Since Apple Valley Natural Soap started in 2010 we have produced many Vegan and Gluten Free products. The number of available products in these categories has grown over time as our awareness of alternate choices has increased.
The Vegan lifestyle means using and consuming products which are not animal by-products. Specifically related to the cosmetic industry, this can include items such as honey, beeswax, dairy, lanolin, silk etc. Sometimes desiring to use only Vegan products can also stretch into using ingredients which are only harvested by sustainable means. An example of this is Palm Oil. Palm oil* comes from a plant, but as much of it's harvesting destroys jungle habitat killing animals in the process, many people Vegan or not, choose to not use Palm oil unless it's harvested sustainably. Palm oil is Vegan, but it's harvesting can cross an ethical line. Read more about our practice of using sustainable products here. Read more about a Vegan lifestyle here. Silk can also be a big hurdle for many consumers due to the nature of how silk fibers are harvested, and many choose not to wear or use any product containing silk because of this. But the supplier we have chosen for our Silk Peptides gets their supply from silk which is harvested from cocoons once the moth has emerged, so no harm comes to the silk worm.
*Soaps that contain no palm oil: Most of our Facial & Body bars, plus the following Shampoo bars; Jojoba Silk, Simply Shea, Hemp & Honey, Hemp & Honey 2.0, Mango Citrus, Cafe Mocha, Beard Shampoo, Lake House.
Check out our page full of Vegan Soaps which will compliment your vegan lifestyle.
Plus, for a full listing of all items we carry in our store which are Vegan, click HERE.
Apple Valley Natural Soap is not a Gluten Free facility as we can not guarantee there won't be any cross contamination between ingredients or finished product. We do however, produce many items that contain no gluten, so we consider our products produced without gluten to be Gluten Sensitive. The main source of gluten that you will find in some of our soaps is Wheat Germ. We also use an organic oatmeal in a few soaps, but even though oats do not contain gluten, there is always the chance of cross contamination during any part of the oats growing cycle or during harvesting. It is thought however that even with severe gluten allergies such as Celiacs, when cosmetic products which contain gluten are applied to the skin they do not create an allergic reaction because they do not go through the GI system. In fact the gluten protein molecule is too big to get through the skin. So unless the gluten containing cosmetic is ingested (such as with lipstick or a lotion on hands which then eat food) a gluten reaction will not happen from topically applied products. Read more here.