Materials Matter

Not all cotton cloths are built the same.

Many reusable wipes use terry cloth. It's absorbent, durable and has been used successfully for years.

We chose muslin because we wanted something lighter, softer and quicker to dry.

If you're already a parent, chances are you've fallen in love with muslin already.

Muslin has an open weave that becomes softer with washing, lets go of mess more easily, dries quickly between uses and carries easily when you're leaving the house.

Terry is excellent at absorbing water. But most of the time, we're not drying dishes. We're wiping faces, hands, bottoms and everything in between.

Muslin feels less like a towel and more like a cloth. We figured that made more sense.

Turns out, not all cotton is created equal. What we learned made organic the only choice for BARE TÆR.

Conventional cotton relies heavily on synthetic pesticides, chemical fertilisers and intensive farming practices. We were not okay with this. If something is going to touch delicate skin every day, how it is grown and processed matters.

What GOTS certification means

• No toxic chemicals: no synthetic pesticides, no chemical fertilisers, no formaldehyde, no phthalates
• Safer for farmers: protects the health and livelihoods of farming communities
• Better for soil: organic farming practices build healthy soil that retains water and carbon
• Purer for babies: no chemical residue in the fabric that touches delicate skin
• Traceable: full supply chain transparency from field to final product

Our manufacturer is GOTS certified, and our cloths are made from GOTS certified organic cotton. That means you don't have to take our word for it.

Bamboo sounds perfect. Until you find out how it's turned into soft cloth.

When we started researching fabrics, bamboo ticked every box. Antibacterial, eco-friendly, fast-growing. Then we dug into how it's actually made.

Most products labelled "bamboo" are actually bamboo viscose (rayon) — a semi-synthetic fibre made by dissolving the bamboo plant in sodium hydroxide, carbon disulphide, and sulphuric acid. This chemical process transforms bamboo into something entirely different: a regenerated cellulose fibre, not a natural plant-based fabric.

Carbon disulphide is particularly concerning. Studies have shown it's highly toxic and linked to nervous system damage, reproductive harm, and heart disease.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission states that once bamboo becomes viscose, "there is no trace of the original bamboo plant left" — meaning none of bamboo's natural antimicrobial properties remain. The FTC has repeatedly ruled that fabrics made from bamboo cannot be marketed as "natural bamboo" or "antibacterial" because those claims aren't supported by the material's actual properties.

There is a true bamboo linen made through mechanical processing, but it's extremely rare, costly, and produces a coarse fabric — not gentle enough for a newborn's skin and not what the industry sells as "bamboo."

Once we learned the reality of bamboo processing, the answer was clear: we couldn't use it.

Cotton has been loved for thousands of years because it is soft, breathable and naturally absorbent. But the way most cotton is grown today looks very different from the cotton our grandparents knew. Modern farming of conventional cotton is widely described as one of the most chemically intensive crops on the planet — earning it the nickname "the dirtiest crop."

Although cotton covers only 2–3% of global farmland, it uses 4.7% of the world's pesticides and 10% of its insecticides.

Conventional cotton is grown using chemical fertilisers and genetically modified seeds. Processing then involves harsh chemical treatments including bleaching agents, synthetic dyes, and various finishing chemicals. Even after washing, residues from this processing can remain in the fabric. When you're wiping your baby's face, hands, and bottom multiple times a day, that matters.

Producing a single conventional cotton t-shirt takes about 2,700 litres of water from field to fabric. Organic cotton? Just 243 litres. That's over 2,400 litres saved per t-shirt.

For it to be BARE TÆR, that wasn't good enough. We wanted cotton that started clean and stayed clean. At least until it reached your baby.

Let's just call it what it is — microfibre is woven plastic fibres. Synthetic fabric made from polyester. With everything we now know about microplastics and the risks for all of us, especially babies, that's where the conversation ended for us.

"The most vulnerable period for microplastic exposure is the first few months of a child's life because immunological, metabolic, cardiovascular, and neurobehavioural developmental processes are taking place."

Microfibre textiles shed tiny plastic particles with washing and use. Studies show microfibre fabrics can release over 1,900 fibres per wash. When you're repeatedly wiping your baby's face, bottom, and hands with a plastic-based fabric, those particles can end up on their skin, in the air, in the water — and ultimately into their little bodies.

We don't know all the risks yet. But we know enough to know it's not good.

Current research links microplastic exposure in babies to respiratory conditions including asthma and allergic rhinitis, compromised immune barriers that increase susceptibility to allergies, and disrupted developmental processes with long-term health consequences.

That's why we chose 100% organic cotton for our cloths. No synthetic fibres. No plastic fabrics touching baby. Just natural cotton that's been safely used for generations.

We went looking for something better.

Turns out the industry has spent years making this more complicated than it needs to be.

We kept coming back to cotton and water.

Turns out our grannies were right.