Sjö & Hav

Sjö & Hav is a Swedish outdoor-care company that makes biodegradable soaps, shampoos and cleaning products for life spent near the water. Founded in 2004 [7], it grew out of the Stockholm archipelago and built its identity around personal-care and cleaning items that can be used in nature — in salt water or fresh water — with as little environmental impact as possible.

The company is still active and primarily Swedish. Its range spans body wash and hair care as well as a widely marketed plant-based mosquito and tick repellent, and it sells through its own webshop and a network of resellers.

⚑ Thinner sourcing. The article relies largely on the brand's own statements (T2–T3). Glowpedia is seeking independent sources.

Sjö & Hav was started in 2004 by three friends: Kim Persson, Åsa Plahn and Magnus Plahn [7]. According to the company, they were drawn to the simple island life of the Stockholm archipelago but could not find pleasant, environmentally gentle products to use out in nature and by the sea, so they set out to make their own. The brand's own account traces the idea to an upbringing on an archipelago island without electricity or running water.

Their first product, launched that summer, was Utomhustvål, an outdoor salt-water soap. The company says it became an immediate success among boaters and island residents along the Swedish coast, and it remains in the range today.

The founding date is recorded consistently across the company's own material. A company press release states plainly that the brand was founded in 2004 [7], while its website frames the same milestone as an approaching twentieth anniversary, which it marked in 2024 [6] — pointing to a 2004 start rather than a contradiction.

The range centres on body and hair care built for the outdoors: bar soaps such as the Svensk Sjökloss ("Swedish sea soap") sold on a rope, an outdoor shampoo and a cream conditioner, alongside a combined hair-and-body cleanser and biodegradable dish and laundry soap. The products are formulated to work in both warm and cold water, and in salt as well as fresh water.

Its most visible product is a DEET-free insect repellent. The active ingredient is Citriodiol, a "Rich Botanic Oil" derived from the lemon-eucalyptus tree Corymbia citriodora [7], which the company presents as a plant-based alternative to synthetic repellents. Sjö & Hav says the spray protects for up to six hours against mosquitoes, ticks, moose flies, horseflies and midges. In June 2015 the repellent was named a test winner with a full five out of five points [7], and the company promotes it as "bäst i test" (best in test). Swedish press coverage described it as effective even against tropical, disease-carrying mosquitoes [9]. In 2016 the company announced that a combined mosquito-and-tick spray would be sold through the pharmacy chain Apoteket at around 300 locations nationwide [7].

The company also produces a licensed "Saltkråkan" line tied to Astrid Lindgren's Seacrow Island stories, sold alongside its standard outdoor products [6].

The stated aim is to make effective outdoor products that respect nature, so people can spend time by the coast, forest or mountain "without leaving traces." The company sums up this positioning in the tagline "Tillsammans med naturen" (Together with nature). Its intended audience is boating and coastal-living outdoor users who want hygiene products that can be used directly in lakes and the sea.

Biodegradability is central to how Sjö & Hav describes its products, which it says are readily biodegradable and made from simple, high-quality raw materials. The company states that its cleaning products are vegan and not tested on animals [4], and a Swedish outdoor retailer notes that they are produced in Sweden [8].

In 2024 the company joined the United Nations' Race to Zero campaign, setting a target to halve its emissions by 2030 and to reach net-zero emissions as soon as possible, and by 2050 at the latest [3]. It also says it is adopting Science-Based Targets for Nature and working toward more circular, responsibly sourced materials.

In 2024, a Region Gotland "morgondopp" (morning-dip) initiative that the company took part in received the "Årets aktivering" (Activation of the Year) recognition during the Almedalen political week [6].

Sjö & Hav remains an active business focused on Sweden and the wider Scandinavian outdoor market. It continues to sell through its own webshop and resellers and to run public events; its most recent visible activity includes a Baltic Sea seminar held at Stockholmsmässan in March 2025 [6]. The company also maintains an English-language version of its site.