FAQs
Below you will find answers to some frequently asked questions. If you don't find an answer to your question, please email hello@mater.beauty
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
About MATER's products
🤰 Are MATER Beauty products suitable during pregnancy and while breastfeeding?
As a breastfeeding mother, my goal was to create products I could use! So yes, MATER Beauty products are suitable for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.
The only ingredient worth noting is Bakuchiol, which is used in YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE Supercharged Glow Drops. Bakuchiol is a plant-derived compound that is commonly used as a natural alternative to retinol / retinoids in skincare. Retinol not only has a high risk of irritation, but it can also have potentially serious risks for the foetus if used while pregnant. Bakuchiol has a very low risk of irritation, AND has not been shown to have adverse effects while pregnant or breastfeeding. However, if you have any concerns or reservations, or want to be extra safe, I would recommend leaving this product out of your routine until no longer pregnant or breastfeeding exclusively.
👩🔬 Where and how are MATER Beauty products made?
All MATER Beauty products are handmade in Auckland, New Zealand. Production is done at MATER's in-house artisanal lab, in small batches to ensure freshness.
🧫 Do MATER Beauty products contain preservatives?
Because it is 100% oil based, YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE Supercharged Glow Drops does not requires a preservative to be safe, so it is preservative-free.
Any of the products that contain water or water-based ingredients contain a preservative to make sure they are, and continue to be, safe for you.
Preservative used in the face serums and shampoo bar is considered natural, and is ECOCERT and COSMOS compliant. The conditioner bar production requires temperatures too high to safely use any natural preservative, so a synthetic preservative is used, but one that is both paraben free and formaldehyde free.
If you come across a product that uses any water-based ingredients (aloe vera gel, glycerin, hydrosol etc) and doesn't list a preservative, even if stored in the fridge, please know that even if it looks or smells fine, there will be bacteria growing in it and it is not safe to use. 💜
🌻 Are MATER Beauty products natural?
In short: yes, over 90% of the ingredients used in MATER Beauty products can be considered natural.
Much like clean beauty, the term natural is hugely open to interpretation. If you're interested to learn more, "The Truth Behind Natural Skincare: A Guide to Understanding Skincare Ingredients" article goes into detail.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
About MATER's values & practices
✨ Is MATER Beauty a clean beauty brand?
In short: yes, MATER Beauty products can be considered a clean beauty skincare and hair care.
While I don't personally subscribe to the idea of clean beauty, since it's nothing more than a marketing buzzword that is frequently misused to desribe many products I would definitely not consider clean, MATER Beauty products do meet the many commonly used definitions of this term.
Rather than arbitrarily labelling MATER Beauty products with marketing buzzwords without any official definition or regulatory standards, I am a firm believer in evaluating ingredients based on their efficacy, safety, AND environment impact. Only those that pass that evaluation are considered for inclusion in MATER Beauty products.
🌱 Are MATER Beauty products vegan?
All MATER Beauty products are vegan apart from I WOKE UP LIKE THIS Beyond-hydration Perfecting Serum which contains 3% of an ingredient produced from crustacean shells (a waste byproduct of the shellfish industry).
A vegan version of this serum is currently undergoing testing and is estimated to be available September 2023.
🌴 Are MATER Beauty products palm free?
MATER Beauty / FACE serums are 100% palm free, with over 97% of ingredients used in MATER Beauty / HAIR products also being palm oil free, or not derived from palm oil.
Wherever possible, a palm free option is used (at a significantly higher ingredient cost), such as glycerine, stearic acid, hair conditioning agents and thickeners, coco caprylate, cocamidopropyl betaine. All of these are commonly palm based, but for me it is important to avoid palm derived ingredients wherever possible.
A handful of specialised palm derivatives are used where there is no palm-free alternative that performs a similar function to the level required, and only constituting used very low percentages of the final product.
🐰 Are MATER Beauty products cruelty free?
MATER Beauty products, including the individual ingredients, are never tested on animals. Only willing humans like friends and my husband, who is always the first test subject!
🌏 Is MATER Beauty a sustainable brand?
MATER Beauty is committed to a better future for our planet for the generations to follow. This comprises of minimising waste and use of plastic, as well as avoiding the use of palm oil and its byproducts.
New product development is focused on formats that require the least amount of unnecessary packaging, and result in the least amount of waste - such as the solid shampoo and conditioner bars.
MATER products avoid the use of plastic and excessive packaging wherever possible. All of the outer and postal packaging is plastic free. Plastic is only used where necessary to preserve the integrity of the product, like the serums with the plastic dropper cap and bulb.