of course our recommendations for the best natural foods and camping spots, definitely check it out.

Does your company perform animal testing and/or use animal-based ingredients in your products? Why or why not?

Of course not, testing new products on ourselves and sharing them with friends and family is half the fun!

Where does your company make/manufacture your products, and why?

We produce and package everything ourselves in a small facility in Scottsdale, AZ which is where we’re based out of. It’s very rare to find companies that actually control their entire production process all the way to distribution, and we’re proud of our independence in that regard.

Almost every company, even in the natural world, works with a ‘co-packer’ who produces and packages their product to that company’s specifications. We don’t have anything personally against that system, but when you do that, you lose a lot of control over production practices, sourcing standards, all sorts of stuff, so we’d rather just do it ourselves. Plus it’s more fun that way, and we feel a more personal connection to the people who enjoy our products.

Describe your design philosophy – how do you balance quality and affordability?

We really just want to make the most effective natural body care products possible at an affordable price without cutting corners. If we weren’t such a small company, we wouldn’t be able to do it, but our system seems to work well, and it’ll only work better as we grow!

Tell us a little about the ingredients/materials you use. Generally, why did you pick them over other options?

With all our ingredients we’ve spent a ton of time tracking down what we feel are the best sources. Everything that we can get organic is organic, even stuff like emulsifying wax and rosewater (which everybody skimps on normally because they’re so much more expensive), our bentonite clay is 3rd-party tested and food-grade (that one is a real challenge!), and our essential oils are all 100% pure. In the few products that need additional preservation, we use Leucidal Liquid, which is a really cool natural preservative made from fermented radishes!

What are the next steps for your company?

Aside from the Retailer Tour, which will bring our products to a lot more consumers in the Western US, we are trying to green our shipping packaging by the end of the year. It sounds simple, but it’s quite a production.

How do you view the future of conscious consumption?

More and more people are coming to understand that their dollar is the strongest vote they have. That simple bit of knowledge combined with increased awareness of the impacts certain products have on our environment both ecologically and interpersonally I think will slowly shift people’s awareness towards more conscious forms of consumption.

At the end of the day though, waste is waste, and there are only so many resources in the world. I have a lot of hope for emerging technologies and their role in lowering the impact of more ‘necessary’ consumptive materials like body care products and food packaging, but until then we’ve just got to do our best.

As a parting sentiment, if you could only use one word to describe your brand ethos – what would it be?

Sincere