I recently blogged about the top 10 strangest cosmetic ingredients, but here’s one I missed: There’s a new 
Brazilian shampoo with Ox Marrow Extract.
Yes, in this day and age when most manufacturers would rather pull off their own fingernails than use animal derived ingredients, Brazil is brazenly promoting bone marrow from oxen as the key to healthier hair. In your FACE, Mad Cow Disease!
And it gets better… They also claim Jaborandi extract (everyone’s favorite!) and 0% salt helps control hair oiliness. (We can see the TV commercial already: “Now with 0% salt!”)
But here’s the best part: “The product is also enriched with essential oils which strengthen and sterilize hair, resulting in a healthy shine.” Sterilized hair? We bet you completely missed this hot new hair care benefit.
Well, when this trend hits the US don’t forget, you saw it here first!
What do YOU think? Have you seen any other bizarre cosmetic ingredients that you’d like to share with the rest of the Beauty Brains community? Leave a comment!
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Yes, I agree, not only tutannol is a pretty strange inredient, but also is kind of cruel and a non animal friendly, but… I might say this, as a Brains reader for so long and also brazilian, that you shouldn’t say that ‘Brazil is promoting’ this with our cosmetics. ‘Ox’ is a company not very popular here, even though is very easy to find, is very known by its large amounts of propaganda and none results.
So, what I mean is… as far as I know, yes: Ox is a Brazilian company. But their products, speacially this strange treatment with their ingredients doesn’t reveal our cosmetic industry, wich is very nice, actually. There are a lot of great companys here that are very popular and also promote the idea of using our own natural ingredients, not testing products on animals and also helping poor local communities – like “Natura” (www.natura.net)
Well, I just thought you should know that.
Sounds horrible. Well I tried snake skin oil once (God knows what that was) for the hair. The woman I bought it from claimed it strengthens hair and stimulates good hair growth. Didn’t see any difference really.
Antibacterial hand soap is another household item that poses many health risks. This is because, just as MIT is put in shampoos and hand lotions to prevent bacteria from forming, antibacterial soap contains an active ingredient known as triclosan. This antibacterial agent kills bacteria and inhibits bacterial growth; however, it also has been shown to kill human cells. Antibacterial ingredients can be found in some of the same products MIT is found in, such as:
* Laundry detergents
* Shampoos
* Toothpastes
* Body washes
* Dish soaps
As far as I understand, Tutannol has nothing to do with the Brazilian company Ox. Ox still makes ox marrow-based products, but their more popular line is called Ox Plants and based on plant extracts. I really like them.
The German conditioner brand, Swiss Opa, has a product with “spinal cord extract”. They’re very open about it.
I am Brazilian too, and we haven’t really had a problem with mad cow disease due to our cattle being mostly grass-fed. But anyway, Jaborandi is in every other shampoo here and they claim it makes your hair grow faster.
This is why I stick to Pantene and other stuff like that, at least the marketing claims are not as random.