What would you do....

Hey ,


Do you use Yuka? Or EWG's Skin Deep? Or Think Dirty?  They're apps that allow you to scan a bar code and it'll look through the ingredients and spit out a quick evaluation / score like this:

The key thing to understand is that Yuka's score isn't a weighted average. It's set by the single highest-risk ingredient in the formula.

So if one ingredient is flagged as moderate risk, the whole product is automatically capped below 50/100. Every other ingredient just adjusts the number within that ceiling.

What the app doesn't do is ask:

1- How much of that ingredient is actually in the product?
Ingredients are listed in order of quantity and since Phenoxyethanol - the 'moderately risky' ingredient in Youth to the People's cleanser - is almost the last ingredient on the list, it's likely less than 1% of the formula - well under the safety threshold set by European regulators.

On top of that, Phenoxyethanol has been flagged as 'risky' by EU regulators only if it's left-on-skin.  

So what if it's used in a face wash?  Well, in this use case, it's not actually left on the skin, it's rinsed off, so while there may be very trace amounts, it's just not an issue when used as a cleanser.

2. What's its purpose in the formula?
In this case, Phenoxyethanol is a preservative, to ensure the cleanser won't grow bacteria, mold, or yeast while sitting on your bathroom shelf.  And this is an important job.

3. Is there an environmental concern?
Genuinely, yes. It's petroleum-derived, and there are genuine concerns that it can be toxic to aquatic life in high concentrations, but given that it's less than 1% of the entire bottle, that means the small amount is unlikely to cause harm.  But it's something we're keeping our eye on because we use it too!

And so, I think it's important to evaluate the ingredient's purpose, proportion and specific use case to determine 'risk'.

And if you want a good real life example:

Check out our Laundry Detergent Ingredients:

When we started exploring concentrates, our chemist suggested using PVA - the dissolvable petro chemical used to contain laundry pods and bind laundry sheets.  And she made a good argument as to why.

But here was the problem.  PVA's only purpose is to BIND the cleaning ingredients together.  It doesn't clean, it doesn't preserve, it's just PACKAGING.

On top of that, PVA is the first or second ingredient - meaning there's a LOT of that particular petrochemical in the formula.

So we opted against it.  However, we DID decide to keep - for now - another controversial ingredient in our laundry detergent, which is known as an optical brightener.  Optical brighteners make clothes look whiter and brighter, BUT in higher concentrations they could be toxic to aquatic life. 

But because it's less than 1% of our formula, we opted to keep it for now, because our customers often comment how their clothes look whiter and brighter with our detergent - and they've told us this is important to them.

Our decision on Phenoxyethanol

Like Youth to the People, given the purpose - to keep our cleanser free of bacteria, mold and yeast - and the percentage (less than 1% of the formula) AND the fact that it gets washed off... we have decided to use phenoxyethanol in our facial cleanser.

But are ingredients like this perfect?  No they're not.  Should we change them?  That's the question we wrestle with all. the. time.

Our stance to date has been to eliminate the biggest offenders and continue to improve our ingredients with re-formulations, while still providing effective products at a price point that keeps everyone happy.

So my question to you is... what would you do if you were in my shoes?  One thing I promise - and if you've been around here for a while you'll know is true - is to constantly evaluate and improve when it makes sense. 

So thanks always for learning as I learn and in case you didn't know, if you dig a little, you can always find some 'hidden treasures - LIKE THIS' in our store.

And have a most excellent day!

Steve and the whole etee crew