I’ve recently become obsessed with moisturizing. I mean, there are worse things one can fixate on, correct? This obsession has therefore caused me to become consumed with making sure I’m only using moisturizer that contains all natural ingredients. Your skin is your body’s largest organ, and you wouldn’t rub something full of carcinogens on your kidneys.
Looking into moisturizing products made me think I should start to analyze anything I rub, brush or blend onto my face. I’ve used cruelty-free beauty products exclusively for my entire adult life, but is cruelty-free synonymous with non-toxic? Do companies that refrain from animal testing also exclude toxic materials from their products? I would like think so, in fact, I really, REALLY hope so as I like all my products, but I also want to be an educated consumer, so I decided to put the six brands I use most often on trial.
The Defendant: Aveda
The Case: I’ve always been attracted to Aveda products, even when I was a carefree teenager. Perhaps it was the tea they served, or the serene atmosphere of their store? Whatever brought me in, I was immediately hooked. The company continued to impress me with their commitment to the environment. Aveda was the first beauty company to manufacture with 100% wind power, and their parent company, Estée Lauder, became one of 53 Fortune 500 companies to actually surpass EPA green power goals (of course, so did Pepsi and Nike, both of whom have less than ideal ethical operations, so using green power shouldn’t be the basis for an overall judgment of any company’s practices).
Further research lead me to discover that Estée Lauder was named as one of several liable parties for cleanup costs at two New York landfills in 2004. Solvents, paints, dyes and other manufacturing waste had migrated some 400 feet from where it had been dumped and down to a level of 535 feet below ground; the company was forced to pay $16 million in clean up cost.
No longer feeling quite so confident about what I would find, I searched Aveda on Skin Deep, a database operated by watchdog groups the Environmental Working Group and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. Some products received risk rankings as low as 2 (including Aveda Purefume Brilliant Emollient for Hair styling gel), but their styling spray received a score of 10, the highest and worst the site awards.
The verdict: Aveda is ahead of the industry on most products, and aims to improve, just make sure to read the ingredients and watch out for anything suspect.
Check back for investigations into Bare Essentials, Kiehl’s, MAC, Physicians Formula and Urban Decay.
