A word about 'key ingredients' and incis.

I know I've touched on this subject numerous times before, but here we are in 2016 and some retailers and brands are still refusing/just not bothering to list the full ingredients of the products they sell on their websites.

Why? Who knows. I can tell you this though. I'm so over it. Ingredients are absolutely key as to whether I personally make a purchase or not. I made a stand about listing them in full in every review some time ago and the response from all of you was very positive. It seemed I was not alone. If you are expected to lay out your hard-earned cash for something, in a lot of cases, something very expensive, you want to know what is in it.

In the UK: Retailers including Selfridges, House of Fraser, Debenhams, Harvey Nichols, even you John Lewis, not an inci to be had on any skincare item I searched. Not one. I realise you all have one major thing in common, you're high street first, web second. But still. Not good enough. Stop making us search.

There are notable exceptions, and some that do it brilliantly. The Body Shop, Marks & Spencer, Cult Beauty, Victoria Health and Content Beauty - all are outstanding for content and information, but the rest don't fare much better. You can devote entire pages to your returns policy, but we have to search everywhere else outside of your site, notably on blogs and beautypedia.com in the hope that someone has taken it upon themselves to type up your ingredients for you.

And brands. You set the tone. Some of the biggest brands in the world still do not list their ingredients.

I searched for the bestselling items across every major brand and not one listed the ingredients on their own websites. Oh there's some talk of 'key ingredients' and how the flowers are harvested by vestal virgins at dawn, but no actual 'here is what is in this product that we would like you to buy'.

If you think of the people that own the parent companies of these brands, I highly doubt that they put a cream on themselves without checking what's in it. Why do they not get that their customers want to do the same thing? 

Please stop relying on us to do your job for you.

Beauty Myths No.16 - Active vs 'Inactive' Ingredient

What used to relate purely to ingredients that qualify as drugs, is now used as a marketing tool industry-wide and to say that the terms 'active' and 'inactive' are overused and abused by marketing departments everywhere is an understatement.

Active ingredients - traditionally, when used in products considered drugs i.e. SPF products - are 'any component of a drug product intended to provide therapeutic and pharmacological activity in direct effect to a diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or to affect the structure or any function of the body of humans.' 

Depending on your country, retinoids, acids, sunscreens like oxybenzone and avobenzone are all considered 'active'.

They are considered active enough to change the structure of the skin. Take prescription strength retinoids. In a product like that, the vitamin A will be classed as the drug and therefore 'active' and the rest of the ingredients are 'inactive' because they make up the formula/emulsify/are the delivery system and do not actually change the structure of skin at all. A lot of ingredients considered truly 'active' will have a maximum % that they are allowed to be used at in any formula.

Inactive ingredients - officially, are 'any component of a drug product other than the active ingredients.'

However, we are now seeing the words 'active' and 'inactive' bounded about everywhere as the general rule, not the exception to be used only in the case of drugs.

A brand will say 'active' ingredients are peptides, vitamin c, seaweed, whale sperm, witch's warts...pick something. What they actually mean when they say this is 'what we are charging you the big bucks for'.

Inactive ingredients are all too often completely glossed over, ignored or relegated to the very smallest font on the pack and except in the rarest of circumstances, essentially mean 'the bulk of the product' i.e. water/carrier oils etc.

The potential problems arise when unknowing customers purchase something assuming that 'inactive' means 'has no effect on the skin'. Just because something doesn't change the structure of the skin ('active') does not mean that something does not affect the skin. 

Alcohol, fragrance and silicones, for example, are all 'inactive' ingredients, yet the ones I am asked about the most from readers. You can bet that a high level of alcohol in a product will be 'active' on your skin in some way.

If a bacon sandwich was skincare, the bacon would be labelled on the pack as the 'active' ingredient, but the bread would certainly be an active ingredient to someone with a gluten intolerance or a wheat allergy.

Ignore the marketing hype, read the ingredients label. That's where you see what is likely to be an 'inactive' ingredient that could actually be something 'active' for you to look out for.

Some brands have started using bold type for their 'active' ingredients in their inci lists in order to make them stand out. Clever, but not if you know what you are looking at. 

Tomorrow: how to read an ingredients label.

Grown Alchemist Hydra-Restore Cream Cleanser - and a rant

Followers of my Instagram will have seen the below picture last week showing my face immediately after cleansing with the above product. I had high hopes for Grown Alchemist - and in fairness to them, I have only used this product so far, and this result won't stop me using the rest of the range - BUT: the cleanser above gave me a reaction quite unlike one I've had in a long, long time.  

I can only assume it is one of the essential oils - probably balsam? However unless I take further allergy tests it will prove hard to find out - and this is the reason I'm writing this post - which is not in any way to bash a brand, not my style - more to make a point that it is possible for anyone to be allergic/unsuited to anything. 

No filter, just reddened, burning hot skin.

Having said all of that, upon doing research for this post it does kind of grate that the brand talks about its range as if it's the second coming of an organic Jesus and yet - not only doesn't publish the full ingredients listing on their site, claims to be safe and free from 'harmful chemical ingredients'. See their own page for yourself: grownalchemist.com/philosophy

This is what is in the product according to Grown Alchemist's site:

'Active ingredients - OLIVE LEAF EXTRACT, A POWERFUL ANTIOXIDANT AND TONIC, HELPS SLOW THE VISIBLE SIGNS OF AGE LINES WHILE SOOTHING, HYDRATING AND FIRMING THE SKINS APPEARANCE. B VITAMIN NOTICEABLY REDUCES PORE SIZE, ASTRINGENT YARROW EXTRACTS AND TRACE ELEMENT ZINC ASSIST TO VISIBLY TONE, FIRM, AND ENERGISE THE SKIN GIVING A NATURAL RADIANCE TO THE COMPLEXION. POLYSACCARIDES AND FUCOIDANS FROM RED SEAWEED PROVIDE LASTING HYDRATION AND VISIBLY EVEN OUT SKIN TONE. PLANTAGO EXTRACTAND BETA-GLUCAN FROM OAT SOOTHE AND THOROUGHLY CLEANSE THE SKIN LEAVING FACIAL SKIN LOOKING BEAUTIFULLY HEALTHY.'

Right. Thanks for that. I was actually looking for ingredients. (If you can actually find the entire list of ingredients on their site, please do let me know, but you have better eyes than me.)

This is what is actually in the product (thanks to Space NK's site):

ALOE BARBADENSIS (ALOE VERA) LEAF EXTRACT, AQUA (PURIFIED WATER), CAMELLIA OLEIFERA (CAMELLIA) SEED OIL, CETEARYL OLIVATE (AND) SORBITAN OLIVATE (PLANT), CETYL ALCOHOL (PLANT), OLEA EUROPAEA (OLIVE) LEAF EXTRACT, BENZYL ALCOHOL (PLANT), PLANTAGO LANCEOLATA (PLANTAIN) LEAF EXTRACT, CITRUS SINENSIS (SWEET ORANGE) PEEL OIL EXPRESSED, SODIUM DEHYDROACETATE (ORGANIC LISTED), XANTHAN GUM (POLYSACCHARIDE), LACTIC ACID (PLANT), CANANGA ODORATA (YLANG YLANG) FLOWER OIL, TOCOPHEROL (PLANT), MYROXYLON PEREIRAE (PERU BALSAM) OIL, ACHILLEA MILLEFOLIUM (YARROW) EXTRACT, AVENA SATIVA (OAT) KERNEL EXTRACT, ZINC OXIDE (MINERAL), POGOSTEMON CABLIN (PATCHOULI) LEAF OIL SANTALUM SPICATA (SANDALWOOD) WOOD OIL, NIACINAMIDE (VITAMIN B3), ALGAE (FUCUS) EXTRACT, CITRUS PARADISI (GRAPEFRUIT) PEEL OIL, LINALOOL (PLANT), LIMONENE (PLANT), BENZYL SALICYLATE (PLANT) FARNESOL (PLANT), BENZYL BENZOATE (PLANT).

First of all, if you're that proud of your ingredients, list them in full, surely? Secondly, all ingredients are active. They all serve a purpose. You could technically say that baking soda is an active ingredient in cakes, but without the flour it does jack. The flour is part of the equation - a rather big one. This whole 'active' ingredients trend is at best annoying, and at worst, lying to consumers.

All of the above leads me to this post from Colin's Beauty Pages - which he posted on Saturday (rather nicely timed). Colin is a cosmetic scientist who frequently dispenses fact over marketing hype and this is exactly one of those occasions. Please do have a read.

So I guess what I'm saying is:

• any brand can make any claim about any ingredient - and they blatantly do - all the time. The proof is in the pudding. Hardly anyone patch tests anymore, but do try and test everything for yourself before you buy. 
• with more people than ever buying online, surely you are losing money and custom as a brand by not being completely open with your customers about your ingredients. If you don't have something to hide (and I'm not suggesting that Grown Alchemist do), and are particularly proud of your organic non-harmful second coming of Jesus ingredients, please do prove it.
• don't make people scout around online looking for ingredients lists before they can purchase. From a customer service point of view, its poor, very poor - and from a monetary point of view, if you are a brand that inadvertently sends your would-be customers elsewhere because you don't tell people everything that is in your products, you are losing your 100% margin. How does that make any sense at all?

This is not the first time I've had a rant about the lack of information re ingredients on websites:  carolinehirons.com/ingredients and sadly I doubt it will be the last - but people need to know what they are buying. Don't they?

As I said, I'm not generally comfortable with negative blogging so if you have used Grown Alchemist and love it - or have any recommendations of what else to use from the range first - please do let me know, I'm all for being fair.

Where To Shop

After my not-so-mini-rant about the lack of availability of full ingredients listings on websites, I have added a permanent page to this site called 'Where To Shop'. 

It lists retailers and brands that give full disclosure of ingredients and have a ton of useful information too. Special mentions got out to Victoria Health, Lush, mypure, Becca and David Kirsch - that's how its done chaps!

I'm so glad it wasn't just me!

Ingredients: To List or Not To List

This evening I was doing some research for a Clinic question and needed the ingredients for a Clinique product. Simples right? Just google it. 

WRONG.

10 websites later I found them - but not one retailer - including Clinique's own site - had them.

So that got me thinking. And looking. And looking. And in fairness to Clinique - low and behold they are not the only ones. 

I went through the following: Selfridges, Debenhams, House of Fraser, ASOS, John Lewis, Boots, Sephora and Harrods to name a few. Not one inci list among them - for any of their items on sale in beauty. Don't take my word for it. Go have a look.

Shockingly out of the so-called 'leading brands' I randomly googled - none of the following list their ingredients: Chanel, Lancome, Clarins, MAC, Estee Lauder, Rodial, Bobbi Brown and even Dermalogica. Not one inci list.

You know who DOES carry inci lists? Some online retailers and some brands. Not all - and certainly not enough.

And I'm talking about a FULL inci listing - not just 'key ingredients'. A key ingredient in a can of coke is water. Think that tells you the whole picture?

Is this acceptable? Is it just me? Maybe most people don't want to see what goes in to what they are buying? But I don't think so. I know I've had similar complaints from people on this site.

So - here below is the start of an Honours List of retailers that have full inci lists available on their sites.

Please feel free to add to it - I will add them to my 'Approved Retailers' List that is going up this weekend. And no I don't think that a huge retailer gives two turds whether or not they are on my list. But my readers do.  And my readers are your customers. So there.

In no particular order:

Victoria Health

NutriBeauty

Beauty Bay

Cult Beauty
SpaceNK (not all sku's - but the site looks new and I sense its being updated)

Please tell me there are more???

And brands (albeit random ones)....I didn't look at a lot of brands - I know there will be more - please feel free to add in comments and I'll update regularly. I have to say some brand sites are incredible - and some are beyond pathetic.

These are great:

Pai
Avene

Liz Earle
Suti
Kate Somerville
Bare Minerals
Serge Normant
Hampton Sun

La Roche Posay

Dr Hauschka
The Organic Pharmacy
Illamasqua



What do you think? Am I overreacting??


*If any retailers I've mentioned DO actually provide inci and I've missed it I will of course rectify. Just let me know.
*I have no affiliated links with any retailers. I will not profit financially from any list.

Hall of Fame - Darphin Purifying Balm

If there was such a thing as a 'Church of Beauty' - I would surely worship at the altar of this product.

I first used this when I worked in SpaceNK in the 90's. I took a sample home (technically not allowed but we'll brush over that) when my skin had a couple of breakouts and was so impressed by the overnight results that I started selling it like hot cakes. Customers had similar reactions to the product and it has been a staple in my routine ever since.

What's in it?

A mini rant. Apologies about the quality of the above picture but I searched far and wide online to find the ingredients (for ease) and couldn't find them - anywhere. I was so annoyed I dug out my spare pot from the back of the cupboard and quickly fired this off.
Online retailers need to seriously up their game when it comes to ingredient listing - some do, most don't. I went to every single retailer of Darphin. No full inci. Infuriating. And what's even more annoying? The paid-for ads on google - that say 'Darphin Purifying Balm' - and then you click through to find they don't even SELL it. Sod off and stop wasting my time.

I've been inspired by this little episode to always show the inci listing on the product I am posting about - because clearly - there is a need. This is something that is regularly done by London Makeup Girl - the most ethical blogger out there. So Grace, *tips hat* - I'm joining you.

Right - now that's sorted - these are the key ingredients - to my mind..
Apricot Kernel Oil
Sunflower Seed Oil
Vegetable Oil
Beeswax
The above 4 form the base. Good, non-clogging oils - note the lack of mineral oil!

Sage Oil
Nutmeg Kernel Oil
Tea Tree Oil
Thyme Oil
Grapefruit Oil
Rosewood Oil
Balsam Oil
The above are just a few of the oils included and are by turn, decongesting and anti-bacterial.

What's good about it?
It does what it says on the box - The leaflet included in the product says 'ideal for combination to oily skin, prone to imperfections, with a dull, unhealthy appearance.' Personally I would argue with that. It may have been designed with that skin type in mind, but I find this works really well on all skin types. Sensitive, ageing, dry - it ticks every box.
It's not full of 'filler' ingredients - its fairly pure.
Smells beautiful - not vital, but important to me.
It lasts AGES - a little goes a long, long way.

Its worth mentioning two further things. Darphin do have another balm - Aromatic Renewing - I suspect this was released to cater for the older, dryer market in response to the popularity of the original Purifying. It's good, but I MUCH prefer Purifying Balm.
And - huge credit to Darphin here - since I first bought this product in the 90's they have made it completely organic. It's EcoCert certified and is now called Organic Aromatic Purifying Balm.

If your skin is dull, needs a little glow, is prone to impurities, oily, sensitive, dry - whatever: this product works. Highly - and always - recommended.

Darphin Organic Aromatic Purifying Balm is around £40.00 and is available at pretty much every major online retailer. ALL of whom need to start listing ingredients. On everything. I'll link to the ones that DO in future.
*huffs*