Bubble & Bee, Bamboo Towels, and Sulfates…

I can’t remember now what I was looking up, but I randomly discovered a new website with organic personal care products today.

It looks like they’ve been around for a couple years now, and it’s apparent they are genuinely interested in organic products and not just the money that can be made from them – they have some informative links and articles. One of which is titled “Top Ten Reasons to Avoid SLS” (sodium lauryl sulfate). Which happens to be one of the (many) products I was wanting to further research… You should go check out the whole article, but I will state the reasons below:

Top Ten Reasons to Avoid SLS

1. It is a known skin irritant.
2. It pollutes our groundwater.
3. It is actually a pesticide and an herbicide.
4. It emits toxic fumes when heated.
5. It has corrosive properties.
6. Long-term permeation of the body’s tissues.
7. It’s an eye irritant.
8. Nitrate and other solvent contamination.
9. Manufacturing process is highly polluting.
10. It helps other chemicals get into your body.

Wow. Reason enough for me. Now I just need to find out if the similar sounding name in my John Masters Organics is really the same thing under a slightly different name. Bubble & Bee also has a chemical database that will come in most handy, and they explain their ingredients here.

Now if only they had a spiky hair styling product 😉

Actually, they do have some 100% bamboo fiber towels on sale – 38.25 (original 45) for a set of three (30×56 bath towel,15×30 hand towel, 13×13 wash cloth). Not a bad deal.

John Master Organics

It’s hard to have crazy hair when you go organic.

Hair dye is one of the few things I draw the line at when it comes to going organic – blue-black hair with chunky bleach would be difficult to achieve with henna.

Unfortunately I’m not a fan of the miessence shampoo or conditioner – I duly went through the entire bottles, but neither worked for me. Bleaching essentially kills your hair, so every time I washed my hair my bleach streak would mat something awful. On top of that, the conditioner DOES NOT detangle.

I also have short, messy (fauxhawk cut) punked out hair – meaning I use wax type products to style. My previous, current favorite styling product ever was Redken Rough Clay 20. AMAZING. But look it up on the Cosmetic Database (7). So I was on a mission to find an organic shampoo, conditioner, and spiky hair styling product.

I found John Masters Organics. I purchased the Lavender Rosemary Shampoo a couple weeks ago and I LOVE it (and yes, it smells unbelievably amazing). A common problem with organic shampoos is the lack of suds due to omitting sodium laureth sulfate, but you can work up a decent lather… it just takes a bit more work. A worthwhile compromise I think. It doesn’t mat the bleach in my hair at all, but does still have the “squeaky clean” feeling.

I also purchased the Rosemary & Peppermint Detangler, and I also love it. It smells insane, the mint makes your scalp tingle (a plus for me), and it does all the name claims it will do. No more trying to comb out all the knots in my hair! Both bottles are $16 for 8 ounces.

They have two styling products – the Hair Pomade (wax based), and the Bourbon Vanilla & Tangerine Hair Texturizer (castor oil based). I actually bought the texturizer, simply because I found a deal on it (they are $20 and $21 – both 2 ounces). I read a review online where a woman claimed that her and her husband both used the texturizer and bought only two jars per year. When I received the extremely tiny jar in the mail didn’t see how that could be possible, but now I understand. A little goes a long way. It smells great – more citrus than vanilla, but can weigh your hair down or make it greasy. I like it, but I think I should have bought the pomade since wax is my styling product of preference. I will try that when I run out of the texturizer, so check back for a review on that in about two years.

You can purchase John Masters obviously from their website (free shipping), beauty.com (free shipping with minium order, possibility of free gifts and samples), and always Amazon (addict) and occasionally eBay (addict). The only chain store I know of that might sell it is Whole Foods.

These ingredients that I wondered about:

• Decyl glucoside
  “…is a mild non-ionic surfactant used in cosmetic formularies including baby shampoo and in products for individuals with a sensitive skin. Many natural personal care companies use this cleanser because it is plant-derived, biodegradable, and gentle for all hair types.” Source
• Sodium cocoyl sulfoacetate
  “Sodium cocoyl sulfate – Derived from coconut; mild cleanser that won’t strip or dry delicate skin and hair.” Source
• Sodium lauroamphoacetate
  Same as above – detergents used to create lather gently and both derived from coconut.
• <tangent> I wonder about these because the names are so similar to the supposedly bad for you sodium laureth sulfate. Intentionally confusing names is a common greenwashing practice so you gotta watch out for it. I’m no chemist, and I would like to do more research. </tangent>
• Behentrimonium methosulfate
  “…is the mildest hair-detangling ingredient available. It is made from non-genetically modified rapeseed oil. This scientifically sophisticated ingredient is renowned for its superior detangling ability, without causing build-up on the hair. Unlike other hair detanglers, which are known for their irritancy, behentrimonium methosulfate is extremely mild, being recommended for use in baby products which are left on the skin. It is superior in effectiveness and mildness to its commonly used cheaper cousin, behentrimonium chloride. It is not a sulfate.” Source
• Cetearyl Alcohol
  “…is literally the bastard child of cetyl and stearyl alcohols. It is a white, waxy solid that exhibits characteristics of cetyl alcohol combined with the emulsifying effect of stearyl alcohol. It is a very effective thickener that helps form extremely stable emulsions in water-in-oil (full moisturizer) and oil-in-water (oil-free lotion) preparations.” Source
• Alcohol is not as bad as I thought, evidently (at least this kind). Lots more here.

It’s sometimes easy to forget the importance of moderation – overall practicality and even health can be thrown out the window in an attempt to label a product as “all natural.” Even by well meaning companies. If, in order to avoid one well known “bad” ingredient, you use another, obscure ingredient that’s even worse, it kind of defeats the purpose. While I don’t believe in always taking corporate claims at face value (do your research), it does seem to me that John Masters is geniunely interested in making a product that is not only safe and natural, but really does work.

Surfactants

In addition to replacing all the skin care products in our home with miessence, I also replaced all of our cleaning products with Mrs. Meyer’s. There were several reasons that I chose this brand, but I have to confess that a major one is the fact that it SMELLS AMAZING. The four main scents are Basil, Lemon Verbena, Lavender, and Geranium. I love love love the smell of fresh cut grass – and the Basil scent is the equivalent of that – not so much a strong or sweet basil scent as you would think, but more of a parsley – fresh, light, but still lingering fragrance. Another reason I chose Mrs. Meyer’s was because of the extensive selection, which includes laundry detergent, fabric softener and dryer sheets. Always the online bargain shopper, I’ve found the best place to purchase Mrs. Meyer’s is on drugstore.com during sales, or in bulk from Amazon. For an extremely detailed review of the counter top spray and its environmentally friendliness go here.

However, Mrs. Meyer’s products are not organic. The ingredients on the countertop spray are below:

• Deionized water, plant derived surfactant, chelating agent (non-EDTA), builders (non phosphate), essential oils of basil, parsley and black pepper, essential oils of eucalyptus golbus leaf and cedarwood, fragrance, vegetable protein extract, citric acid, solubolizing agents, preservative.

Plant derived… ok, essential oils… good, fragrance, hmm that’s bad. My big question is what the heck surfactants are. According to the Mrs. Meyer’s website – “We use naturally derived ingredients whenever possible from corn, sugar cane, coconut and palm. When we cannot find a plant-derived ingredient that performs to our rigorous standards, we use ingredients from the world of safe synthetics. These are materials with a long history of safety and efficacy in use for people and the environment they live in.”

I still want to know what surfactants are. According to Science in a Box, “A surfactant or surface active agent is a substance that, when dissolved in water, gives a product the ability to remove dirt from surfaces such as the human skin, textiles, and other solids.” Basically it’s a molecule with one end that grabs the dirt and one end that grabs the water in order to pull the dirt from the counter top, clothes, hands, etc. They can be either natural (vegetable or animal) or synthetic (petroleum). So Mrs. Meyer’s is stating that they use a safe, renewable resource and specifically plant derived, so not involving animals. As far as cleaning power goes – their products seem to work great.

Deionized water means it’s been de-mineralized. Apparently EDTA and phosphates are bad, since they specifically mention that they are not using them. I also want to know what solubilizing agents are, but I think those ingredients will have to be researched in another post. ONEgroup has a MiEnviron line of probiotic household cleaning products that I have yet to try, but for fragrance, variety and selection I think I will have to find out something pretty horrible about Mrs. Meyers to stop purchasing their products. More info in posts to come…