Beyond The Suds
Change (Why Your Feedback Matters)
by Carrie
Some people love change, and others not so much. I'm in the "not so much" club...unless it's a change for the better, of course. I'm happy to share 2 ingredient changes with you for 2016, both of which came about in response to customer feedback.
1. We've Replaced Sweet Almond Oil with Sunflower Oil.
We had a few loyal customers tell us that regrettably they could not use our Aftershave Balm due to their nut allergy, so we set out to see what we could do about that. Each oil/butter has its own fatty acid composition and profile, and it just so happens that the profiles for Sweet Almond Oil and Sunflower Oil are very similar. We made the substitution in our formulation, ran some testing sessions, received and evaluated tester feedback, and proceeded with the change. The result was a two-fold victory: first, there was no discernible difference in the feel or effectiveness of the balm and secondly, our aftershave balm is now accessible to even more people. (Note: This change also effected our lip balm, where we replaced the Sweet Almond Oil with Sunflower Oil.)
2. We've Removed All Colorants from our Shaving Soaps.
This one was a little bit harder to come to terms with, but we're glad to have made the modification. When we first began testing our shaving soap formula a few years ago, we sent our testers multiple soaps, each with a unique formulation. In order to more easily keep them straight, a bit of cosmetic colorant was added to the sample soaps. Our testers reported their results, and some of them mentioned the novelty of colored artisan shaving soap. As a result, we decided to include color identity as a characteristic of Soap Commander shaving soaps. Over time, though, the novelty has worn off and concern has been raised by some users regarding the need and/or safety of colorants in the soaps. We have always felt (and continue to do so) comfortable and confident in the colorants we have chosen to use for our soaps, but also can empathize with the concern of including superfluous ingredients in a shaving product. Thus, we've removed colorants from all of our shaving soaps, and any color variation you notice in or among them is due to the inherent properties of the fragrance or essential oil that is used for scent.
I want to emphasize that both of these changes are a result of you taking the time to communicate with us. We encourage each person who has experienced Soap Commander to share their thoughts and perspective with us, good or bad. We want to hear it! We can't please everyone of course (and that's not our goal), but when you bring an issue to our attention, I promise you that we give it full and proper consideration. Thank you for allowing us to hear from you and be a part of your story...we consider it a privilege.