Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good action, try and use ordinary situations

Jean-Paul Richter

Frequently Asked Questions

These are some of the questions we get asked frequently?
1

Do you allow Refills?

Yes, however it is limited to a selective range of products currently as we are revamping our refillery range of products. The products that are available in refillable formats are :-

  • Gentle Scalp Shampoo
  • Element Shampoo
  • Element Body Wash
  • Spa Aman Body Wash
  • Allsome Head-To-Toe Cleanser
  • Anti-bacterial Body Wash
  • Anti-bacterial Hand Wash

We have discontinued the refillery for moisturisers / conditioners / creams because of the immense wastage created because of the viscosity. We will be looking to redevelop them into more lotion format which will be more suitable for the refill format.

We have also stopped our essential oils refillery to rethink about our essential oil offering.

Our goal remains to one day to have everything in a refillable format in the store.

2

No one cares about sustainability in Malaysia, why don't you do it in another country?

That is more the reason to do it. Hopefully we inspire more retail concepts like this to educate people about how to go about starting sustainable practices. As Anne Marie Bonneau said "We don't need a handful of peopledoing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly."

3

Why are you not accepting my bottles?

It is probably because they are not cleaned properly. They need to be cleaned properly to at least Re-cycling standards.

Initially, when we first started - we accepted everything even if its so dirty and we worked till late nights daily just to wash off dried up stains in the bottles so that the recyclers will take them. After some time, we realised we are not helping anyone, we need to teach people how to Re-cycle (the need to clean the bottles so that it is possible for us to upcycle, Re-use them OR get Re-cyclers to accept them)

4

Why did you change from glass to bio-plastic bottles?

Last year, we were informed by Santhia from Trashcycle that Silica is very cheap and this makes the recycling of glass unprofitable which leads to many recyclers not willing to pick up glass recyclables.

We decided to make a big decision and performed a huge exercise to convert the bottles we use to bio-plastic (50+ years to bio-degrade as compared to 500+ years for petroleum-based plastic).

We are the first and remain the only local brand which have converted our bottles to bio-plastic.

5

What are you doing with your Upcycled Coffee Grounds?

Here are some of the initiatives we do with our upcycled coffee grounds.

  • We work with a small maker to make soaps out with them.

  • We make some of our coffee based scrubs with it.

  • We bottle them up with upcycled bottles FREE for the community to take to use as fertilisers, make their own scrubs to use OR just use as a deodourant.
How are we doing it?

Ingredients

We want to rethink about the ingredients we use in skin, body & hair care products.

Move away from synthetics and go more natural ingredients with are more biodegradable and friendier for the planet.

We also want to explore Circular Ingredients where ingredients which we normally dispose of is re-purposed and used in our products.

Packaging

Our goal is to do away with as much packaging as possible.

The reason is if there is no packaging, there is no fear for it not to be recycled.

We look at all areas to reduce / upcycle packaging.

So if you see us using packaging, there is a good reason why we are using it Currently.

Physical Retail

Use more sustainable materials in construction of any interiors, displays - Re-purposed materials, Re-cycled materials.

We are not always busy and when we can, we work on other sustainable activities. We are not just a retail store, we are an Upcycling Centre, a Research Centre, a Recycling Drop-off point.

Education

As the saying goes - Sharing is Caring, we share knowledge willingly and we want to strike up conversations so that we can share our knowledge about sustainability.

Most of the time, you will realise that people are not picking up any sustainable practices not because they do not want to, it's because they do not have the knowledge.

Better Products

We are already on a mission to make our products more Responsible & Sustainable, but if they are not good, people just will not use it.

It is imperative that we make Great products that people will love and want to use. If we achieve that, then people will want to use our products, which in turn will be Better for our Planet.

Go Local

We can reduce a lot of our carbon footprint simply by working with more local ingredients and local makers.

If a local brand has a good product and has the same sustainability belief like us, you will very likely find their products stocked in our store.

We are always better as a community, rather than going at it alone.

empty-image