My list of Fakers and Not Fakers - Page 2

Please add Oracle Organics (www.oracleorganics.com) to your list of organics.  They are the real thing as I'm sure your research will support and not to mention great products.  It's such a pity that the body care industry is not regulated but you can look for symbols like the leaping bunny (no testing on animals) or those of other agencies that certify organic products.  Otherwise, it's Buyer Beware!

This list is amazing!  Love the way you put them into the various categories... definatly good for a wiki article - will certainly use this research you have worked so hard on for shopping choices.

giovanni? obviously, u didnt do ur research that thoroughly because i use giovanni and they dont have pvp or vinyl that isnt even listed in their ingredients. giovanni works for my hair and i dont have probs with it.

not all of tom's products have sls, the one i have doesnt have sls. interesting list but john masters isnt all that organic either, i have looked them up on cosmeticdatabase.com.

Dimethicone is not bad, it is rated as a 2 for low hazard on cosmeticdatabase.com. giovanni has the QAI seal, they do have some ingredients that shouldnt be there. the shampoo and conditioner i use is rated as a 2. thats the site i use a lot but i dont know any other ingredient site to see if the ingredient is good or bad..

Thanks SO much for this list.  I always try to read the labels, but sometimes, in my excitement to try a new beauty product, I forget.  I bought a Juice Organics travel kit at the airport after reading up on it in a magazine, and when I got back home and read the lable, it has all kinds of crap in it.  WTF?!?!  So, I learned my lesson.  I'm going to keep this list bookmarked. 

Thanks for this great list!  I am just beginning my journey of converting to chemical free personal care products - and it's a daunting task.  I live in Canada and many of the brands you list as "thumbs up" are just not available here.  As an example, if I want to order a $20 bottle of baby shampoo from "Nuture My Body" (I checked them out because of the interview with the founder on this site), I will have to pay $27 in shipping.  Do you know anything about Druide products?  They are readily available in my area.  They say 100% natural, but I found a few articles saying they use synthetics in their products.  I can get Burt's Bees - but the EWG (skin deep), has most of their products rated a 3 or 4 (ie: Burt's Bees Baby Bee Skin Cream is a 4!!!)  I know I have to do my due diligence before I buy a product, and obviously there are many BBs products that are 1's and 2's - but I am finding it VERY hard to navigate these products.  Any advice you can offer would be great, and much appreciated!

Hm, that's definitely frustrating that shipping costs so much. 

As for Druide...I hadn't actually heard of their company before! On their company charter, they have this list of "unacceptable" ingredients: Sodium laureth sulfate sodium lauryl sulfate, cocamide DEA, MEA, mineral oil, petrolatum, formaldehyde, parabens, imidazolidinyl, diazolidinyl urea, propylene glycol, triethanolamine, stearalkonium chloride, PVP copolymer.

I was a little concerned when I saw "coconut and palm oil extracts" on a list of ingredients for a foaming bath gel of theirs...those can be code names for synthetics. 

I've been looking around for more info on organic personal care and baby care companies in Canada.  They don't appear to have full lists of their ingredients, but have you heard of Aleva Naturals?  They're members of the Organic Trade Association and their products are paraben-, phthalate-, petroleum-, and SLS-free (among other things).

Hello TrishK.  Stins emailed me your post.  I live in Winnipeg, MB and own an on line store at called PURE Essentials for Life.  I sell a very up and coming brand of all natural products called Tiber River Naturals.  I have had great success with their products and use them myself frequently.  You can check out what products I have on my on line shop www.pureshop.ca and if you want listed ingredients I can happily provide them!  Their products are cutting edge, very effective and they are EXTREMELY progressive with their product development and Eco footprint.  I usually discounts on allot of their items.  As for the shampoo for babies they have a brand called "Bottom's up" which works wonders for everything from crib cap to eczema in small children.  My son is 6 years old and it is still the only product I will use on his skin and hair.  I sell A LOT of it as it is really superior to many other products that are available to us in Canada.

Here are the ingredients in that product for your interest (the hair & body wash).

Calendula Officinalis Infusion (Calendula), Disodium Coco-Glucoside sulfosuccinate, Glycerin (coconut derived) Butyrospermum Parkii Butter (Shea), Vitis Vinifera Seed Oil (Grape Seed Oil), Essential Oil, Potassium Sorbate, Rosmarinus Officinalis Leaf Extract (Rosemary)

All of these ingredients score below a 2 in the safety database (the owner checks before formulating ANY of her products) with most of them scoring a 0.  Some of her ingredients are organic but, she does not have suppliers for all organic ingredients currently but they are as natural as you can get!

If you want more info just message me or email me at pureshop@mts.net and I would be happy to help your quest no matter how I can. 

As for the Druide products, I have seen them emerging more and more and I think they are a well intentioned honest company.  They generally use recognizable ingredients and I have considered carrying their line however currently I have had much success with the Tiber River Naturals line of products (plus it is a local company I am supporting). 

Happy hunting!

Thanks stins and PUREshop for the great responses!  I really appreciate the suggestions - I will absolutely check out pureshop.ca and the Aleva Naturals over the next couple of weeks.  Will also give Druide a call to ask about the possible hidden synthetics - I don't think the ingredients list on their website is complete for each product, so I need to ask about that too.

I've also read a bit that you can't trust companies who are using the EcoCERT stamp of approval because the regulations imposed by this standard are very loose and still allow synthetic materials to be used in formulas - is this true?

Thanks again for all the great information.

Yeah, I noticed that too on the Druide website...they have lists of "key" ingredients.  Some retailers do have full lists of their ingredients, but the few I found didn't cover all Druide products.  Definitely let us know what you find out!

According to this Organic Consumers Association petition, there were quite a few violations found in Chinese imports that had been certified by EcoCERT...basically, it turned out they weren't organically produced.  That certainly doesn't instill a whole lot of confidence in their certification program...

I also just found a press release from Dr. Bronner's as part of their "fake organics" law suit.  The press release says..

Ecocert is a French-based certifier with a standard that allows not only cleansing ingredients made from conventional versus organic agriculture, but also allows inclusion, in the cleansing ingredients contained in products labeled as ":Made with Organic" ingredients, of certain petrochemicals such as Amidopropyl Betaine in Cocamdiopropyl Betaine. Even worse, despite Ecocert's own regulations prohibiting the labeling as "Organic" of a product containing less than 100% organic content, Ecocert in practice engages in "creative misinterpretation" of its own rules in order to accommodate clients engaging in organic mislabeling.  For instance, Ecocert certifies the Ikove brand's cleansing products to contain less than 50% organic content, noted in small text on the back of the product, where all cleansing ingredients are non-organic including Cocamidopropyl Betaine which contains petroleum compounds.  Yet the product is labeled "Organic, Amazonian Avocado Bath & Shower Gel."  Another instance is Stella McCartney's "100% Organic" CARE line certified by Ecocert that labels products as "100% Organic" that are not 100% Organic alongside ones that are; the labels of products that are not 100% organic simply insert the word "Active" before "Ingredients."  In allowing such labeling, Ecocert simply ignores the requirements of its own certification standards.  Furthermore, the primary organic content in most Ecocert certified products comes from "Flower Waters" where up to 80% of the "organic" content is just regular tap water that Ecocert counts as "organic." 

Hi all!

Just joined, and personal care is one of my obsessions thus the reason I create my own line, Blissoma.  We aren't a certified organic handler yet but we are hoping to accomplish that this year. 

I have been working on some reformulations on a few of our products as well as some new products to introduce and in the process I do a lot of watching other lines.  I have to say the list provided by Organicgal is pretty right on, however misses 2 of my favorite lines. 

Suki natural skincare and Lavera which is a European BDIH line.  I adore both these lines and am always amazed at the consistency of the products as well as the efficacy and purity.  I have Lavera's mineral sunscreen for face and honestly my face has never felt better - stays comfy all day.  I got to try some samples from the rest of their lines and they are all divine as well.  I used to use Collective Wellbeing but then they changed their formula for the facial sunscreen and I had to ditch them.  Too much junk in it. 

I'm always happy to refer people to these lines.  Perhaps the Organicgal will have an opinion about them other than what I think , but so far I've found them to be nothing less than totally respectable.

Also I noticed Dr Hauschka is missing from your list, which is a line that pops up just about everywhere so you might want to offer an opinion on them as well since some readers might be using them.  It is on the pricey side and I can't afford them but many of their products use well so far as I can tell.  I think they have taken parabens out of just about everything which was really the only offender in their line in the past.

Earth Science should also be on the fake naturals list.  Lots of junk in their line and they are available at many Whole Foods locations.

Almost every product in my own line Blissoma should be alright with ya except for our Mists which do contain a synthetic emulsifier but we'll be eliminating that this coming year with a reformulation.  Every other product is entirely natural and I'm looking forward to being able to say ALL.

And to further the discussion - how can we as consumers begin to petition Whole Foods especially to carry more of the brands we really want????  How can we help the small, truly genuine producers rise and quit supporting Hain Celestial products and other "fakers"??  Stores will only carry what consumers are buying.  And  Whole Foods likes to  look really on top of things and progressive since they introduced their own "premium standard".  This is a step in the right direction, but really they care more about carrying products that SELL.  What I can tell you for sure having worked with them from the vendor side is all they care about is sales $.  And they are a lot more likely to carry a "gourmet" product than a natural product as their marketing slant has shifted more towards the middle of the road.  As consumers we do have the power to put more pressure on them to bring in what WE want and what is really safe for consumers, not what they want to carry.  

I have also been rather shocked at times to find the lack of knowledge that is out there even amongst buyers for co-ops and other stores.  I have more than once had to explain to a buyer that there is no such thing as an essential oil of apple or raspberry and those are definitely synthetic scents.  When the buyers themselves don't even understand the difference between a natural and synthetic scent that is a real problem!  Heaven only knows what else they don't know, and the kind of misinformation they may be spreading to customers. 

There are a lot of other "fakers" out there too in other areas besides just the manufacturers.  I see way too many media sources completely at the beck and call of dirty sponsors.  Every time I pick up a magazine I am horrified to see the "natural" products that are making the reccommendations of the journalists.  Probably because of pretty bottles and the hope that they will advertise in their publication.  Even online there is at least 1 media offendor that I can't believe has the audacity to include the word Organic in their title.  People really take these reviewers at their word and they are not helping anything!  "Experts" my foot!

Anyway, that is my rant for now.

Thanks for your efforts to educate the online community!  The more discussion the better!

*julie

Hey...you must be on Cafe Mom too!  I have seen this posted there, in one of my groups.  Great info.  What is your take on MOP products?  MOP stands for Modern Organic Products.  I did not see it on the lists so if you know anything about them or their products, please share!!!

I would probably call MOP pretty darn greenwashed.  It should really be more like "Modern Products with a few organic ingredients."  I pulled up their list of shampoos.  Every single one has sodium laureth sulfate as the second ingredient.  They all also have the mysterious "fragrance" in them which (as iriejulie mentioned here) could be disguising any number of chemicals.  And it looks like about 75% of their products have parabens in them.

And what about California Baby?

california baby has good ingredients, except i dislike that they don't disclose what they use to preserve, they talk about it and how great it is, but don't tell what it is- which makes me wary. I also wish instead of saying that they use organic and sustainable ingredients they would list precents at all and differientiate between the two, but at least total percents if nothing else. this doesn't by any means make them a bad company though, they are definitly much perferable to most out there especially when compared to conventional products, but there are companies I feel are more open and perfer to use when talking about using natural products.

Hm...I haven't tried it myself (although it's on my list for next time I need shampoo, which will actually be soon) but I've heard good things about John Masters Organics.  I haven't had a chance to analyze all of their ingredients yet, but their shampoos are SLS free and paraben free.

This comes from their website:

All ingredients must meet John's strict guidelines :
1. No sodium lauryl sulfate, parabens, DEAs, MEAs, or TEAs
2. No GMOs (Genetically Modified Organism)
3. No petro-chemicals
4. No animal testing
5. No artificial colors, fragrances or fillers
6. Ingredients must be as organic as possible
7. All plant extracts and essential oils must be certified organic whenever possible
8. All essential oils used must be steam-distilled and not extracted with propylene glycol - which kills the effect of the oils
9. All plant oils must be cold pressed, not heat distilled - which kills the therapeutic properties of plant oils
10. All ingredients must be proven to be beneficial to the hair or skin
11. All ingredients must be harvested in an environmentally-friendly manner (wild-crafted)
12. All ingredients must be bio-degradable as possible
13. Fair-Trade ingredients must be used when possible

I might give the Evening Primrose Shampoo For Dry Hair or the Zinc & Sage Shampoo with Conditioner a try.  Looking at the MOP prices on Bath & Body works ($16 and $14), it looks like John Masters are a tad bit more expensive ($16 or $20 for shampoo).  I'll keep you posted after I try one of those out!

Thanks OrganicGal!  Yeah, I read on Dr. Bronners page that if you use it as a shampoo your hair will be stringy and I figured it would not work well for my hair.

I'll look into the Miessence, hopefully I can find it locally.  (I hate paying shipping fees).  Is that pronounced Me Essence (like mi casa) or My Essence?