Thursday, September 30, 2010

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.

1 comment:

  1. It's rather discouraging, isn't it, especially when you consider the bioaccumulative effects of using multiple body care products with this ingredient....................... good analysis.

    ReplyDelete

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