by Jennifer Taggart | TheSmartMama.com

The beauty industry has been embracing the green movement. Or at least pretending to do so. Both green and conventional products tout the benefits of “natural” ingredients – seaweed, tea tree oil, rose, coconut, Shea nut, and more.

Beauty products lure us with their siren song of promises. Promises of shinier hair, rosier cheeks, sexier lips, and softer, younger, smoother skin. And they make us spend an astonishing $60 billion dollars per year.

To get us to spend that money, the beauty industry has embraced all things natural. Some 70% of us believe natural products will improve our health. Think about it. Who wants to buy a body scrub marketed as containing potentially carcinogenic ingredients derived from ancient fossilized organic materials? Instead, we would prefer to buy a body scrub touted as containing seaweed and featuring a sleek woman playing in gently lapping waves, despite the fact that the product may contain polyethylene plastic beads that contaminate our ocean. We will spend money on products claiming to be “natural”, “all natural”, “naturally derived” or “nature inspired” to name just a few, despite the fact that all of those claims are meaningless.

Most of us expect beauty products claiming to be natural to be composed of plant based ingredients, not petroleum-based synthetic ingredients. But we would be wrong. Just like those happy California cows really don’t spent their days freely strolling in green rolling pastures, chewing grass, but instead are penned in crowded conditions, standing in urine and faces, many so-called green and natural beauty products are neither green nor natural. The natural seeming names or pictures fool us, and it easier to believe the marketing than to decipher the complicated chemical ingredient names. Take Johnson’s Soothing Naturals hair and body wash sounds great, right? It is marketed as being made with PUR-E, a unique form of pure Vitamin E blended with plant extract and minerals. The ingredients include a myriad of petroleum derived and petroleum processed ingredients, including PEG 80 Sorbitan Laurate and propylene glycol, not to mention ethylparaben, propylparaben, methylparaben, and synthetic fragrance, which most likely contains hormone disrupting phthalates.

Greenwashing, or spinning products or policies as environmentally friendly when they really aren’t, is rampant in the beauty industry. Many cosmetic manufacturers change the name of a product or packaging to make the product seem more environmentally-friendly without any true positive environmental effect simply to increase profit.

Why don’t we make cosmetic companies accountable? The beauty industry’s rampant greenwashing may be due, at least in part, to our nonchalance. The majority, some 86% of us, believe that the products on store shelves are safe. We think that they have been vetted by some government agency and deemed safe. We believe that if we buy products from trusted household brands, the products are safe and free of carcinogens, mutagens or other toxic agents.  But that safety guarantee just isn’t true for the most part when it comes to cosmetics.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is vested with responsibility for cosmetics. Contrary to what most of us believe, the FDA does not review cosmetic products or cosmetic ingredients before they are put into commerce. As the FDA readily admits, a cosmetic manufacturer may use essentially any raw material and market it without FDA approval, except for colors and certain prohibited ingredients. The FDA has only banned 9 ingredients and regulates some color additives, as compared with the European Union, which has banned or controlled over 1,100.

In other words, the FDA’s regulations let the cosmetic manufacturers to determine whether their products are safe. The cosmetic industry relies mostly upon the Cosmetic Ingredient Review (“CIR”) panel, which is funded by the member companies of the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association.  Its recommendations regarding safety are just recommendations, and can be ignored. Also, the CIR’s main focus is ingredients that cause allergic or irritant responses, not cancer or reproductive or developmental toxicity. One analysis of the CIR’s ingredient review found that of the ingredients approved by the CIR for use in cosmetics based upon sensitization, 14% also had some data indicating cancer risk. Yet, the CIR panel still chose sensitization as the area of concern, not carcinogenic potential.

And yet, we still believe the products are safe. We don’t demand change. We continue to shell out money for products that aren’t green and are far from natural. (Of course, just because a product is natural in the true sense of that word doesn’t mean it is safe or environmentally friendly.)

The companies may be guilty of greenwashing, but we are the fools that buy the products.

We believe paraben-free is enough, without looking at the other ingredients.

We see an organic, fair trade ingredient claim, and ignore all of the other synthetic ingredients.

We worship false labels.

Take Sephora’s natural logo and standards, Naturally Sephora, which earned Sephora the dubious distinction of being named one of the four biggest enviro-scams. The products are advertised as being free of certain ingredients. For example, Tarte’s cheek stain is marketed under the Naturally Sephora logo as formulated without petro-chemicals, yet the first ingredient is propylene glycol, a petrochemical. Propylene is produced from propylene oxide, which comes from propylene (or propene), produced from, you guessed it, petroleum, natural gas or coal.

And it remains a best seller, with nary a complaint.

To get rid of greenwashing in the beauty industry, to get rid of the hype, we must demand products that are, in fact, green and/or natural. We cannot worship false labels.

To go non-toxic, you must read the ingredients. Don’t be fooled by advertising. You may also want to invest your money with companies that have signed the compact stated by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. The companies that have signed the pledge agree to formulate their products with ingredients that are not known or suspected of causing cancer, mutations, birth defects or other adverse health effects.

And if you want green products, then you must consider the packaging, sourcing of materials (for example, palm oil may not be sustainably sourced and can contribute to the destruction of endangered orangutan habitat), transportation and disposal.

It is a lot to consider. But it is our money. Let’s make it count.

Jennifer Taggart is the founder of TheSmartMama.com, a blog that allows Jennifer to write about her passions – green parenting, environmental hazards, etc.  You can contact her at jennifer@thesmartmama.com if you have questions or want more information.