Frequently Asked Questions

ARE NANCY BOY PRODUCTS NATURAL?

More than 85% of Nancy Boy products are made with all-natural ingredients, including their preservatives:

• Lip Balms in all flavors
  
• Signature Pre-Shave Oil
• Unscented Pre-Shave Oil For Sensitive Skin
• Active Deodorant
• Tea Tree Deodorant
• Fresh Deodorant
• Stealth Deodorant
• Butch Parfum
• Fem Parfum
• Signature Body Spray
• Butch Body Spray
• Fem Body Spray
• Salt Scrubs in all scents
• Bath Salts in all scents
• Bubble Baths in all scents
• Balancing Facial Toner with Organic Neroli
• Clarifying Facial Toner
• Organic Black Teas, all varieties
• Organic Loose Teas, all varieties
• Hand Soaps in all scents
• Scented Body Oils in all scents
• Essential Oils in all scents
• Room Sprays in all scents
• Soy Wax candles in all scents
• Scented Lavender Buds
• Hearth Botanicals
• Beeswax candles in all varieties
• Eco-Dish Soaps in all scents
• Eco-Laundry Soaps in all scents
• Scented Linen Sprays in all scents

No Nancy Boy product contains artificial fragrance or color; 15% of our product line includes manufactured ingredients that aren't considered "natural" even if they are derived from natural ingredients, like the ammonium laureth sulfate in our shampoo, which comes from coconuts. Some ingredients, like the polymers in our styling gel, simply aren't found in nature. We're always balancing performance and our desire to use the most natural available ingredients. We will never use an ingredient with any kind of proven hazard or danger because we use our products every day. So do our fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, nephews, nieces and best friends. Not to mention you, our customers, who we have a vested interest in keeping healthy, wealthy and wise.

Every day there's a new internet scare story about a previously-considered safe ingredient, fanned mostly by new brands hoping to capitalize on a "We don't have 'x'" marketing story. These scares are never backed up with proof but spread quickly via the internet. Here's Dr. Andrew Weil on two cosmetic ingredient poster children, parabens and sodium lauryl sulfate. We've been phasing parabens (a type of preservative) out of our products for the past few years, mainly because bucking the tide of this kind of hysteria is just bad for business.

WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT THE WATER YOU USE?

One ingredient we pay a lot of attention to might surprise you.

Boring, unsexy, who-gives-a-hoot-about water.

Public water supplies in 42 US states are contaminated with 141 unregulated chemicals for which the US EPA has never established safety standards.

If a manufacturer isn't using distilled, purified or de-ionized water to make their products, then all the unseen, unregulated junk in the water--pharmaceuticals, pesticides, you name it-- make their way directly into the lotions and potions. Yes it costs more to use distilled water--we pay 75 cents a gallon and use a ton of it. Just by spending a little bit more it's possible to make sure this primary ingredient is as free of contamination as possible.

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ARTIFICIAL & PLANT-BASED FRAGRANCE?

Artificial fragrance is like artificial flavor - chemicals arranged to mimic something natural. But chemicals don't smell like real lavender, just like a cherry Life Saver doesn't taste like a cherry. Real fragrance comes from real plants, through the steam extraction of flowers, fruit rind or rare woods into their essential oils.

It matters. The FDA allows manufacturers to use the tame, catch-all term "Fragrance" on an ingredient listing if the product contains artificial scent, and you'd be amazed at what they throw into the vat to get fake fragrance: compounds called pthalates we don't see listed on the label because the FDA is under extreme pressure from the few industry titans that control 90% of the personal care business:

Estee Lauder owns 30 brands, including Aveda, Bumble & Bumble, Jo Malone, Origins, M-A-C, La Mer, Bobbi Brown, Prescriptives, etc.

L'Oreal owns Kiehl's, The Body Shop, Maybelline, Biotherm, Helena Rubenstein, Garnier, Lancome, etc.

Proctor & Gamble owns Olay, Max Factor, Cover Girl, Herbal Essence, Pantene, Gillette, Noxzema, etc.

Unilever owns Axe, Dove, Vaseline, Lifebuoy, Pond's, etc.

99% of these brands make a big fat deal out of NOT using certain ingredients like parabens but then turn around and use artificial fragrance, which is like that scene in "Postcards From The Edge" when Shirley Maclaine is mixing up the smoothie with every healthy ingredient known to humanity then at the last minute dumps in 4 shots of vodka. Artificial fragrance is toxic and nasty, but because it's cheap and unregulated, will be the last ingredient to disappear from personal care products.

ARE NANCY BOY PRODUCTS FOR MEN?

Our products work are excellent for people with hair or skin. Women now account for approximately 55% of our sales, which might be surprising except for the fact that, overall, women consume more of these products than men, and also purchase them for the men in their lives.

Again, to sell more products, the beauty biz marketing folks keep trying to convince men and women they need different stuff. However, men's products are simply repackaged forms of big-volume women's products, differentiated with extra-manly I'm-definitely-heterosexual artificial fragrances. Except for some reason they all smell really fruity. And women haven't [yet] been subjected to Axe.

It is true that some of our products do better with men and some with women. Biggest sellers among guys include everything in the shaving line, bar soap, deodorants, invigorating body wash, toners, shampoo, conditioner, styling cream, mild facial cleanser and replenishing facial moisturizer. Biggest sellers among women include the ultramarine night cream, bath salts, salt scrub, shampoo, conditioner, mild facial cleanser, laundry soap, replenishing facial moisturizer and toners.

WHERE ARE NANCY BOY PRODUCTS SOLD?

You can find Nancy Boy products in only two places in the world! The first, where 95% of our business is done, is this website. If you're our neighbor here in the San Francisco Bay Area or are visiting, please stop by our retail store located in San Francisco.

DOES NANCY BOY TEST ITS PRODUCTS ON ANIMALS?

No. Our tagline,"Tested on Boyfriends - Not Animals" is printed on our packaging.

HOW LONG WILL MY ORDER TAKE TO GET TO ME?

Please refer to our Shipping Info page for detailed domestic and international transit times.

DO YOU SHIP TO PO BOXES AND INTERNATIONALLY?

We're happy to ship to PO Box and APO addresses, Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands at US Domestic rates using the United States Postal Service. International orders are shipped via the United States Postal Service in the customer's choice of three classes of service, including International Express, Priority or First Class.