CJ3…I love the Shea Moisture line, and the Organic Raw Shea Butter Moisture Retention Shampoo. The other day as I was shampooing my hair, I decided to look at the back of the bottle at the ingredients and I noticed a few things were missing. I could care less if there are silicones and parabens in my hair products, my main concern is do they work. But I do prefer that a company be honest about what’s in their products. The shampoo is thick with a pearlized sheen and a strong floral fragrance. But when I look at the ingredients, I don’t see a thickener/Pearlizer, fragrance, or a preservative. Is it possible to have a shampoo be thickened by Shea Butter only? Is it possible for a shampoo to have a pearl sheen and floral scent from extracts? Is Vitamin E enough of a preservative for a shampoo? I heard Vitamin E was an antioxidant and not a preservative at all. I’ve had the shampoo for almost a year now and it hasn’t gone bad yet (or at least I don’t think it has… the scent is so strong, it could be masking any rancid smell).
The Right Brain responds:
Here are the ingredients from the back of the bottle, as provided by CJ3:
Shea Moisture shampoo ingredients
Deionized Water , Decyl Glucoside (Sugar Beets), African Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Aloe Vera Leaf Juice, Argan Oil, Panthenol (Pro-Vitamin B5), Rosemary Extract, Sea Kelp Extract, Vitamin E, Lonicera Caprifolium Flower Extract (Honeysuckle), Lonicera Japonica Flower Extract (Japanese Honeysuckle)
I loved CJ3′s analysis of these ingredients and I agree that it seems like some items are missing. I checked a few websites (like Target and Walgreens) to see if I could find a more complete listing but I could only find the the same ingredients that you mentioned.
The missing pieces?
Based on our formulation knowledge here’s what we think could be missing from this ingredient list:
Scent: The floral fragrance could be coming from the flower extracts. Technically it should still list “fragrance” as an ingredient, but we’ll give them a pass on this one.
What should be listed: “Fragrance.”
Thickener: Decyl glucoside is a mild detergent but by itself it doesn’t build viscosity very well. To create a thick product it needs to be combined with another salt -responsive surfactant or a polymeric thickener of some sort.
What should be listed: Cocamidopropyl betaine, sodium chloride (or something similar)
Appearance: As you pointed out the product has a rich pearl. It also has a golden color. While a high enough concentration of shea butter could theoretically provide the color, it would not provide a pearlescent effect.
What should be listed: Glycol distearate, FDC yellow
Safety: Surprisingly, and most disturbingly, there is no preservative cited and I don’t see anything in these ingredients that could prevent microbial growth.
What you should be listed: DMDM hydantoin, parabens, etc.
The Beauty Brains bottom line
We’d like to give companies the benefit of the doubt, but it’s tough in this case because the missing ingredients seem so obvious. If the fine folks at Shea would like to contact us with additional information, we’d be glad to update this post.
image credit: hotelmarketingstrategies.com
Does it bug you when companies don’t list all their ingredients for you? Leave a comment and share your thoughts with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.
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i have a dark underarms what shall i do to lighten this? i dont have some knowledge in this situation.. im shy about my condition i cannot wear some sexier dress?
Don’t the Rosemary Extract and Lonicera Japonica Flower Extract act as preservatives? The latter is often referred to as a natural occurring paraben. And the vitamin E, as an antioxidant, can also help protect the product longer no?
@Ritz: Check out this post http://thebeautybrains.com/2006/12/16/the-top-5-causes-of-darkened-armpits/
@Sesame: Unfortunately, product preservation is not really as simple as adding an extract. Even though some extracts have antimicrobial activity that doesn’t mean they have the ability to kill ALL the bad stuff that can grow in cosmetic products. For example, rosemary extract does have some antibacterial properties but it does nothing against mold and fungus. Products need what is called “broad spectrum” protection that simple extracts can not provide. Also, Vitamin E is an antioxidant but that only protects oils from going rancid – it won’t do anything to stop bacteria growth.
Vitamin E is an antioxidant but it’ll help protect other ingredients and coupled with Rosemary extract and Lonicera Japonica Flower Extract will provide preservation. You did not address Lonicera Japonica Flower Extract and why not? You tear down each ingredient one by one but a formulation is a whole sum, not just about one ingredient.
Stearic acid and triethanolamine can produce a pearlescent effect if they are heated to a certain degree before they are mixed, and shea butter is very high in stearic acid. So maybe they are just leaving off one ingredient on that note.
Maybe one of the honey suckle extracts is standardized to contain a certain percentage of parabens? It would be dirty poker, but it’s a possibility. The products handled challenge tests, so it’s either that or the company is just being dishonest about their ingredients.
@Littlebird: Good analysis! But I’m skeptical that you could get enough of the pearl effect with stearic acid and still maintain “normal” shampoo viscosity and lather properties.
My understanding is that Japanese Honeysuckle is a ‘naturally occurring paraben’. To quote Stephanie Greenwood from the Bubble&Bee,
This harmless-sounding extract contains para-hydroxy benzoic acid, which is structurally nearly identical to parabens, and is known to mimic estrogen in the same way.
In May of 2009 the Organic Consumers Association published an article on their website about Japanese Honesuckle Extract. Written by Elizabeth Moriarty, a phytochemist and organic inspector, the article states that parabens, naturally-occurring and synthetic, can be hidden in Japanese Honeysuckle Extract. (Read the original article here) Moriarty states that:
It is a highly processed and concentrated paraben extraction that may or may not be contaminated with synthetic parabens where it is manufactured in Singapore. I am particularly distressed by the fact that so many companies are evidently using the latter version of “Japanese Honeysuckle Extract” and simultaneously claiming “NO PARABENS” on their labels.
Shannon Shroter, owner of Grateful Body rebutted the claim, stating that not all japanese honeysuckle extracts contain parabens (read her original article here), and that she tested her extract in a lab and the results showed that “the exact product she maligns actually does not contain any parabens.” Shroter also explains that “there is no such thing as a natural paraben. In the conventional idiom, paraben has always referred to the synthetic substance. The word paraben was never originally used by any botanist, biologist, ethnobotanist or herbalist.”
Then, following Shroter’s rebuttal, another manufacturer, Angelina Amalie weighs in (found here, scroll down), stating:
If Grateful Body tested Plantservative [the trade name for the extract] and found no synthetic parabens, it merely tells us that it has not been spiked with synthetics. It does NOT tell us that it is not a natural paraben, and it certainly does not indicate that it is a whole plant extract. The “industrial strength” preservation action of Plantservative very strongly indicates that it is a highly processed and concentrated natural paraben.
So, who is right? Does Japanese Honeysuckle Extract contain parabens? Are there such thing as “natural parabens? And are they harmful?
There was one statement in Shroter’s article that really caught my eye. She’s talking about the main active compound in Japanese Honeysuckle Extract called para-hydroxy benzoic acid:
If you look at the molecular structure of the para-hydroxy benzoic acid found in Japanese Honeysuckle, one sees a classic carbon ring bond – elegant and simple. But if you look at the molecular structure of methyparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben or butylparaben, one is immediately struck by the additional CH3 tail, sometimes called a methyl free-radical, that makes these substances completely different from the original phytochemical.
So you can see what she’s talking about, I’ve pasted the chemical structures below:
Para-hydroxy benzoic acid (the “natural paraben” in JHE)
Methylparaben (a synthetic paraben)
Technically speaking, Shroter is correct in that there is no such thing as a “natural paraben.” Paraben is a term used to describe a synthetically-produced compound. However, para-hydroxy benzoic acid (I’ll call it PHBA) was the naturally-ocurring compound that inspired chemists to create parabens. Other than the CH3 tail, it’s chemically identical. The addition or subtraction of the methyl free radical doesn’t change the structure much–PHBA still contains a benzene ring, which is the main problem with parabens in the first place.
Anything with a benzene ring has the potential to be an endocrine disruptor. Because our body’s hormones are made up of complex structures of benzene rings, our hormonal receptors are made to “fit” these benzene rings.
Estradiol (a type of estrogen) Note the multiple benzene rings
Estrogen Receptor
Notice that in the diagram of the estradiol, the first benzene ring looks just like that of the parabens and PHBA–a benzene ring with an OH tail (hydroxyl group). Estrogen receptors are designed to fit this exact end of the molecule, so PHBA and parabens latch right in (regardless of any CH3 tail). These benzene rings enter the estrogen receptors in the body and can “clog” them up so they don’t function properly or overstimulate them. Because receptors dictate how cells divide and express themselves, overstimluated estrogen receptors can lead to a host of problems, from endometriosis to breast cancer. Parabens have been studied extensively for their link to breast cancer, and have been found to accumulate in breast cancer tissue. Because PHBA is so similar, it acts in the same way.
This study at the University of Reading in the UK studied just this issue. In their study they compared para-hydroxy benzoic acid to all the types of parabens. They found that the para-hydroxy benzoic acid, while it wasn’t as agressive in stimulating cells as synthetic parabens, it did indeed bind to estrogen receptors, and made this powerful statement:
It can be concluded that removal of the ester group from parabens does not abrogate its oestrogenic activity and that p-hydroxybenzoic acid can give oestrogenic responses in human breast cancer cells.
So, whether the Japanese Honeysuckle Extract is made in Singapore or distilled with CO2 in the USA, no matter how reputible the manufacturer, it is going to contain para hydroxy benzoic acid and have nearly the same health risks that parabens would when applied to the skin.
Lastly, the previous post was taken from Greenwood’s blog.
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