Shampoo-poo

Love Beauty and Planet. Affordable soaps and shampoos that cost just a bit more than say, a bottle of Herbal Essences. It’s a little over $7 a bottle on Amazon or at your local Target, smells phenomenal and the brand markets themselves as focused on sourcing fair-trade ingredients, keeping their carbon footprint small and reducing landfill and carbon waste across the planet. Sounds fabulous, so I bought shampoo, conditioner, body wash and a scrub. I was a little over-enthusiastic in my purchases, but I could not help myself. I was in a foul mood, and my Discover card was cheering me up. 

If you know me, and I hope you follow my blog and begin to, I harbor no love for corporate America. Shareholders and board members long ago ditched morals and integrity for bigger bottom lines. They’ve sold their souls so many times, their checkbooks are basically booklets of fucking Horcruxes. So, there I was, lathered in sustainable suds and smelling like a fair-trade rose when I saw an inky black stain marring the recycled plastic. Unilever owns my beautifully bottled shampoo. One of the biggest corporations in the world. Shiiit. Do my roses really smell like poo-ooh-ooh?

Corporations are never going away, and I do WANT them to consider the wellbeing of the earth and all its inhabitants when designing and manufacturing products...So I set my pitchfork in the corner and did some research to find how much of their messaging is marketing voodoo and how much of it is them steering their corporation in a better direction. 

Well, what IS true is that Unilever is trying to marry profitability and sustainability. An ideal union for everyone, it would seem. The company website is plastered with messaging about sustainability goals and successes. And they have some lofty goals, too. Reducing their carbon footprint, enhancing lives, sourcing only sustainable products; It looks like they’re making huge strides in the race to save the planet! Hooray! And conveniently for them, they’ve designed the race track…They’ve created the qualifications and guidelines for what defines sustainable for their products.* They’ve even helped form one of their regulation organizations. Without any third-party accountability standards, their goals and guidelines are well intended but a bit weak, so I’m far from trusting their self-reported efforts. 

Now, that’s not to say ALL of their products do not meet independent environmental guidelines so my torch will remain with my pitchfork in the corner unused. I’ll have more to say on Unilever in the future but today, let’s focus on this soap. 

It smells fantastic, is seemingly eco-positive and is owned by a mega-soap corp that’s at least trying to squeeze a tie-dye t-shirt over its billion-dollar suit. But what about what’s IN the soap? Well, despite the impression the label design might give, these soaps are far from natural. 

In fact, they contain several ingredients that are known or suspected to be environmental toxins. Wait, what? THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE PLANET-FRIENDLY SOAP! The European Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety actually banned the cosmetic use of an ingredient (METHYLISOTHIAZOLINONE) used in these products, as did Germany’s committee and Japan’s and it’s restricted-use in Canada. More than a few of the elements in these elixirs are on Japan's restricted list. Cool…throw in a couple of suspected neurotoxins and a whole lotta known allergens and you have some Love Beauty and Planet products. Oh, and did I mention all four products contain an ingredient known only as “fragrance?” An ingredient that chemical watchdog Skin Deep says, “represents an undisclosed mixture of various scent chemicals and ingredients used as fragrance dispersants such as diethyl phthalate. Fragrance mixes have been associated with allergies, dermatitis, respiratory distress and potential effects on the reproductive system.” Yikes.

Just to be clear, I googled every single ingredient listed on all four bottles. I’m doing my homework, folks. 

So, what’s the verdict of this soap? If you use drug-store shower products like me, you’re already rubbing apple scented radioactive waste all over your body. You might as well trade-up to one that comes in a recycled bottle, I guess. But really, the search for a real solution continues. The label promises a lot more than the list of ingredients delivers. But, full disclosure, I AM going to finish using the soap because I bought it already...

**Update: After using the soaps for about a month, I can say the shampoo made my scalp a little dry and the conditioner seemed to leave a bit of a film at the roots, but nothing too horrible. I don't have a strong opinion either way on the scrub or body wash, though it does seem a little irritating on damaged skin and the scent can be a bit overpowering. My overall opinion—meh. I didn't hate it but I wasn't impressed. 

¹Consumer, Ethical. “Unilever - Pollution & Toxics.” Ethical Consumer: the Alternative Consumer Organisation, www.ethicalconsumer.org/companystories.aspx?CompanyId=18207&CategoryId=288190.

²“Inside Unilever's Sustainability Myth.” New Internationalist, 21 Dec. 2017, newint.org/features/web-exclusive/2017/04/13/inside-unilever-sustainability-myth.

³ “METHYLISOTHIAZOLINONE.” EWG, www.ewg.org/skindeep/ingredient/703935/METHYLISOTHIAZOLINONE/#.WvYyOBPwZ-V.

⁴“FRAGRANCE.” EWG, www.ewg.org/skindeep/ingredient/702512/FRAGRANCE/#.