Ahh! The Smell of Baby Shampoo

I love the smell of Baby's hair when it's all clean and fluffy! So I decided to investigate his shampoo, Burt's Bees Baby Bee Shampoo and Baby Wash. Here's the list of ingredients, all 22 of them. Seems like a lot!

• Aqua
• Decyl glucoside: 0-100%
• Coco-betaine: coconut 0-100%
• Lauryl glucoside: sugar 0-100%
• Sucrose Laurate: another sugar type substance 0-100%
• Glycerin: naturally occurring alcohol compound of animal or vegetable origin 2-74%
• Betaine: viscosity controller 2-82%
• Coco-glucoside: foaming agent 0-100%
• Sodium cocoyl hydrolyzed soy protein: hair conditioning agent 0-100%
• Sweet orange peel oil: 0-100%
• Lemon peel oil: astringent 2-71%
• Vanilla fruit extract: 1-94%
• Glyceryl oleate: beeswax 0-93%
• Glucose: 1-82%
• Xanthan gum: binder 0-94%
• Sodium chloride: salt 0-0%
  
• Citric acid: fragrance agent 2-72%
• Glucose oxidase: enzyme 2-87%
• Lactoperoxidase: enzyme derived from milk 0-97%
• Benzyl benzoate: solvent and preservative 5-75%
• Geraniol: scent from essential oils 6-61%
• Linalool: hydrocarbon 5-65%

I marked in blue the 7 ingredients I know for sure. Then I visited the Environment Working Group Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database to check out what the rest of the ingredients are, their hazard score (known and suspected hazards from more than 50 definitive databases on scale of 1-10, 1 being the safest and 10 being of highest concern) and their data gap (a measure of how much is unknown about an ingredient.)

Results:

• The top 3 worst ingredients are benzyl benzoate 5, geraniol 6, and linalool 5, with associated studies showing a variety of results such as immune system toxicity, irritation, allergies, endocrine disruption, not to mention the results of studies made on animals. 
• Both benzyl benzoate and linalool are banned in Europe.
• Most ingredients were not assessed for safety in cosmetics by industry panel
• 7 ingredients have 100% data gap: meaning there are no studies found to see if there might be effects on our bodies.

Overall score for Burt's Bees Baby Bee Shampoo and Baby Wash is:

• 2 out of 10 hazard
• 81% data gap
• Non-compliant: This company has signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics but is not in compliance because of their use of one or more ingredients prohibited or restricted under the Compact. 
• 45% of baby shampoos in the database have a better score for hazard

So what does it mean to me and Baby?

• I can make more informed choices.
• I can buy and use products that make us smell nice and feeling good inside and out! I'm scared to see how Baby's butt cream scores...
• I can spread the news.

If you haven't already seen the amazing and informative animation, The Story of Stuff, check out The Story of Cosmetics.