Is My Conditioner Really Organic?

My favorite shampoo and conditioner I use are so called "organic." After reading all the ingredients on the bottle, I'm a little skeptical about it now. I'm going to take a closer look at how "organic" they really are.

I use Organix Cherry Blossom Ginseng conditioner. Here is the list of all the ingredients on the bottle:

Water

Cetyl Alcohol

Behentrimonium

Cetearyl alcohol

Cetearyl glucoside

Glyceryl stearate

Glycerin

Cyclopentasiloxane

Dimethicone

Simmondsia chinensis (jojoba) Seed oil

Panthenol

Silk amino acid

Cherry blossom extract

Organic ginseng extract

Albumen

Hydrolyzed rice milk protein

Bamboo extract

Tocopheryl acetate (Vitamin E)

Tetrasodium edta

Methylchloroisothiazolinone

Methylisothiazilonone

Citronelol

Geraniol

Hexyl cinnamal

Limonene

Courmarin

Parfum

Those are a lot of big words I can't even pronounce. Because the print was so small, I almost didn't even want to read it. They had about 6 or 7 lines of ingredients, as you can tell. As I read it, I read it aloud to one of my roommates. I told her that these did not sound organic to me. She told me that there's probably one ingredient that is organic and that's exactly what I found, the organic ginseng extract. I'm starting to rethink this stuff now.

The website, Skin Deep: Cosmetic Sagety Reviews (http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/), didn't have the same fragrented conditioner I use, but they had a similar one that scored a 5. The fragrence and the organic compound, DMDM Hydantion, scored an 8 and a 7, respectively. I decided to do further research on Methylchloroisothiazolinone, which scored a 6 on the website. The site states that risks are based on the level of exposure and will vary.This chemical is linked to cancer in government and/or academic studies or assessments. It's also linked to developmental and reproductive toxicity. The site also states that the chemical is linked to immunotoxicity.


Methylchloroisothiazolinone is in everything. I looked at list of other products that have this in them, and it seems that it's in pretty much everything for cleansing your body. It's in hand soap, lubricant, moisturizers, facial cleansers, shampoo, conditioner, make up remover, gel, baby wipes, etc.

I don't know if I can get away from this! Doesn't look like my conditioner really is organic. I'm going to see if I can find some other shampoo and conditioner that are actually certified organic, like Burt's Bees.

Ecological Footprint

I could not believe my results for the Ecological Footprint quiz. If everyone lived like me, we would need 3.8 Earths. It takes 17 global acres of the Earth's productive area to live my lifestyle. The majority comes from services, 52%. Next comes Food, 21%, then Goods, 17%. Shelter is 6% and Mobility is 5%.

Three ways that I'm going to reduce this number is by:

1. Buy products with less packaging. A lot of the items I buy have too much packaging. Of what I buy, I end up throwing half or it away because it's packaging. I want to go to farmer's markets to buy more fresh produce from the local area.

2. Use less electricity. I don't always remember to turn off the lights or unplug my cell phone charger when I'm not using them. Remembering to do this, I hope it can cut down some of my electricity use.

3. Use less water. I'm take shorter showers to save water. I'm also going to use less water when washing the dishes and making sure the dishwasher is completely full when it gets run.

After taking this quiz, it's made me realize that I'm not as environmentally friendly as I thought I was. I'm going to try my hardest to reduce my ecological footprint this quarter.