( ENSPIRE Health & Wellness ) Vegan, Non-Toxic and Cruelty-Free Home and Body Care Product Line Sea Witch Botanicals Advocates for Clean Waterways and Personal Health
ENSPIRE Contributor: Rosa Linda Fallon
Growing up on the Pacific Northwest Coastline, Alesia Hall was inspired by the mythological Sea Witch who was known as the purveyor of the seas. After learning more about the toxic chemicals found in many products that were harming the oceans and sea life combined with her love of the waterways, Hall sought to bring non-toxic, plant-based personal care products to the marketplace. She wanted to create an alternative home and personal care product offering natural, environmentally-friendly, and cruelty-free solutions consumers would feel good about using.
Bringing together her education in massage and aromatherapy and her passion for creating healing remedies, Hall founded Sea Witch Botanicals, a personal care product line that aims to keep the world’s water healthier by providing natural, affordable and non-toxic home and body care products.
“There are a lot of unnecessary and harmful ingredients used in soap and cosmetic manufacturing,” Hall says. Synthetic fragrance oils are the most insidious toxic ingredient, according to Hall. These fragrance oils are compiled of hundreds to thousands of industrial-grade ingredients and are only tested and regulated by the companies that manufacture them. Hall says these ingredients never have to be listed on the packaging, and they contain cancer-causing chemical compounds. They can also provoke headaches, asthma, and skin irritation, among other reactions.
With the company’s mission to protect the waterways, it is not enough for them to just use clean ingredients in their products. Sea Witch Botanicals utilizes TerraCycle zero-waste boxes for their disposable gloves and glue sticks, thereby diverting them from ending up in the landfill. The company also has waste sorting stations throughout the facility including compost, recycling, and clean plastics.
Their commitment to sorting their waste has led to being able to divert ninety percent of production waste from ending up in the landfill, according to the company’s Annual Waste Audits done by Sustainable Connections, a nonprofit partner.
Sea Witch Botanicals also supports charities including Earthjustice and the Environmental Working Group (EWG) to help promote awareness, research, and protection of the environment.
Founder Alesia Hall said she is passionate about supporting Earthjustice because “the earth needs a good lawyer.” Earthjustice is a nonprofit organization that works to accomplish legislation for the protection of the planet. Hall said the company also supports The Environmental Working Group (EWG) because its mission is directly linked to Sea Witch Botanicals’ pursuit of educating consumers on health concerns connected to many toxic ingredients used in home and personal care products.
Hall aspires to see Sea Witch Botanicals as an industry force for good to help drive the demand for ocean plastics to be upcycled in the packaging industry. Between the containers, raw goods are transported in, to the small plastic spray tops in finished goods, the plastic already exists in our environment to produce this new packaging.
“Rather than creating more virgin plastic in our supply chain, we’d like to help make ocean plastics more accessible for manufacturers in all industries,” Hall says. “This is a part of our overall mission to support a zero-waste production facility and product line.”
Upon the onset of the pandemic, Alesia formulated a new product, Fortifying Hand Soap featuring antimicrobial eucalyptus, lavender, and orange essential oils. The soap is embedded with a biodegradable print “Keep Calm & Wash On.” The company also created a blog “How to Properly Wash Your Hands” along with videos and infographics on their social media to help stakeholders understand just how important this action is to combat the virus.
As for what’s next for Sea Witch Botanicals, customers can be on the lookout for new scents coming in the next few months. Their regular seasonal scent Krampus launches in the fall, as always. The company is also looking to expand its bulk and zero-packaging offerings for products such as their best-selling home helpers, Canary Clean & Produce Wash.
