The Soap Arcade - luxury handmade soaps & toiletries manufacturer.

There are two major ingredient labeling standards globally, these are:

• the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association (CTFA) standard, which is used in the United States
• the International Nomenclature for Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI) standard, which is used in the rest of the world, including Canada.
• The Soap Arcade is compliant with the INCI Labelling Standard, all our products are labelled using a label similar to that shown below.

European laws requires the use of the INCI labeling standard on beauty products. INCI listings show the full "scientific" name of a product and may be a little more difficult to comprehend. For instance: Aloe Barbadensis Extract is Aloe Vera Extract. Also, the word "fragrance" is used to describe Essential Oils as well as synthetic fragrance ingredients. Labels can show +- to indicate that an ingredient may or may not be present. For instance, the same label can be used across multiple soap products, with all the various color ingredients shown with +- indicators.

Numerous ingredients can be omitted from the label, these might be:

Incidental Ingredients:

Any processing aid added and removed or converted to the declared ingredient, or any ingredient of another ingredient or processing aid present at an insignificant level and having no technical or functional effect.

In particular:

• A substance added during manufacture and removed from the cosmetic in accordance with good manufacturing practices before the cosmetic is packaged in finished form. Example: Filter aid.
• A substance that is added during manufacture of a cosmetic, is converted to an ingredient declared on the label, and does not significantly increase the concentration of the declared ingredient. Example: Sodium hydroxide added to a sodium stearate and stearic acid-containing cosmetic.
• A substance added to a cosmetic during manufacture for its technical effect in processing but present in the finished cosmetic at an insignificant level and not having any technical or functional effect in that cosmetic. Example: Defoaming agent.
• A substance added to a cosmetic as a component of a cosmetic ingredient and having no technical or functional effect in the finished cosmetic. Example: Preservative of a raw material added to a cosmetic as an ingredient at a concentration which reduces the preservative to a level at which it is no longer effective.

Ingredients Deemed Trade Secret.

This is typically a blend of fragrance ingredients to create a "signature scent" for a line of products. For our products, this is listed as "Fragrance (Parfum)" and is a unique blend of natural essential oils.

An example of Soap Arcade Product INCI Labelling

Our labels have additional information which are not part of the INCI standard, these are:

• Batch code - indicating which manufacturing run this product was made.
• Weight Approx. - The weight of the block - will be clearly marked in Kg.
• Date Of Manufacture - Date on which this block was made, allowing you to calculate the expiry date.
• Pot Symbol (36) - We indicate that the soap block has a 36 month shelf life.