Sourcing the Best and Purest Ingredients – Why No Certifications?

At Thebos we pride ourselves in sourcing the best, purest and most potent ingredients for our formulations.  Why do you see no certifications then?

The beauty industry has woken up and is increasingly driven by consumers who care deeply about sustainability, ethical sourcing, and long term skin health. But with all the marketing noise out there, it’s easy to feel lost. Certifications are supposed to cut through the confusion, offering a reliable way for consumers to identify truly responsible products. However, for companies like Thebos—where we’re dedicated to using the purest, best, most ethically sourced ingredients—getting those certifications can divert attention away actually delivering these benefits.

If we’d tried to launch Thebos with every certification we believe in, we never would made it to market.  It's a bit of a cruel joke: small, passionate businesses aiming to make a positive impact face steep costs and red tape, while big companies with less-than-stellar practices can easily slap on a certification or, worse, use mis-leading marketing to create the perception of benefits that don’t exist.

For us and other small brands genuinely walking the talk, the road to certification is filled with hurdles. Think about labels like "organic," "cruelty-free," or "fair trade." They don't just magically appear on products. There's a ton of paperwork, repeated site visits and monitoring of suppliers, and let's not forget—the hefty fees. For a small business, these aren't just one-time costs; they can pile up, especially as we grow the business.

What's even more frustrating is the backward incentive system this creates. Those truly committed to ethical practices find themselves jumping through very high hoops, while large well-funded companies simply buy their way in. It’s a scenario that echoes the struggles of high-quality small-scale farmers, who often can’t afford organic certification, even though their products are of similar quality and benefit.  

In farming the petrochemical-derived ingredients, pesticides etc cost extra, so there some natural incentive for farmers to use them sparingly.  In the cosmetics industry, the situation is even more troubling, as oil derived cosmetic chemicals are by far cheaper than their natural alternatives.  We believe that the natural alternatives and in particular our formulations are by far superior and better for your skin.  So why is the burden on the better safer ingredient? 

It is not just the access to the certifications that is the problem, the certifications themselves are sometimes called into question. This is something that the documentary Seaspiracy highlighted when it exposed what I considered to be one of the gold standards of certification bodies, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) label, can be flawed. As such companies with questionable environmental records can still appear sustainable, creating a troubling scenario where certifications hide the truth, rather than creating greater clarity.

This issue is compounded by regulations that protect large companies at the expense of environmentally focused ones. For example, EU regulation 655/2013 prevents companies from labeling their products as "free from" harmful substances, like parabens, deeming it unfair to those who use some types of these chemicals that have been approved within limits.  See regulatory excerpt below:

What we have decided at Thebos, is we are going to build a new kind of trust with our consumers by doubling down on our dedication to delivering the best and purest products.  To this end we are in discussion with the Western Cape government and the Table Mountain Fund to find new ways to give customers confidence around the sustainability and purity of Fynbos products.

We will also continue to source ingredients from suppliers who share our unwavering commitment to sustainability and ethical practices, ensuring that every component of our products reflects our core values. We believe you will see in the quality and results on your skin that you will experience from our products.  What do you our customers think, what is most important to you?