We are quite proud that we have become somewhat known for our alcohol-free hand sanitiser and all the benefits that come with it.
However, we do acknowledge that there are some situations where our customers have no choice but to use alcohol-based sanitisers and we keep hearing things like "we love your alcohol-free sanitiser but our customers have been told to use 60% or higher alcohol, that's what they expect when they walk into our premises so that's what we have to give them" (an actual quote from a high street bank!)
It became clear that our customers needed the choice and it was time to introduce our own alcohol-based hand sanitiser.
To the Lab!
We've been researching the best alcohol-based hand sanitiser, where the ingredients and supply chain remain in-line with our strong ethics and yet meet the World Health Organization recommendations for hand sanitiser.
We sampled hundreds of alcohol-based gels from all price points and worked out what it was we liked and didn't like about them; some were too runny, others were too thick, some sticky, some slick, some of them smelled like cheap tequila (and our tequila preference runs on the expensive side here!), some had an overwhelming chemical smell and one even smelled like feet after it had dried on our hands!!
In the end we decided we needed to release a 70% alcohol hand sanitiser that had the perfect consistency, wasn't sticky or too slimy, had as neutral a smell as possible for an alcohol product, had a moisturising agent to minimise the drying out of skin and most importantly... had the test results to back it up!
Getting the credentials!
This industry is crazy at the moment, we had a period where breweries and distilleries found their own sales channels dry up overnight (pun intended) and while hand sanitiser was in short supply they pivoted to churning out simple alcohol hand sanitiser using their existing alcohol supplies and equipment.
But these hastily formulated products, most of which just used the standard WHO formula, lacked the independent testing that we've had for a long time on our alcohol-free products. It was important to us that we achieve the same test results on our alcohol product, a minimum of:
- BSEN1500 - Hygienic Handrub, this is required by the NHS for hand sanitiser.
- BSEN14476 - Enveloped Viruses, this is the one that shows it kills Coronavirus (as well as Ebola and others).
- BSEN1276 - Bactericidal activity, this test proves a bacteria kill rate of 99.999% and effectiveness against MRSA, Salmonella, E.Coli, Flu, and others.
With those test results achieved, we are proud to say that we believe that our alcohol-based hand sanitiser is "The nicest 70% Alcohol Hand Sanitiser we have ever used" and we hope you'll agree if you choose to buy some!
We continue to stand by our alcohol-free hand sanitiser products and the benefits they offer, but if you need an alcohol-based product, we think we have the absolute best one!