Pfas testing and results - we have a long road ahead .

These last 5 years have been unbelievably difficult with very little respite - as many of you have experienced - especially those in small businesses. Especially women led businesses.

The thing is we stayed true to our mission - trying to provide the cleanest makeup in the world - testing for PFAS as rigourously as we could.  We have raised our on-line sales 49% in the last 12 months - 2 of us !! And really where we were hurt the most was in the wholesale sphere -many of the stores  we sold to closed and the chains all went to the dark side. It became  pay to play and we just didn't have the funds to compete.

 I am tired - I am 70 and the weight of this journey feels heavier than ever. We tried countless strategies but the debt has been relentless and a critical error in our SHA agreement ultimately hindered our ability to raise funds.

A pivotal moment came after Noemie (who had since left the company and was no longer on the payroll) called with an idea for a pilot program that Sappho would  host and be the headliner line for - with other companies agreeing to let us take them through organic fluorine testing. At that time we were very confused over what the proper levels of organic fluorine should be and what was acceptable. We tested 5 companies under NDA's and few of them passed. Some of them passed but only a very few products made it to non-detect <10ppm. 

We were taken aback and we realized a couple of things - the road to PFAS free, in terms of organic fluorine testing,  for many brands was a ways off and having a PFAS free Marketplace was even further off - and well Noemie, for personal reasons could not finish the project and we had no money -  so we just parked it.  

I am still so grateful for this journey - even though  I have not take a wage since Covid hit - I have lived mostly off my small old age pension and supplemented with Sappho funds when I could. 

Testing products for organic fluorine has been our mission since we learned of the process - it still is. 

 

2023