Why We Will Never Be "Good Enough."

Recently, someone asked me, "Why aren't you USDA certified or in Walmart?"

Here's why.

A USDA study showed us that nearly 40% of all USDA Certified Organic products tested positive for preservatives and pesticides.

Years ago, when I first nailed the Johnny Slicks formula, I attempted to become certified organic through the USDA. I reached out to the National Organic Program (NOP). The gentleman i spoke to told me that in order to review and test the products, they would need roughly $600 per product. (Which recently increased to $700.) This was already a major turn off for me because why do I have to pay the government to "certify" me to help people.

I later go and research it for myself and find out that you can put 5% of any approved NON-ORGANIC ingredients you want into your products and not include them on your ingredients list! This means that a "certified organic" product can have 5% of synthetic chemicals or preservatives in it.

So, why would we want to be associated with this whole thing? Why would anyone want to? Because they have created a trust with the consumers and because they are the American Government. People see the "USDA Certified Organic" badge and imminently have trust in it. That's all it does.

Here's why this is a big deal.

Take Walmart for example, who wouldn't want that giant to carry their products in every location? Sounds like good money to me. But, a requirement to be on their shelfs are preservatives. Why would Walmart want grooming products that don't guarantee a long shelf life? They want the longest possible shelf life in order to guarantee sales. This is completely backwards. To us at least. But the best part is this, YOU CAN STILL BE CERTIFIED ORGANIC! How?!

This is the main reason we will never be in major giants such as Walmart or Target.

The USDA go after small businesses that are trying to better the overall health of the world.

There are hundreds of farms in America that are being charged $30,000 a year to carry their badge. And guess what! They are the ones that are found to have the most pesticides!

For Johnny Slicks, we currently have 24 different items. At $700 per item, that's a total of $16,800 a year for a badge that holds no value. I say it holds no value because hundreds of thousands of products hold the badge and were found to not be organic. So, to categorize our products with those, would be a massive back step.

We purchase authentic organic ingredients (that are not cheap) and hand-make them. We double-boil and steam cook our ingredients to ensure only the purest forms of the ingredients are used. We use amber glass containers to prevent UV damaging and increasing shelf life naturally. Everything we do has a purpose and the main purpose is to benefit you.

This is the list of synthetic ingredients you are allowed to have in your organic products;

• Alcohols, Ethanol, Isopropanol
• Calcium hypochlorite, Chlorine dioxide, Hypochlorous acid—generated from electrolyzed water, Sodium hypochlorite, Hydrogen peroxide.
• Soap-based algicide/demossers, Sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate 
• Xanthan gum, Tocopherols, Sulfur dioxide, Sodium phosphates, Sodium hydroxide.

You can view their whole list here.

If this is a surprise to you, don't worry! Most Americans don't know this information. WHICH IS WRONG!

These are the main reasons why we are not "certified organic" through the USDA. They seems to create the "high standards" to portray trust to the consumers while most of the organic market isn't organic.

We will never sell out. We will continue to hand-make our products with only organic ingredients. We will continue to educate the Slicksters and encourage success.