Dear Founder, Chaz Dean,
WEN, O’ Wen will you go green?
Much as I love your Cleansing Cream,
It’s got ingredients that make me scream!
If it didn’t work like a dream,
It ne’er would be part of my routine.
So here is where we break rhythm & rhyme,
It’s what happens every time
Because using toxin’s akin to crime.
Things like
Benzyl Benzoate
Methylchloroisothiazolinone
Methylisothiazolinone
—And while you’re at it
Find out lots more about it.
Sadly, that’s not all
Because here comes our enemy Eugenol.
But wait! As if that’s not enough
It’s got some other murky stuff.
Any time you see “Parfum,“
Tell e’ryone to clear the room!
You don’t know what it’s concealin’,
So peel back the label and start revealin’—
The allergens and toxins that make no sense,
Why would you put ’em in our scents?
So, please, Chaz Dean, clean up your act,
It’s better for all of us—and that’s a fact!
Sincerely,
Sarita, a would-be devoted fan
Check out the ingredient list of my fave, the Fig Cleansing Cream:
Water, Glycerin, Cetyl Alcohol, Cetearyl Alcohol, Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Calendula Officinalis Flower Extract, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract, Prunus Serotina (Wild Cherry) Fruit Extract, Ficus Carica (Fig) Fruit Extract, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Triticum Vulgare (Wheat) Starch, PEG-60 Almond Glycerides, Panthenol, Amodimethicone, Butylene Glycol, Behentrimonium Methosulfate, Polysorbate 60, Citric Acid, Menthol, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone, Fragrance (Parfum), Benzyl Benzoate, Eugenol, Hexyl Cinnamal. * A score of 3+ earned a red highlight.
As with every product, take the opportunity to educate yourself about the ingredients. There are lots of links here to help you do that. Make your own assessment of what you feel comfortable using and what’s good for you.
While WEN Cleansing Cream does change the health and texture of my hair for the better (softer, more volume, less fallout, fewer noticeable gray hairs), I’m really in a bind about using it considering some of the ingredients listed here. However, so far, no other green shampoos and conditioners deliver the same results.
When a product works really well for you, what do you do when the ingredients don’t meet your green standards? Do help a gal out in the comments! Thanks.
This is a fantastic article, Sarita ! I enjoyed it to the maximum. Pangea Organics will be making its hair care line available for sale in the near future. I can assure all ingredients will be safe and pure. I will let you know when it comes out !
Thank you so much, Elaine. I can’t wait to try Pangea’s hair care line when it launches. How exciting! xoxo
Great article and I loved your poetic touch!
I have a couple of thoughts. When the EU instituted their new rules for listing ingredients, they required manufacturers to list any components, natural or synthetic that could be a possible allergen. Eugenol was one such chemical constituent that is commonly found in higher concentrations in several essential oils as well as in the primary materials themselves such as clove (the highest at 70-90%), cinnamon, bay leaf, nutmeg, basil, etc. Unfortunately, the EU rules makes it impossible for us to tell if the eugenol has been derived from a natural or synthetic source. The ruling also allows companies to use the word “Parfum” even if they are using essential oils. Parfum simply refers to the fragrance blend in the formula which could be natural or synthetic. Again, impossible for us to tell the difference. If you look at the ingredient decks of Hauschka or Weleda, you will find similar listings. Those companies are committed to using only naturally derived ingredients and have started adding an asterisk to explain that their “Fragrance” or “Parfum” comes from essential oils.
There is pending legislation in the EU that might make it illegal to use certain ingredients in fragrance, many of which are naturally derived. The subject is simply too complex to explain in these comments, but suffice it to say that this legislation seems unreasonably extreme, based on insufficient science or premises that are very narrow such as the population that is affected by these allergens is about 1-2%, especially when certain food allergens, such as peanuts (which can be deadly) are not regulated, but are listed so the consumer can have the final say about what to purchase. This kind of legislation will limit our right to choose, the same way it affected ingredient decks so that we can no longer discern if a manufacturer is using naturally derived ingredients or synthetics in their fragrance blends.
As for the eugenol in the Wen products, it’s probably derived from an essential oil that most likely has wonderful antibacterial properties, but we’ll never know for sure. Companies are not required to disclose ingredients in their fragrance blends, so good luck getting anyone to tell you what essential oil is used in this shampoo. The baby was thrown out with the bath water. There are so many benefits to using essential oils, even the ones with eugenol (cleansing, toning, antimicrobial, antibacterial, etc). The concentration of essential oils in most products is between 0.5-1.0% and then the essential oil containing the eugenol may be at a low percentage as well, so your exposure is realistically very minimal, especially since it is a wash-off product. In order to have a reaction to eugenol, it would have to be applied repeatedly at a high concentration, or neat, which is how they test allergenic ingredients.
So I guess I’m defending eugenol here, as it really isn’t the enemy. The real enemy, in my humble opinion, is not being able to know the facts and having to rely on government regulations that don’t necessarily help us choose our products.
Maggie, your comment is brilliant and is inspiring me to write another blog post about exactly this! I’m going to write to you because I know you’re on to something important. Thanks so much for clarifying this information. XO
Definitely! Would love to have you jump on this! United we stand. xo
Try Ava Anderson Non toxic! I love their hair care products!