Real talk - product labels are confusing. What are all of these chemicals? Is this truly everything that is in the product? How do I know what is safe? These are just a few questions that may be running through your head. And trust, you're not alone.
Here are 4 key things you should know about skin care and beauty product labels:
- Ingredients are listed in order of quantity, highest to lowest. This means that the ingredients with the largest presence in products are listed first. This is important because it gives you a general sense of how much of something is in your product.
- The government requires that labels include an ingredient's technical chemical name. Cosmetic products are regulated and required to list an ingredient's technical name to ensure quality and consistency across products and categories. This means that instead of seeing "salt" on a label, you might see "magnesium carbonate" listed. Chemicals are not inherently bad; after all, water is a chemical. But long, complicated names can be confusing and make it harder to understand what is actually in your product. Your best bet is to research them individually so that you know what you're putting on your body.
- The word "fragrance" can be used to hide up to 3,000 ingredients in products. Fragrance has been protected in the industry for many years as a "trade secret," meaning that companies do not have to disclose all of the raw materials that make up a fragrance. They can instead list "fragrance" or "parfum" as a catch all term. The International Fragrance Association, the global representative body for the fragrance industry, has published a list of over 3000+ ingredients that could be used to make up “fragrance”. Even if a product claims to use natural essential oils, if the ingredient label has the word "fragrance" listed, it means that they have mixed natural essential oils with any combination of those 3,000 chemicals.
- The EWG's Skin Deep app can make researching ingredients easier. Their database scans products and their ingredient list against scientific research and toxicity, chemical hazards, and regulatory databases, and assigns a safety rating for each ingredient and the overall product. With just a quick glance you can see a numerical score and color assessment (green, yellow, red) for the product and ingredients.
When we were designing Each & Every, we wanted to ensure that our labels were easy to understand. That means simple, safe, transparent ingredients that you can understand.
- Simple - all of our labels have a table that shows the government required name, but also the more common name so there's no guessing about the ingredients.
- Safe - each and every ingredient we use in our deodorants is validated as low health/hazard risk (scored 1 or 2, rated green) by the Environmental Working Group so you can be sure it's safe to use.
- Transparent - we are committed to 100% ingredient transparency, from the farm to the label, we believe that you deserve to know the truth about what is in your product. We use only 100% natural essential oils for fragrance and we disclose every single one, so no hiding behind the word "fragrance" on pack - what you see is exactly what you get.
If you're interested in trying Each & Every, you can shop our products below: