Leaves of Trees

Dear 889 community,

We are so excited to be able to offer Leaves of Trees in the 889 Shop. I had the pleasure of meeting Roohi Qureishi earlier this year. We talked about the company, the unique process and the difficulty in finding natural products that work. LOT’s quality-above-all-else attitude is a direct reflection of their offerings. I can personally attest to 100% satisfaction using their products. My favourite is the headache balm. It’s small and easy to fit into you purse or pocket. It’s great to put on your temples, neck and nose when you hit that 3pm wall at work, before an important meeting, before you have to drive. It helps with an achy head and fatigue at any point throughout your day. After discovering LOT, I also finally found the natural deodorant I’ve been searching for. The tube keeps everything nice and neat, it’s easy to bring with you during the day and it works!

Enjoy this informative blog post from Roohi and let us know which products you use!

On Sourcing, Ingredients and Process:

When we source ingredients for our products, we strive to find the best quality natural ingredients possible. For us, this means that, wherever possible, ingredients that are organic and unprocessed (or minimally-processed), so that they contain the highest levels of nutrients for your skin. Argan Oil is a key component in many of our products. We source our certified organic Argan Oil directly from a women’s cooperative in Morocco. The women cold-press the oil by hand from Argan nuts. This is a long process, taking 20 hours of labour to extract one litre of unrefined Argan Oil; but it supports the community by providing employment for local women.

It is important to us that our products smell great. However,  we don’t use any artificial scents like fragrance oils. All of the scents in our products are based on pure essential oils which are extracted directly from plants.

We only use natural preservatives in our products because we don’t like the idea of using artificial preservatives, many of which release formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a very effective preservative, but it can cause irritation and allergy, and is a known cancer-causing agent so we prefer to avoid it!

We make efforts to buy directly from the people who produce the ingredients and/or from suppliers who have paid the producers a fair wage because we want to make sure that everyone with whom we do business is treated fairly and enjoys the benefits. This is very much part of of our brand ethos, and it ties with our value to “commit to kindness”, which we’ve made our tagline.

Leaves of Trees Ingredients:

Our deodorants are a big hit with many people who want to use a natural deodorant, but haven’t been able to find one that actually works.

Our all-natural cream deodorant in a tube was based on the formula for the Leaves of Trees argan lotion—one of our original products. The foundational  recipe was modified for the deodorant to add natural ingredients with antibacterial activity, such as neem tree oil, as well as essential oils of lavender, tangerine, eucalyptus and peppermint. This product is not an antiperspirant (i.e. it won’t stop you from sweating.) When you sweat, the sweat itself doesn’t have much of an unpleasant odour. The unpleasant odour is caused by the bacteria on the surface of your skin breaking down your sweat into other smelly compounds. The antibacterial nature of this product stops this process from happening; so it actually prevents the odour from occurring in the first place. It also contains some sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) to further deodorize, as well as some very fine kaolin clay which absorbs moisture to keep you feeling a bit drier.

Because the deodorant is based on a lotion (i.e. emulsion of water and oil), this product is stable at high temperatures so it won’t melt, unlike many other deodorants, which are based on coconut oil. The lotion base also makes it very easy to apply and spread on your skin and won’t leave any greasy residue to stain your clothes. Our deodorant provides moisture to your skin while keeping you smelling fresh. It is consistently a best-seller! Women and men love it, and we have customers from all over the world who order it, often in multiples

Roohi Qureshi

Founder
Leaves of Trees