Grace is not gullible: I’m watching QVC and they are featuring 100% Pure Cosmetics. Everything sounds so wonderful… earth based, all 100% natural,fruit pigmented, vegan friendly, no preservatives, no harmful chemicals, fragrance free, full of antioxidants, no animal testing, it is like organic food for your face, etc. etc. I’m wondering what is really in their products????
The Left Brain responds:
Good question, Grace. Looking at the ingredients in their products it appears that they do indeed have simplified, formulas that avoid the use of many traditional surfactants, preservatives, thickeners, and fragrances. How do they do this? By providing very basic formulas that rely on naturally-derived functional ingredients surrounded by a lot of non-functional natural ingredients that sound good but don’t really do anything.
100% Pure ingredients
For example, here is their ingredient list 100% Pure Organic Lavender Foaming Shower Gel.
All Natural Ingredients: Organic Lavender Hydrosol, Organic Lavender Honey, Gentle Coconut Cleanser (coco betaine), Organic extracts of Jasmine, Chamomile, Calendula and Rose, Organic White Tea, Organic Lavender Essential Oil, Vitamin E (a-tocopherol), Vitamin C (ascorbyl palmitate), Natural Food Preservatives from salt and cranberries (less than 0.1% of Sodium Benzoate, Potassium sorbate)
They take some liberties with the labeling guidelines and try to hide the ingredients that actually make the product work. If you strip away the nonsense you get…
Water, Coco Betaine, Salt, Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Sorbate
These ingredients are found in many other products. Coco betaine is chemically derived from coconut oil and is a very close cousin of cocamidopropyl betaine which is found in almost all mass market shampoos and cleanser. While it’s milder than some other foaming agents (like sodium lauryl sulfate) it is also not as effective of a cleanser.) Interestingly, they say their products contain no preservatives but then they have Sodium Benzoate & Potassium Sorbate which are both preservatives.
Go figure.
The Beauty Brains bottom line
I’m sure these are fine products but they aren’t any better for you than the much less expensive products you can buy at your local grocery store. It’s really your choice – if you like these products then buy them. But don’t be tricked into buying them just because 100% Pure tells you they’re more natural.
What do YOU think? Would you be willing to sacrifice performance just to get a product that’s more “natural?” Leave a comment and share your thoughts and concerns with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.