What are your policies?

 

Our shipping, PayPal, return and other policies, are listed here.

 

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Who are you?

 

We are two enthusiastic DIYers. We wanted to save money by making our own special skin care products.

 

We ended up spending too much money for over-priced common active ingredients. We decided to buy our active ingredients in bulk from manufacturers.

 

As there is a limit to what 2 people can use, we made our surplus stock available to other DIY skin care enthusiasts.

 

We used the profits from our sales and reinvested them in more products.

 

This has proven very popular and we are now importing and retailing products on a regular basis. 

 

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Why are the prices low?

 

"Low profit, high turn-over"

 

Our prices are low for several reasons:

 

Most of the botanical extracts or special active ingredients are NOT as special or expensive as some suppliers suggest they are!

We buy direct from Chinese manufacturers. 

We have a very low mark-up and pass our savings on to you.

This is not our full-time business and main source of income. We are both employed full-time. 

 

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What about the quality?

 

Our manufacturers are chosen carefully.

Our manufacturers produce and export their materials as food-grade, for human consumption.

We buy these active ingredients for our personal use. 

 

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Is it safe to buy products from China?

 

China is one of the leading manufacturers for chemical and organic ingredients. In our industry specifically, these ingredients make up the larger portion of what is used to make skin care and other beauty-related products.

 

Therefore the simple truth is that some of our products can't be sourced from anywhere else, in fact in every industry there is likely to be an element of Chinese manufacturing involved.

 

Unlike our biggest competitor who will adamantly avoid this topic, I have long taken the stance that honesty is the best policy.

We do openly state where our products are sourced from, and we have no problem sharing the truth. Each of our ingredient-products comes with a COA (certificate of analysis) that clearly states where the source materials came from, and what percentages of materials make up the finished ingredient product.

It is important that to note that not all of our products are bought from Chinese manufacturers.  Some of our products are manufactured by big name companies such as Croda and BASF.  Of course, they do not disclose where THEIR products are actually manufactured.

 

In conclusion, If you do not wish to buy from us because our product are from China, then you may want to try another supplier.

 

In this case please make sure you get a written and public assurance from our competitors, clarifying exactly in which country their raw materials are grown, processed, and manufactured. 

 

A refusal to supply this info, either via email or on a forum, can only be an indication that your supplier is unwilling to acknowledge that they too are buying and selling "made in China" products.

 

I have written about this issue in more detail on our blog: http://bulkactives.com/blog/index.php/2009/02/made-in-china/  

 

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A product I bought is clumping together, is this okay?

 

Yes, this is perfectly fine. 

 

We store all our products in a large storage room with air-conditioners and dehumidifiers running 24/7 and hereby minimize this problem.

 

Still, a few of the pure powders are very hygroscopic and it is possible that they clump, or stick together, especially during shipping.

 

There is no harm in them doing so, and you can easily break them back up.  

 

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Will the actives dissolve?

Some actives will dissolve well in water, some in oil, a few may need an alkaline solvent, and MANY need alcohol. 

 

The product pages have solubility info. We are also working on a solubility chart, this is a work in progress and will be updated regularly.

The info is taken from the extract's MSDS, forum posts, customer feedback and mainly from practical experience.

 

Most actives will disperse in a cream or lotion.

 

If the powder does not dissolve will it release components slowly into the cream/lotion?

We are aware that this is claimed by one of our competitors. We do not make this claim, and find it highly unlikely, it also makes for a grainy cream.  

 

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Do you mail to Greece or Italy?

 

Mailing products to Greece or Italy is not easy as their customs are very restricted.

 

We do mail to customers who live in Greece or Italy, but we cannot guarantee that your customs department will issue clearance.

 

We generally do NOT recommend that you purchase our products.

However, if you accept these risks, feel free to place an order.

 

If your customs department returns the product to us we WILL issue you a refund for the cost of the products (but NOT the postage costs).

 

It can usually take up to 3 months for customs to process mail.

 

During this time you will not know the status of your mail as the customs department does not provide tracking data to your post office (more on that here). 

 

If we don't receive the product back, you will not receive a refund.

 

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When will out-of-stock products be back in stock?

 

We don't know. But if a product is out of stock then we know about it and are already trying.

 

The best way to get the latest updates is to follow us on Twitter or Facebook, or periodically check our forum:

 

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I live in Canada, why can't I buy DMAE or Carnitine?

 

DMAE Bitartrate, Carnitine and some other products are banned by HealthCanada from importation into Canada.

 

We are aware that some other internet retailers continue to sell these products to Canadian customers. 

 

In fact, one retailer even writes a nice little article explaining that it is worth the gamble, and that 60% to 70% of their DMAE Bitartrate shipments will clear customs.

 

However, what these retailers are forgetting is that it is against the PayPal Acceptable Use Policy to sell products that are banned.

 

We emailed PayPal about this 5 years ago, and this was their reply:

 

"Thank you for contacting PayPal regarding the product DMAE Bitartrate.

This item is currently allowed to be sold using PayPal, provided that it is
not sold or shipped to Canadian buyers.  We appreciate that you have
contacted us to ensure that your sales remain compliant to PayPal's
Acceptable Use Policy."

 

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Are your products food grade?

All our products are cosmetic / technical grade only. We do NOT sell pharmaceuticals, prescription drugs or nutritional supplements.

We buy our products as food grade, but the grade reverts to technical grade when we repackage it, as we do not operate in an FDA approved food handling facility.

 

Please note that mall our work areas are sterilized to guard against any contamination, and we ship raw materials in jars, bottles, or bags, which have also been sterilized.

 

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What is the shelf life of DIY products?

 

with preservative = one month

without preservative = one week and must be stored in a fridge.

 

The reason why we suggest 1 month for products with a preservatives is because:

ALL preservative manufacturers recommend that proper stress tests and plate counts are done under various temperatures and storage conditions, in order to calculate the correct amount of preservative used in a product in relation to the ingredients used.

This process can take as long as 2 years.

If you are planning on selling your products (on ebay etc.) then it is essential (to legally protect YOU) that this process is followed, preferably by a qualified person in a registered lab.

However, for DIY use, making a product (with preservative) fresh every month is perfectly safe.

 

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Where are your Certificate of Analysis?

 

A Certificate of Analysis is provided by a manufacturer and only valid for a specific batch in production quantities. As a distributor we cannot provide a certificate of analysis.

 

We guarantee our customers that all products sold are within required specifications outlined in the typical analysis.

 

If requested we are happy to email you a document which shows the specifications of our most recent batch of a specific product.  This is NOT a COA, it simply shows the same info as a COA.