Consumers are demanding
more natural products. Unfortunately, the terms natural and
organic on a label can be very misleading. The following are
some examples of misleading label information:
- Beware of companies where the
actual name of the company has the words "organic" or
"natural" in its title. For example, I could name my business Wild Prairie Organics or Wild Prairie
Natural Body Care. Unfortunately, if you read the
product ingredients they not organic or natural!
- A product label will read, “Made
with 90% natural Ingredients.” The first ingredient on
the label is water. The alleged natural ingredients are
mostly the water and water is a natural ingredient.
Unfortunately the remaining ingredients are synthetic.
- A product label will read, "made
with all natural ingredients," or "made with organic ingredients." This leads the consumer to believe
that the entire product is all natural or organic. Unfortunately, there is often just a small amount
of truly all natural or organic material in the product. But
technically the product is "made with" some small amount of all
natural or organic ingredients so the claim is true, even though
misleading.
- A product label will read, "made
with 100% natural ingredients," or "made with 100% organic ingredients." The "100%" claim often refers to one or two
ingredients, which are "100% natural," or "100% organic," even if
other ingredients are synthetic.
- A product label will read,
"scented with all natural lemongrass and sage essential oils."
But does the manufacturer list all of their ingredients?
Often times the natural
essential oils are mixed with fragrance oils for a stronger scent. Read
a product's label. If the ingredients includes the word
"fragrance," "perfume," or "parfum," then it is synthetic and
not-natural, even though the packaging may say "natural" soap.
- Question the words "safe synthetic." Who actually determined these synthetic ingredients were "safe"
What do you want to put on your skin?