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View Full Version : Environmental Working Group and safety in your hair products



Ponytale
March 8th, 2008, 06:05 AM
http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/

I don't know how many of you may have seen the website above, but you can put in a product, and get the rating from Environmental Working Group on its safety. It works by looking at the individual ingredients and extensive studies on whether they are neurotoxins, cause cancer, etc.

You can also look at organically grown ingredients, environmental hazards, etc.

I am a tad disappointed in my Nature's Gate Shampoo, but I am still a long way from the hazards ratings in my old products when I found this a few years ago!

Enjoy--its addictive.

I posted this on another forum with some overlap--yes, I know I use another name--my name was taken on the later...

PonyTail
http://www.network54.com/PersonalPhotos/1204066084.JPG

mellie
March 8th, 2008, 06:32 AM
Thank Ponytale! That is a great site.

BTW, I was surprised by Nature's Gate shampoo myself. I picked some up just a few days ago without looking at the ingredients, and I was shocked. I actually took it back to the store. I think I'm going to back to my homemade soapwort shampoo - that way I know exactly what's in it! :-)

Mellie

GlassEyes
March 8th, 2008, 07:13 AM
I'm surprised at vo5. e-e

Ponytale
March 8th, 2008, 07:45 AM
Mellie,

I wish I would have thought to keep my receipt for the last Natures Gate purchase! I think it will work to clarify though because it has SDS. As it is, I am heading back to the store to pick up some Aubrey Organics today.

Cheers!

TessieAnn
March 8th, 2008, 09:43 PM
Nature's Gate did a lot of reformulating about two years ago, when they added a lot of ingredients which they said were to "stabilize" their products better.

The ingredient list on the old vs new Herbal S & C makes them almost entirely different products from that they were originally.

Sad.

BlueRose4217
March 19th, 2008, 09:50 AM
That is a great website. I believe you can also look up individual ingredients as well. I found it useful to know what ingredients were the bad ones to avoid in other products! :)

Kirin
March 19th, 2008, 10:13 AM
Hrmmm...... a lot of products I use aren't listed on that site. Though I learned something......

Other than dr. bonners everything even the best stuff has SOME risk involved. I suppose no matter what i buy, if it isnt pure castille soap (for shampoo anyway), your pretty much screwed LOL

BrianaFineHair
March 19th, 2008, 10:52 AM
I won't buy any products for my hair or skin without first checking this website. I only buy products with a number rating 2 and below. I no longer wear mascara and lipstick is really hard to come by with a rating of 2 or below.

Also, since I've been doing this my hair looks and feels better than it ever has.

Edited to add: My son has been suffering from eczema since age 3. I stopped putting all of the commercial junk and prescription creams on his skin (nothing helped but only aggrevated his skin anyway). I now only use Queen Helenes 100% cocoa butter stick and olive oil on his skin and it's cleared up so nicely :)

Mahars
March 19th, 2008, 12:00 PM
This website is the primary reason I swiched to natural products. After looking at the ratings, I just couldn't feel good about using products with low ratings on my body when I knew there were equally effective products that were more safe. I use Giovanni and Aubrey mostly, which make products that are listed as relatively safe on the site. I haven't stopped using Nature's Gate Herbal Shampoo, but I only use it every couple of weeks.

Just remembered, FYI, the site does not have updated ingredient lists for a lot of products. Some of the brands reformulate so frequently that it's hard to keep up. For example, Giovanni just reformulated their 50/50 products and a few others. They've added a few ingredients that don't sound quite as natural. I recommend cross-referencing the ingredients online with the ingredients on the actual bottle. If there are different ingredients, you can look them up on the site. It has has individual safety ratings for cosmetic ingredients, as well as detailed descriptions of how they work.

Firefly
March 19th, 2008, 03:07 PM
Thanks for the link, I had fun poking around this site! I was wondering though, if they had somewhere that listed what exactly the scores mean, and/or what the problem ingredients are. I checked the FAQ but didn't see anything.

Ponytale
March 19th, 2008, 03:07 PM
I gave out the site at work, and it went around like wild-fire. It definitely made an huge impact on me when I first found it.

The people with new babies liked it too... My friend now checks every product she gets for the new little one.

I also check my "pure organics" just to make sure there is nothing connected with those either. There are a lot of missing studies (studies yet to be done mostly), but some things appear well founded.

Isilme
March 19th, 2008, 04:19 PM
it doesn't list my favourite products:( but sadly I'm not that surprised about finding that my new Tigi conditioner isn't the best. Although not the worst either.