For the most part, we understand marketing labels when it comes to food. “Organic,” for example, we know means higher care when into production and therefore it is marked at a higher price. Because food is regulated so heavily, it’s harder for companies to tout something like “organic” or “fair-trade, the same cannot be said for personal care products. Cosmetics, body care, and the like have minimal standards to meet when claiming these terms.
While condoms and personal lubrication are categorized as “medical devices” by the Food and Drug Associate (FDA), there is still much gray area in the personal product industry. Moisturizers, for example, are not regulated and so if lubrication leans more moisturizer, it doesn’t have to meet the same standards as a jug of synthetic, hospital-grade lube. To further contradict, when a moisturizer features certain ingredients that affect the body (like CBD oil), they are now categorized as a “drug,” putting them through entirely different standards.
For this reason, there’s reasonable suspicion when a product features a busy, over-loaded label with every current Sephora buzzword. Here a few you might encounter and could use another look over:
Clean:
Starting off strong, “clean” has no legal definition. How a company uses it can vary from company to company, from person to person. What you may consider “clean” stems from what you’re more personally comfortable with, such as sticking to only natural ingredients versus synthetics.
Organic:
Organic in the most basic sense means X is free of additives like synthetic chemicals or fertilizers and hormones. For a farmer to be certified organic, they must go through the lengthy process at the USDA. The process for organic non-food items is less regulated. The USDA has “no authority over the production and labeling of cosmetics, body care products, and personal care products that are not made up of agricultural ingredients, or do not make any claims to meeting USDA organic standards (emphasis mine).” This means that they can (and do) have a say whether certain ingredients used by the brand’s manufacturer are organic or not, but not the product as a whole. Furthermore, the FDA does not define or even regulate the term “organic” as it applies to personal products.
Many personal care companies go through a third-party organic certifier like Organic Trade Association that does have high standards to meet for organic labeling. As an additional note, the use of any certified organic ingredients does not necessarily mean that the product as a whole is certified organic.
pH-balanced:
This term can go two ways: Either the use of the product will not upset the vagina’s pH levels or the product will regulate vaginal pH levels. Both are lies. Saying that the use of the product will maintain the vagina’s normal pH levels is redundant—this insinuates that other “feminine care” products choose to upset the pH. As for helping regulate, Dr. Jen Grunter on The Vajenda puts it plainly: “Nothing external—meaning no medicinal, herb, or pharmaceutical inserted vaginally—can regulate vaginal pH, as this is accomplished by the vaginal bacteria. Balancing vaginal pH with an external product is simply not possible.” When healthy, the vagina regulates itself.
Natural:
How can something like store-bought lube be “natural”? What does “natural” even mean? Unsurprisingly there are little to no regulations, rules, or guidelines when it comes to labeling and using “natural” on products. Roughly only 1% of the product must be plant-based, naturally sourced, or minerally-derived for it to qualify as “natural.” Though it sounds innocent and good, using “natural” does not equate organic, fair-trade, non-toxic, cruelty-free, or better in any way. It is a true marketing-only term. The best course of action is to look at the product’s ingredients—all ingredients are listed quantitative meaning the first ingredients have a higher percentage compared to the last ingredients. When considering a new product that touts being “natural,” turn it around and see where the synthetic ingredients fall. If Aloe is at the bottom and everything else is science jargon, it’s probably not natural.
Cruelty-Free:
This is more or less self-explanatory, but still worth explaining in detail. Cruelty-free means the product is not tested on animals. However, while the product as a whole might not have been tested on animals, that does not mean that the ingredients the product is made up of were not tested on animals. This comes up in Lush Cosmetics often; one of Lush’s values is that everything—the product and the ingredients used—is 100% cruelty-free. The process of certifying something as cruelty-free is less intensive than organic. Leaping Bunny Program is the only authority on certifying brands as cruelty-free. When a company applies, all the products in their brand must be included (and meet the standards); individual items cannot be approved alone. Furthermore, some brands may claim they are cruelty-free but still sell in markets that require animal testing (such as in China). To find a fabulously expansive list of certified cruelty-free brands, check out Logical Harmony.
Fragrance-Free:
Certainly self-explanatory, when something is labeled as “fragrance-free” there is no fragrance added. However, this is not the same as unscented. Products that claim to be unscented don’t have an aroma, but that does not mean there isn’t a fragrance added to neutralize scents.
Paraben-Free:
Parabens get a bad rap, partly because the majority of us don’t understand what they are. Similar to many nationwide sweeps of information is due to misinformation. Parabens are a preservative, making sure the product lasts on the shelf. It is synthetic, but it’s not unsafe—we’ve been using parabens for over 50 years! You can find parabens in just about everything like cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and food and drink. Yes, you have most likely ingested a paraben or two before. Another fantastic article by Dr. Grunter demonstrates the unnecessary fear of parabens in personal products. The industry-led Cosmetic Ingredient Review, in partnership with the FDA, determined that there was “no need to change CIR’s original conclusion from 1984 that parabens are safe for use in cosmetics.” Though Grunter and countless other doctors on the internet mention this fact, the fear of this preservative, in particular, remains.
Eco-Friendly:
What exactly are the creators stating is “eco-friendly”? How the product is made? What it’s made up of? Is the packaging biodegradable? Or is the product itself safe for our ecosystems? Hopefully the product gives more information, but if it doesn’t, put it back and move away slowly.
Whatever the label says, the best advice is to turn that product around and look at the ingredients. Do you recognize them? If you’re still left scratching your head, research the product or company and see what they have to say. Don’t let a cute logo or promising terms lead you to selecting an underwhelming—or simply bad—product.
By Shelby Lueders