Our mission
Reduce. Reuse. Refill. Repeat.
Gentle On You
We use the most gentle ingredients that are safe for you, your family + the planet. Our products are made with plant-based ingredients like coconut oil, olive oil, essential oils and aloe. You won't find nasties like parabens, SLS, palm oil, artificial colours or fragrances.
Refill + Reduce
All of our products are designed to be refilled, saving endless plastic bottles. We use the most recyclable or compostable packaging available.
Why I'm committed to #doingbetter.
When I learned that many common household ingredients are known carcinogens, endocrine disruptors and allergens, and that only 9% of the plastic you put in your recycling bin is actually recycled, I knew I had to do better.
After losing my parents to cancer I became obsessed with my own wellness journey and learned more about the impact of ingredients and plastic on the environment, my family and my body.
And so Better Basics was born. We have a simple mission to make sustainable and natural personal care products easy, beautiful and frankly, better.
We're not perfect, but we're committed to #doingbetter. You in?
Thank you for joining us.
Sam Rayner
Vancouver, Canada
Better Standards
We are not perfect, but we are dedicated to #doingbetter.
Did you know that plastic never decomposes? It stays in our environment and bodies forever, and microplastics have been linked to cancer and endocrine disruption.
We are dedicated to using the most recyclable and biodegradable materials (tin, steel, bamboo, organic cotton, recycled paper) in all of our products. You won't see any bubble wrap and plastic bags in our supply chain.
Our tin refill container is infinitely recyclable and fills 3x dispensers, saving 3 single-use plastic bottles with every refill.
Our stainless steel dispensers are designed to be durable and used for 100's of uses. Steel is also an infinitely recyclable material.
We’re all about keeping it real, so we want you to know that we’re still looking for a better alternative for some of our product components:
Soap Dispensers + Misters - We’ve sourced steel dispensers, but at this time the spray mister and pump straw are plastic. We’re working on sourcing recycled ocean plastic pumps for the future.
All of the ingredients we use are earth-safe. Meaning that they can be composted in a regular backyard compost and will breakdown back to earth within one year. If left in a landfill, they’ll biodegrade back to earth within a few years unlike plastic which takes centuries to break down. Our biodegradable materials include paper, wood, coconut, natural oils and cleansing agents.
Our stainless steel Ever containers and tin refill jugs are recommended to be recycled. Tin is the most recycled, and recyclable blue bin material on the planet.
Our factories are certified with fair trade practices and ISO standards. Our products are certified cruelty-free and not tested on animals. Our soaps and cleaning products are vegan, however there is beeswax in our Bee Well wraps.
We don’t use any petroleum products or toxic chemicals in any of our products. All are produced with the most natural, earth-friendly ingredients like coconut-derived soaps, aloe vera, olive oil and essential oils. The FDA and Health Canada do not currently have standards for toxic chemicals in personal care products, so we followed the Environmental Working Group's "Dirty Dozen" ingredients. Our products contain no: PABA, parabens, DEA (or DEA related ingredients), SLS, artificial fragrances, dyes, formaldehyde-releasing preservatives, petrolatum, siloxanes, BHA/BHT, Triclosan, Dibutyl phathalate, PEG compounds.
Better Materials
Our refill bottle is made out of infinitely recyclable tin. Tin is the most widely accepted and recycled material on the planet. The market for tin has a beneficial economy for the recycling supply chain to make sense. Plus, each time you refill your dispenser, you're saving a single-use bottle and pump.
Made with stainless steel which is infinitely recyclable across North America. Steel recycling offers a closed-loop system, with 80% of the steel available today being already recycled.
Bamboo is one of the most renewable resources and is more sustainable than wood due to the fast replacement rate. Bamboo is all natural and completely compostable. Put our bamboo products right in your compost bin and they will breakdown back to organic materials.
GOTS certified organic cotton has heaps of benefits: replenishes and maintains soil fertility, expands biologically diverse agriculture, prohibits the use of synthetic toxic persistent pesticides and genetically engineered seed. Organic cotton uses 88% less water and 62% less energy. GOTS is a stringent voluntary global standard for the entire post harvest processing and prohibits the use of toxic inputs during the processing stages, and establishes strong labor provisions including a prohibition on child labor.
Our personal care and cleaning products are made with all natural, plant-based ingredients. We chose earth-safe ingredients like sustainable palm oil. We refuse to use any toxic or chemical ingredients including sulfates, parabens, petrochemicals, artificial colours or fragrances. Our products are vegan-safe and not tested on animals.
A note on palm oil. Palm oil is the world’s most widely used vegetable oil for foods and personal care products. The over-harvesting of palm oil has led to deforestation of rainforests and eliminated the precious food for chimpanzees and other animals. This has also negatively impacted many indigenous communities due to child labor and poor working conditions. We sourced coconut-derived surfactants and found that most of them actually include palm oil in the formula (even though it isn't labelled on the bottle). Our coconut surfactant uses sustainable, certified palm oil, and we will continue to search for a completely palm oil-free formulation.
Our Partners
We searched internationally for the most eco-friendly suppliers to bring our vision to life. Each of our partners are on a mission to improve their industry with more sustainable practices and have internationally recognized certifications.
Giving Back
We are dedicated to not only creating better products, but also investing back into the communities in which we live. We are focused on improving the systems required to support more sustainable development and reduce the impact on our environment.
We are committed to donating 1% of revenues to environmental and social causes by partnering with 1% for the planet.
Each year we will choose charities and organizations that focus on environmental preservation and education and opportunities for youth and women. Read more about our donations here.