Frequently Asked Questions

10 Widely Used Beauty Care Ingredients to Avoid
NEW! Read about 10 beauty care ingredients to avoid!

Where is the best place to store my moisturizer?
Store at ambient temperature, away from direct sunlight. If your house is warm you can store it in the fridge.

My moisturizer melted. What should I do?
Don't worry! If the moisturizer melts, it will not affect the properties. Just place it in the fridge for about 15 minutes. Take out and stir, then place back in the fridge until it becomes solid again.

I'm allergic to fragrances. What exactly are Essential Oils?
We only use pure, steam-distilled essential oils free of carriers, diluents and other inputs, in our products. Essential oils are derived ONLY from plants. These are not the synthetic fragrance oils linked to allergies. Almost 100% of the essential oils we use are organic, wildcrafted, or certified organic, and of the highest therapeutic grade quality.

When you first start using these products which contain true essential oils you may be a bit surprised or slightly turned off. After years of abuse with synthetic perfumes your nose may not be able to fully appreciate the richness of pure natural fragrances. Your olfactory system may need to be re-educated or detoxified. It may take a few weeks to adjust to the scent and when you do you will never want to smell synthetic fragrances ever again! Essential oils work in such harmony with your skin because they contain many age-defying beneficial properties such as antioxidants, antifungal, antibacterial and more.

What if I've been using beauty care products that contain chemicals for a long time? Will your products work?
We have a wide varitey of skincare products to make the transition less stressful for you. Make the switch now. Be aware that if you are coming from a synthetic skincare regime, your skin may experience a time of blemishing before it is able to return to its natural pH balance. After using our products, you will find that they work in such harmony with your skin you'll never have to return to synthetics ever again. Best of all, you won't have to be nervous anymore when you read the label.

What is the shelf life of your products?
Moisturizers last 12 months or more, if you store them in the fridge they will last longer. Most all of our products will last 12 months or more. Soaps last longer if you keep them away from constant running water, and keep them in a soap dish.

Are your Products Vegan? Almost all of our products are vegan, the rest are all vegetarian. Some of our products contain beeswax or honey.

What's the Difference Between Fragrance Oils and Essential Oils?
Essential oils are derived from plants, and fragrance oils are chemically manufactured. Fragrance oils have been linked to allergies, dermatitis, eczema and other problems. You will NEVER find fragrance oils in ANY of our products! This is why we can truly say all of our products are made with a holistic aromatherapy approach. If something is labelled "aromatherapy" and it contains fragrance oils, it is not truly aromatherapy. a product. Essential oils are derived from flowers, leaves, resins, barks, roots, twigs, seeds, berries, rind and/or rhizomes of a plant. Essential oils are volatile (they will evaporate over time) unlike synthetic fragrance oils which do not break down and that is why clothes containing perfume will smell like that for a long time. Essential oils have medicinal properties relating to the chemical constituents of the plant. The owner of Greenridge Herbals is a Certified Herbalist who uses her knowledge and experience to create every aromatherapy blend we use with pure essential oils.

Do your products work well with mineral makeup?
Our facial care collection - especially our facial creams and toners work excellent with mineral makeup. So much that we don't recommend conventional makeup at all! Making the switch to mineral based makeup allows your skin to breathe and also contains natural SPFs. Using conventional makeup may work against our products which are fighting to keep your skin hydrated and nourished. But be careful - mineral makeup is lately in very high demand and that means many companies are starting to offer it. ALWAYS check the ingredients! Believe it or not, one popular company that is frequently seen in health food stores manufacturers a mineral makeup that is also full of chemicals and Talcum Powder! That's the main reason people started going to mineral-based makeup to stay away from all the chemicals and potentially harmful talc.

Why Organic?
If you haven't heard the buzz words "organic" and "certified organic" lately, well they are really becomming more prominent. We use almost all organic ingredients in all of our products for many reasons. First of all, pesticides and herbicides are over-used in our environment, have a hard time (if at all) breaking down so they linger and make their way into the food chain. They pollute our environment, our food, and our air. Pesiticides and herbicides are entirely unncessary if you take proper steps towards farming, utilizing the land with respect and working with natural predators, like birds, and providing trees for them to live. I could go on and on about my passion for organics. I try to keep my message simple and we are making a difference by using mostly organic ingredients, many from our own organic gardens.

Which of your soaps is more moisturizing?
The answer is - all of them! All of our soaps are handmade using the cold-process which means we don't heat oils over a point where they lose their beneficial skin care properties, and we don't extract the natural glycerine from the soaps like big companies do. Our base contains a blend of nourishing oils and butters which work to moisturize your skin deep down.

Do you use preservatives? What is the shelf life of your products?
We use ONLY natural preservatives such as Wheat Germ Oil, Vitamin E, Grapefruit Seed Extract, and Rosemary Extract. These are 100% natural preservatives which are wonderful natural ingredients that help preserve our products. The oils we use in our products are cold-processed and unrefined. That means they are pressed under relatively low heats. Unrefined oils retain their vitamin E content, which preserves the oil from rancidity and also reduces free radical damage. Free radicals have been linked to heart disease and cancer. Do you want to use something that was made ten or even five years ago? We don't! That is why we make our products fresh in small batches every week!


What's Wrong with Parabens?
Parabens are chemical preservatives added to personal care products for extending shelf life, and widely used in tens of thousand types of cosmetic products today. Four main parabens are in use: methyl, ethyl, propyl and butylparabens; many products will have 2 or more of these chemicals as part of a preservative system. Even the definition of parabens is scary, as it states, "...May alter hormone levels, possibly increasing risks for certain types of cancer, impaired fertility, or alteration of the development of a fetus or young child. Parabens are Endocrine disruptors: They are suspected of presenting risks to the reproductive system that could include reduced chances for a healthy, full-term pregnancy, or for becoming pregnant, based on laboratory studies or studies of human populations..." Yikes! And can you believe that they are so widely spread in today's beauty care products? Help stop this terrible cycle, and support businesses who chose not to include these potentially harmful parabens in their products.

What about rumors that Grapefruit Seed Extract contains chemicals?
Newsgroups and email groups have received postings to the effect that GSE contains Triclosan, Benzelthonium Chloride, or Methyl Paraben. Is this simple error or a deliberate attempt to scare people away from using natural products? The source of this type of report comes from both Germany and Japan, not the US. The reason these chemicals have shown up in their studies is that GSE is very similar in molecular weight to both Benzelthonium Chloride and Triclosan, both of which are effective disinfectants, but are toxic to human and animal life. Every batch of Grapefruit Seed Extract that is produced by our supplier is tested and certified free from any trace of contaminants, including heavy metals, PCB's, triclosan, Salmonella, E.coli, Enterobacteria, and pesticides of any kind. In Germany a test (which is not well documented at all) for BC, Triclosan, and M. Paraben came up positive (which is more correctly called a "false positive") and in Japan, the same is happening for Triclosan. USDA found benzelthonium chloride in its 2001 test. These are not US companies. Whereas the company we purchase GSE from is based in the United States.
A few years ago, the manufacturer of GSE began specifically testing each batch of GSE for the absense of chemicals, and providing a Certificate of Analysis to that effect. The truth is, if GSE really contained chemical preservatives like parabens, it would make our products last for indefinately. Our products enhanced with GSE only stay good for 1-2 years, whereas products with parabens will stay preserved and appearing fresh for decades. Do you still have a bottle of lotion lurking around you have had for more than several years? Read the ingredients because it's probably preserved with parabens.
The truth is, GSE is not only effective as a natural preservative, it has been in use for decades and recommended by many high profile doctors and healthcare professionals. If these allegations had any validity, there certainly would be a history of complaints and judgements against the product, and it would have been removed from the market many years ago. The US FDA made inspections of our supplier's manufacturing facility back in the 1990's and found no chemical preservatives; and the manufacturer states that their formula is exactly the same today.


What products do you recommend for my skin type?
Read our our handy skincare reference guide & use chart