The following is an excerpt from the Glow Journal Podcast. You can listen to the full interview now on iTunes and Spotify.
When you walk into a supermarket, pharmacy, cosmetics retailer or department store, is it safe to assume that the products on the shelves have been regulated? “This is absolutely not the case,” Mukti, founder of Mukti Organics explains.
Until the Australian beauty industry changes its processes, arming ourselves with knowledge may be the only temporary solution. “I think as consumers, we’ve got to empower ourselves,” says Mukti. “It’s about being aware, because there is no watch dog.”
In this excerpt from Episode 10 of the Glow Journal podcast, Mukti explains how to read a cosmetics label and how to safely decode beauty industry jargon.
On the assumption that all beauty products are strictly regulated…
This is absolutely not the case. There is a regulatory body, the Therapeutic Goods Administration in Australia, but the only products that are TGA certified are the ones that go through the TGA. That means that they’ve been passed to have some cosmeceutical effect on the skin and will create some sort of change to the skin. For example, if you have psoriasis or eczema- making any of those claims- TGA. You can’t make those claims or products unless you have gone through the TGA, so those products are regulated. In saying that, you don’t have all the ingredients listed on a TGA product either. The safety of using many ingredients on a daily basis is unknown and unquantifiable. Epidemiological studies are done on certain segments of the population but those studies will only come to light if there is an issue. I think hairdressers and nail technicians would be the most vulnerable as far as their exposure to chemicals. They’d be two classes of the population that I’d be looking at doing long term studies on. For me, it just makes sense to avoid ingredients that you don’t understand or can’t pronounce. The industry is unregulated.
The other side of that is that there’s a lot of these startup businesses who may not be making their products in an environment that’s safe. The products aren’t tested and there’s no micro biological data, so you’ve got to be very aware. If it’s made in a factory then it’s obviously been through some processes and it’s in a clean environment, but unlike the food industry people can just make products in their own kitchen. It’s another part of the industry that hasn’t been regulated either. It’s concerning, for health and safety matters. There’s no one actually looking at the product and giving it the gold seal of approval or a tick to say ‘This is safe for human consumption.’
On how to read a cosmetics label…
I would look at the front of the label and see what claims are being made. Look at what ingredients they’ve listed on the front of the label as being the “key” ingredients. I’d also look for certification. I’d then flip the bottle over to the back, as they order the ingredients are listed in descending, similar to food products. The top third is where you want to look, and that’s where the main ingredients will be. They’ll list water first, then a carrier, like glycerin. If you’re looking for plant based or natural products, you’d be looking for plant materials. You’re looking for Latin- anything that sounds like a botanical species. They sounds and look very different to something that is a synthetic chemical. Your middle third usually has your actives, then the final third will have your preservatives, colourants and fragrances. Natural and organic products will use essential oils instead of fragrances and perfumes.
On cosmetic certification…
We first become certified in 2006 with the Organic Food Chain. Organics is complicated and it limits what you can use in your products. There are also so many certified organic standards, so looking for certain logos is something else- it’s a minefield! Every standard has different allowable inputs. The gold standard that we now use, and became certified with last year, is Cosmos ACO. I chose to change over to Cosmos ACO because it’s a globally recognised standard. It’s also a harmonisation of many different standards from across the globe. You’ve got all of Europe, the US, the UK- everyone has different standards, so Cosmos is the harmonisation of many standards.
What certification does is it gives the consumer confidence that the product has gone through testing from a third party perspective. Every raw material has to be an allowable input. There are certain things that aren’t allowed in [certified organic] formulations so it does make it a bit more challenging. You’ve got a third party auditor who physically comes in to the business and goes through all the different processes- even down to the constituents of the essentials oils that are used in the product. Everything, down to the last drop, has been accounted for. It’s a very time consuming process, and it’s also a costly process because there’s so much involved.
On her new book, ‘Truth In Beauty’…
I think when you walk into a supermarket, pharmacy or department store, it’s very important to scrutinise the label. To understand and read a label is a whole other issue, hence the book. It’s basically a consumer’s guide to how to read and understand a label- what to look for, what to avoid. It started with the A to Z blacklist of ingredients that have been red flagged as having been carcinogens, irritants, having EDCs, having an impact on animals and the environment on which we live. It was an interesting journey because I wanted to make sure that anything I had qualified as being detrimental had research done on it. It was a long process, going in deep and delving into those ingredients. Anything that’s been banned in other countries… Australia is a little bit slow. The US are also reticent to make those changes, as it’s going to involve many different areas of industry. As with anything, it usually comes down to money.
On the rise of “greenwashing”…
Those sorts of labels [green, natural, organic etc] are bandied about. There are very good marketers out there who use words in certain ways. You can package a product to look greener than it may be. That’s when it comes to learning about the INCI, or International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients. You really want to scrutinise the front of the products and look for a logo that comes from a certified body. You’ve got to know your standards. It’s your only guarantee that the product is veritably clean and pure. The words are unregulated. The marketing terms are unregulated as well.
On products to treat with caution…
Johnson & Johnson is obviously a very well-established, mega, multinational conglomeration with very deep pockets. From my understanding, there has been asbestos used as a byproduct of baby powder. This is a product that is still sold in supermarkets and pharmacies across the globe, and it is used on the most vulnerable segments of the population- babies, toddlers, the elderly, people who are highly susceptible. Part of the issue is the inhalation as well as putting it on your genetalia or other sensitive areas where you’ve got mucus membranes.
These are the areas of the body that we’ve got to take into consideration- anywhere that is more penetrable. If you’re going to swap out [your current products for organic ones], you’d be looking at anything that’s going to come into contact with your mouth, your genetalia, anything that you can inhale or ingest. The biggest one for me that I really have an issue with is perfumes and fragrances. They’re a huge concern. Many, many people have allergies and sensitivities to them- some to the point of anaphylaxis. When you walk into a department store you’re affronted with perfumes, perfume counters and fragrances. Perfumes are tied up in trade secrets as far as what the constituents are to make that perfume. When you buy a perfume, there’s no ingredients list. They have things in them like phthalates that are plasticisers, so when you spray a perfume you’re adhering that to you skin. There’s up to 300 chemicals in a perfume, possibly more, that you’re breathing in and applying to your lymph nodes. What I would suggest with perfume, if you do want to use it save it for special occasions, spray it somewhere well-ventilated, and just spray it on your clothes.
To listen to the full interview with Mukti, subscribe to the Glow Journal podcast now on iTunes or Spotify.
