I have a bottle of shampoo that I bought at Wild Oats (which is now Whole Foods) a couple years ago. The brand is Nature’s Gate and it’s called Rainwater Clarifying Shampoo. The back of the bottle declares the shampoo is “as pure and gentle as if washing your hair in the rain!”
But then you look at the ingredient list. And I have to admit that they do make it a bit tricky because there are fifteen “extracts” that you have to sort through to find out what’s really in your shampoo. Once you do, you’ll find that this pure and gentle shampoo contains an ingredient likely contaminated with 1,4-dioxane, an ingredient that releases formaldehyde with time, two different parabens (preservatives that are estrogen mimickers), and synthetic fragrance (which is likely contaminated with phthalates). This is considered “pure” and “gentle?” The brand name is misleading too, as Nature’s Gate sounds like a natural brand.
The moral of the story is that you need to be a skeptic. Don’t trust a product just because you bought it at a natural store, it has a natural name, or it claims to be as mild as water. You need to be a detective of sorts, scanning labels and ingredient lists. There are many resources to help you too, such as the Environmental Working Group’s cosmetic database. You can also read through some of my past posts on parabens and phthalates in personal care products, 12 ingredients to avoid, and 15 ingredietnts to avoid.
