Organic Sunflower Oil: Meet Your Ingredient

Ingredients are the cornerstone of our products and our business. We strive to use safer ingredients and formulas for people and the environment. We consider the entire ingredient lifecycle, from sourcing and manufacturing to use and disposal. Third-party certifications from MADE SAFE® and Leaping Bunny hold us accountable and help us identify ingredients that align with our standards. We list every ingredient on the label of each product and on our website. 

Our Meet Your Ingredient series is our effort to provide additional information about our products so you can make informed decisions. This entry is all about organic sunflower oil, which we use to make our dish soap, hand soap, and body soap.

What is organic sunflower oil?

Organic sunflower oil is a plant-based oil that has a wide range of uses, including cooking, cleaning, and making cosmetics and cleaning products.

What is helianthus annuus seed oil?

Helianthus annuus seed oil is the technical name of sunflower oil according to the International Nomenclature Cosmetic Ingredient (INCI) naming system. INCI names are considered best practice for listing ingredients in personal care and home cleaning products. On our labels, you will see organic sunflower oil listed as “organic helianthus annuus (sunflower) oil” to represent both the INCI name and the common name so that it can be easily recognized.

How is organic sunflower oil made?

Sunflower oil comes from the seeds of the sunflower plant. It can be extracted through solvent extraction, expeller pressing, or cold pressing processes. It may also be refined or unrefined.

We use organic, cold-pressed coconut oil sourced from Century Sun Oil in Wisconsin.

Cold pressing is a specialized type of expeller pressing that uses a machine to physically extract oil without using chemicals. Mechanical extraction involves friction that generates heat, but cold pressing minimizes the heat by slowly extracting oil at a lower pressure. This process preserves the natural flavor and nutrients of the seeds. As a result, cold-pressed sunflower oil is typically filtered instead of refined. 

While refined and unrefined oils may differ in terms of flavor and odor, both are suitable for making soap.

Traditional expeller pressing uses higher pressures and speeds to more quickly extract oil, but generates more heat. After pressing, the oil may be refined through an RBD (refining, bleaching, and deodorizing) process intended to remove impurities and unwanted flavors and odors.

Both cold pressing and expeller pressing leave behind solid residue from the crushed seeds that can be reused as meal for animal farms.

Solvent extraction involves treating the seeds with chemicals, such as hexane, to release the oils. The extracted oil is then heated to remove the chemical solvent before undergoing a similar refining process to the conventional expeller pressing method.

What is organic sunflower oil used for?

Organic sunflower oil is a highly effective fat for making soap. It’s chemically similar to olive oil, but can be sourced locally to us from sunflowers grown in the Midwest. We use a blend of organic sunflower oil and organic coconut oil to make our Dish Soap, Foaming Hand Soap, and Bath & Body Soap Bars.

On the labels for products that include organic sunflower oil, you will see organic helianthus annuus (sunflower) oil listed alongside sodium sunflowerate and/or potassium sunflowerate, organic cocos nucifera (coconut) oil, sodium cocoate, potassium cocoate, water, and glycerin as components of “vegetable soap.”

What are sodium sunflowerate and potassium sunflowerate?

Sodium sunflowerate and potassium sunflowerate are the chemical names for sunflower oil that is saponified, or ‘made into soap.’  During the soapmaking process, sunflower oil reacts with lye to form fatty acid salts known as soap, as well as glycerin byproduct. We ensure that no lye remains in our products by leaving a very small amount of excess oil, which is why you see organic sunflower oil listed as a separate ingredient on our product labels.

The lye used may be either sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. Sodium hydroxide lye produces sodium sunflowerate, a harder soap used in our Dish Soap and Bath & Body Soap Bars. Potassium hydroxide produces potassium sunflowerate, which is softer and dissolves more easily in water, which is why we use it in our Foaming Hand Soap refill tablets.

Is organic sunflower oil safe in soap?

Sunflower oil-based lye soaps, such as sodium sunflowerate and potassium sunflowerate, are safer alternatives to synthetic, petroleum-based detergents. Many synthetic detergents contain harmful surfactants such as sodium laureth sulfate (SLES) that may cause skin and respiratory irritation, reproductive issues, and cancer. They also frequently include ethoxylated ingredients, such as polyethylene glycol (PEG), that produce the carcinogen 1,4-dioxane as a manufacturing byproduct.

Conventional cleaning and personal care products also tend to contain potential harmful ingredients such as antibacterials and synthetic fragrances. Moreover, they may not fully disclose their ingredients. For instance, the word “fragrance” on an ingredient label can represent any number of potentially harmful chemicals.

Unlike many petroleum-derived ingredients, sodium sunflowerate and potassium sunflowerate are graded 1 out of 10—the top score—in the EWG Skin Deep guide to personal care products. Both ingredients are approved by MADE SAFE®, a human health and ecosystem-focused certification for household products.

Is organic sunflower oil sustainable?

The environmental impact of soap made from sunflower oil is closely tied to the production and sourcing of sunflower oil. Sunflower oil production has a lower carbon footprint and uses less water than other common plant oils, including soybean and palm oil. Potential environmental concerns for sunflower oil include monoculture crops, industrial farming practices, and the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers.

Many of these concerns are reduced with organically grown sunflower seeds. The term “organic” refers to a set of agricultural standards that promote sustainability and minimize synthetic practices. The USDA organic standards restrict the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and prioritize natural pest control. Organic farmers use crop rotation with sunflowers and other crops to reduce pest problems and promote soil health.

We use only organic sunflower oil to make our products. So why don’t we include an organic seal on our products? Only agricultural products, including plant-derived oils, can be considered organic. This means that cleaning products that use both organic ingredients and non-agricultural ingredients (such as baking soda and washing soda) may be labeled as “made with organic ingredients” or list specific organic ingredients, but cannot be labeled (or certified) as organic or 100 percent organic.

Some of our soap products are eligible based on their ingredients. However, organic certification is quite expensive, we prefer to keep our products affordable by listing the ingredients without adding the organic seal.

Finally, while producing and transporting sunflower oil requires the use of industrial machinery and fossil fuels, the same is true of the alternatives. Soap can be made from a variety of fats and oils from plant, animal, and petroleum sources. We prefer to accept that fossil fuels are used throughout the supply chain rather than to put petroleum-derived ingredients directly into our products.

We source organic sunflower oil from Century Sun Oil in Wisconsin. Working with a nearby supplier helps reduce negative impacts from transportation. We also send used barrels back to be reused, creating a closed-loop supply chain that minimizes waste.