Clearstone

We are a small family business originating from Yorkshire. As a primarily mother and son run company (Karen & James), we sell eco-friendly lifestyle products with the aim of making it easier to find everything you need under one roof.

We aim to be a climate positive company and continually give back more than we consume. That is why we have made it our mission to supply the highest quality items in a sustainable way.

Whilst growing up, our family developed a love of the outdoors with many countryside walks in the Yorkshire Dales. Over the years whilst appreciating the beauty of the outdoors, we became aware of plastic pollution, not only in the countryside but on the beaches too. In the UK each person creates about 400kg of waste every year, this equates to around 26 million tonnes of waste produced in the UK in one year. Only 12 million tonnes of waste is recycled and 14 million tonnes goes to landfill, with the litter from our streets and beaches eventually ending up in our rivers and oceans. Watching nature documentaries opened our mind to thinking about the entire globe not just our local area.

We began to think about how much plastic as a family we use, making our goals to recycle, reuse, donate and at first, proudly thought we were doing our bit. However, with more research we quickly realised that only a very small fraction of all recyclable plastics put in the recycle bin end up being actually recycled. We were appalled at this fact and realised that we weren’t doing enough by simply recycling, we had to look for alternatives to reduce our plastic usage as much as possible.

Much of our plastic waste came from toiletries and cleaning products, so we began to look for a non-plastic substitute, this led us to research into alternatives to all our plastic household items beginning with the bathroom and our soaps!

Hot processed soaps are mostly commercially manufactured, contain a chemical cocktail of ingredients and use a manufacturing process which damages the nourishing qualities of the soap. Many are not natural, can irritate and dry out the skin, furthermore, also being bad for the environment. These products are cheap to make and use chemical additives to increase the shelf life but these can often cause irritation.

Cold processed soaps, however, take longer to make (due to the curing process), contain plant oils, shea butters and natural essential oils. The vast majority have excellent extremely nourishing qualities, contain little or no chemicals and use zero plastic. Cold processed soaps contain surplus fats, unlike normal soaps, this results in an effect on your skin which gently cleanses and moisturises at the same time. The fats in hot processed soaps react with other chemicals which results in a drying effect on your skin and, due to the conditions of the process, this is unavoidable.

We made a conscious effort to look for sustainable alternatives for not only soaps but everyday household consumables. We first looked at local supermarkets but quickly realised that they could not help because they don’t sell products we’re looking for. We then looked to UK small businesses, where possible, who can supply zero plastic, eco friendly lifestyle products. We struggled finding good products but were let down by being packaged in plastic and made unlikely claims. We wanted to help give consumers more choice in their everyday shopping habits, so we began thinking of starting our own business. We set out looking for small local companies which met our criteria of excellence, sold products we actually liked, were honestly described and which don’t carry the costs of high street designer brands.

We seek out and vet local UK companies making sure they meet our high standards which include striving for only the best. Each one of our products is tried and tested by us or our friends, if we don’t love it, we won’t sell it. We also believe customer service is paramount and if a customer is not 100% happy with their purchase we will provide a full free refund for any unused items. Our packaging is 100% sustainable and lovingly hand wrapped to make every customer feel special when they open their purchase.

What sets us apart from other businesses is our strict policy for product excellence and the criteria we pride ourselves on. We are an extremely transparent company and actively look to create the most positive environmental impact, therefore we pledge to plant 5 trees or reduce 1kg of ocean pollution for every order placed with us. In addition to this promise we also are members of the 1% For The Planet Organisation and pledge to donate 1% or more of our total revenue to preserve the environment. We are actively looking for organisations that focus on one of these core issues; climate, land, water, food, wildlife and pollution and try our best to support in their efforts.

What’s good for the planet is good for you. Start your zero-waste journey here.