We are passionate about animals: especially the dogs, cats, and horses who share our lives, our homes, and our beds (well, hopefully your horses aren’t sharing your bed!). Because our pets are family members too, we feel that they deserve nothing but the best. This is why we do what we do: simply, to create the best, most animal- and eco-friendly grooming formulas for our pets. (Not to mention, for you too: we won’t tell anyone if you steal your dog’s Mango Tango – and you probably will, once you get a whiff of the delicious fragrance!)
Over the years, we’ve gotten a lot of questions about what exactly makes earthbath a top-quality shampoo and what differentiates earthbath from the other brands on the market. When we started, we were asking these questions too, because we wanted to ensure we created the best product possible.
A high-quality pet shampoo and conditioner must always have a few vitally important components:
1) A pH value that is especially formulated for a dog’s delicate skin (between 6.5 to 7.5), since a dog’s skin pH is more neutral than a human’s. So what is the pH of dog's skin? About 7.5, where a human’s skin is about 5.5, on the standard pH scale from 0 to 14. The pH scale measures how acidic or basic a substance is. A pH of 7 is neutral (pure water has a pH of 7.0). A pH less than 7 is acidic, where each whole pH value below 7 is ten times more acidic than the next higher value. For example, pH 4 is ten times more acidic than pH 5 and 100 times (10 times 10) more acidic than pH 6. The same holds true for pH values above 7, each of which is ten times more alkaline than the next lower whole value.
A dog’s skin is very close to a neutral pH, and significantly more alkaline than human skin, so the kind of shampoo you use on your dog should be much more neutral in pH than the typical pH value of shampoo formulated for human hair (“pH balanced” shampoos for humans are around 4.5-5.5, making them much more acidic, and ultimately very irritating to a dog’s coat and skin). Over time, acidic shampoos also strip away the hair’s protective qualities, removing valuable oil from the coat and skin, resulting in dry, irritated skin and a dull coat. Never use human shampoo on your dog… even though it’s okay to use your dog’s shampoo (as long as it’s earthbath 🙂 ) on your hair – the alkalinic nature of earthbath shampoo will not hurt your hair, and in fact, is milder than the mildest baby shampoo! All earthbath shampoos are formulated with a pH as close to 7.0 as possible.
2) Mild cleansing ingredients; ideally soap-free. Soap can dry skin, remove necessary skin oils, and leave irritating and drying residue. All earthbath products are soap-free; the cleansing agents used in earthbath shampoos are hypo-allergenic, renewable coconut-based cleansers, which are excellent at cleansing, without drying out the skin or coat.
3) Easy to rinse out so nothing is left behind on the fur or skin. earthbath worked with veterinarians & groomers to develop ultra-mild shampoos that wash out super easily, with ingredients that are 100% natural, non-toxic, paraben-free, phthalate-free, animal-byproduct-free, and phosphate-free. Even if a tiny bit is left behind, there is nothing harmful in earthbath products to irritate your dog’s skin or fur, and you don’t need to worry about upset tummies following any licking or grooming! Since there is nothing artificial or harmful (to either plants or animals) in our products you never have to worry about the effect giving your dog a bath has on the environment either!
4) Moisturizing ingredients and conditioners to help the skin and coat maintain their healthy feel and shine. earthbath products contain natural ingredients like aloe vera and oatmeal, both recommended by veterinarians to effectively combat skin irritation, promote healing, and re-moisturize sensitive, dry skin. Almost all of our shampoos contain aloe vera for extra moisturizing, our Hypo-Allergenic, just for those extra-sensitive or allergic dogs. Though all of earthbath shampoos are effective and mild, if you have a dog plagued by the itchies, you’ll definitely want to check out our Oatmeal and Aloe shampoo.
