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Transparency is easy when you have nothing to hide

Posted by Angela - Naturally Safe Cosmetics on 17th Jan 2018

One of my pet hates in this industry is when brands don’t provide their products’ full list of ingredients on their website. They may only list the key ingredients, or beneficial ingredients, or however they want to term it. Or they don’t list the ingredients at all.

Transparency in cosmetics

You’ve got to ask yourself – why?

Why don’t they provide you with a full list of ingredients for that moisturiser when it’s as easy as typing a few extra words on the backend of their website? Call me a skeptic or a cynic, but when I see a website that does not list all of the ingredients in the products they sell, whether it is a brand themselves or a retailer, my first thought is: what are they hiding? Is it a deliberate attempt to prevent you from seeing exactly what’s in a product until you buy it and can finally read the label? After all, if they are confident in all of the ingredients they use, why not list them ALL for everyone to see? Maybe it's a 'trade secret' but, if other brands can do it, why can't they?

Personally, I have more respect for a brand that openly reveals its list of ‘dodgy’ ingredients than one that tries to conceal the full list of what makes up their product/s. I may not like their products but I respect their openness and honesty.

And there’s another sneaky little trick to watch out for too. I’ve noticed some websites selling natural products that do in fact list all of the ingredients in their products but they've mis-spelt some of the less desirable ingredients. For example, a very long ingredient name broken up into 2 or 3 separate words. Coincidence? Perhaps it’s an honest error but I've seen it so many times with 'less than desirable' ingredients and have wondered. The problem is that if you specifically search for an ingredient (maybe because you're allergic to it), it will not show up if it is spelt incorrectly. So you might believe, mistakenly, that a product is free from that ingredient. Is it a deliberate ploy? Anyway, it's something to be wary of.

I will always list every ingredient in every product I sell as provided to me by the brand, manufacturer, supplier or product packaging, as the case may be. If I’m not comfortable with a product’s ingredients, that’s when I know it’s time to ditch that product.