What's in a Label ... Mabel?

A quick glance at the labels on your cosmetic and personal care products is all it takes to see that the ingredient lists are written using technical language.
 

Why do you care?

• The product ingredient list, a mandatory requirement on cosmetics and personal care products, can also the most difficult part of the label to understand.
• Unless you know methyl-paraben is a synthetic preservative derived from a petroleum and known to be a estrogen mimickers, or that tocopherol is vitamin E and thought to be a safer preservative, you may not be able to discern the "good from the bad" … (and the ugly).
• The International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI) labeling system standardizes names for ingredients based on the Latin language. Without knowledge of technical chemical names, you may not readily understand the ingredients listed in everyday products. See INCI inventory list from European Commission. (It's long - 603 pages!)
• Labels and the Law e-bulletin explains that Canadians have more visibility on product ingredients as Health Canada instituted mandatory outer labeling on cosmetic and personal care products sold in Canada as of November 2006.1
  

The Know How

• Decoding a Label:
  
  • Ingredients are listed in order of predominance - from most to least.
  • Ingredients with a weight of 1% or less can be listed in any order at the end of ingredient list.
  • Fragrances do not have to be fully listed - they may use the expressions "parfum" and "aroma" (respectively) to represent these groups of ingredients. See Effects of Fragrance.
  • Colouring agents, found in makeup products (e.g. lipstick, eye shadow, blush, nail polish) may be listed in the whole colour range provided they use the symbol "±" or "+/-" or the phrase "May contain". See Colourants 101.
• A typical cosmetic label can be broken up into three parts. The top third of a cosmetic label usually makes up 90-95% of the products ingredients. The second third makes up 5-8% and the last third 1-3%.2

Know and Tell

• To be honest, we have a hard time remembering the list of "not so good ingredients", so we focus on one suspect ingredient at a time. For example, we started checking for parabens in all our products and as we ran out we replaced with paraben-free products. See Patti and Tamey's Top Six for the ingredients we always lookout for.
• Familiarize yourself with the broader list of Ingredients to Avoid. We are creating a wallet-size list of LOOK OUTS … so look out for them!
• We've been contacting manufacturers of the products we use for details on product ingredients, if they are not clear to us. Most have been responsive - and it has been helpful. Try it!
• Lastly, Patti and Tamey have obsessively committed to the Read it mantra … and (surprise surprise) have found that things are not what they seem. Our next What's in a Label … Mabel? will highlight Greenwashing. In the meantime be-aware.

P.S. Blog it…we want to hear from you…and you… and you. Post on Pure Blog.