The products in the Baby Calendula range are safe to be used from birth.

Pregnancy is a time of heightened body-awareness and concern, when many women think seriously about how they prepare themselves, and their unborn child, for birth. Unsurprisingly you’re super-conscious of what goes on your body, and at Weleda we often get enquiries from mums-to-be, wanting clear guidance on which of our products are safe to use.

Our first guidance is to trust your instincts – it’s not unusual for women to dislike certain aromas during pregnancy, and if that includes your usual favourite moisturiser or shower-cream, then go with it and leave the product on the shelf until after baby is born.

None of our body care products carry specific warnings against use during pregnancy. Our cosmetics are 100% NATRUE-certified natural, they are gentle and sympathetic to your body – good enough for even its most sensitive times. You can choose moisturisers, bodywashes and toothpastes secure in the knowledge that they don’t contain anything harmful to the developing baby.

Your healthcare professional may specifically advise you against certain ingredients, and our detailed INCI listing on each product will help you identify whether the substance is in any of the products you use. If you want to avoid stimulating essential oils, look for our sensitive skin and baby ranges – Sensitive Facial Skin Care and Sensitive Hand Cream and Calendula Baby Oil, they’re all made without essential oils.

We have products specifically made for you during pregnancy and breastfeeding – Stretch Mark Massage Oil, Stretch Mark Body Butter, Perineum Massage Oil, Nipple Balm and Lighter Legs Gel. They’re all completely safe for use at this delicate stage of your life, and of baby’s.

We suggest leaving Birch Juice and Birch Cellulite Oil – which are formulated to affect moisture retention – until after baby is born. Let your body manage its moisture balance, and for prevention of stretch marks use Stretch Mark Massage Oil or Stretch Mark Body Butter.

Weleda uses alcohol mainly for its extractive and preservation properties. It also helps the consistency and lifts the fragrance. The alcohol used in Weleda toiletries is fermentation grade ethyl alcohol, which is produced by fermenting organic plant sugars. Weleda do not use propyl alcohol which is derived from petroleum.

Alcohol does have some benefits for the skin. It is mildly disinfectant and cooling. The alcohol content in Weleda Body Therapy products does not destroy the skin’s natural oily cover, the acid mantle.

Our cosmetics are 100% NATRUE-certified natural.

The entire range is free from artificial additives of any kind - no parabens, no artificial fragrance (the 'parfum' is 100% natural, made from pure essential oils), no artificial preservatives or colourants, and no petrochemicals.

A few years ago, we swapped our Skin Food tubes from virgin aluminium to plastic, following the results of an independent LCIA (Life Cycle Impact Assessment) study, which showed that using pure primary aluminium had a 65% higher negative impact on our climate than the 'soft touch' PE/HDPE plastic tubes which were made with recycled plastic.

Researching alternatives to virgin aluminium was important because of the negative environmental impact of mining bauxite, from which aluminium is extracted, and the high energy consumption for aluminium production. At the time it felt rather counter-intuitive to swap to plastic, but we followed the science as an interim measure until such a time as we could access suitable recycled aluminium.

Our ‘soft touch’ tubes are unfortunately difficult to recycle at home as many regional council schemes do not accept them because they are considered ‘mixed plastic’. We therefore started a partnership with waste management experts ENVA to help us overcome this hurdle, enabling our customers to return those not easily recyclable elements of Weleda packaging to us, so that we could recycle and process them with ENVA. However, this was not an ideal nor long-term solution.

Each time aluminium is recycled it becomes more brittle, and so lightweight aluminium in the very thin sheets required for our cosmetics is trickier to manufacture from recycled aluminium than, for example, chunky car parts. There is also high demand for top quality recycled aluminium from businesses such as our own who are trying to reduce their impact on the planet, making it harder to source in sufficient quantity and quality. However, we had every hope of sourcing recycled aluminium and adopting better technologies to enable us to return to aluminium tubes in future.

We are now delighted to reintroduce Weleda Skin Food, Skin Food Light and Skin Food Cleansing Balm in recycled aluminium tubes, which are made from fully recycled rAlu (at least 95% post-consumer material and 5% post-industrial material) and which are fully and easily recyclable. This will be indicated on the cartons, to help consumers understand the recyclability of the new tubes – caps can simply be removed and recycled with plastics, and tube, cap, and carton can now all go out for kerbside collection at home.

We are not able to supply to countries outside of the UK. Would you please therefore visit the Weleda group website at www.weleda.com for details of your nearest distributor.

As Rosacea is a medical condition, we cannot claim that any of our skin care products are helpful for it. However, the Sensitive Facial Care Range is marketed for all manner of skin conditions. This range is formulated with gentle calming ingredients, without stimulating essential oils and is well tolerated by the vast majority of skins.

We get asked all the time about animal testing and whether our natural and organic cosmetics are cruelty free. The answer is yes, they most certainly are!

Weleda has never tested any of its individual ingredients nor finished beauty products on animals. We don’t carry any bunny symbols on our packs because we are a global brand with international packaging, and we have the NATRUE seal on every single one of our cosmetics. NATRUE is against animal testing; their criteria stipulates:

“Products must comply first and foremost with the basic requirements of Cosmetics Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, particularly with regard to their composition, safety, efficacy and labelling requirements. Furthermore, animal testing is fundamentally against NATRUE’s underlying values and ethics. It is for this reason that the NATRUE criteria extends the animal testing ban on finished cosmetic products as regulated by Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 to countries outside the EU.”

Today thankfully it is against the law in Europe for any beauty cosmetics to be tested on animals, so it goes without saying that, as a European beauty brand, our range is cruelty-free. But maybe it doesn’t go without saying, as we hear some of you asking, what about mainland China where current regulation requires even imported European cosmetics to be tested on animals before they can be sold in China?

Well, we currently sell a small selection of our products via selected overseas e-commerce retailers in Hong Kong (off-shore retail being exempt from cosmetic animal testing requirements), so increasingly the Chinese are buying from online stores in Hong Kong and further afield in order to get hold of European green beauty brands.

The term ‘cosmetics’ in China is considered to be skincare, makeup, perfume, hair care, sun care, nail care, deodorants and whitening products. Strangely enough toothpastes and bars of soap are exempt, and they are considered household items rather than cosmetics, and as such they are not required to be tested on animals. So, Weleda toothpaste and soaps may be found in China. But rest assured they are still cruelty-free.