5 REASONS GROOMERS NEED INGREDIENT INFORMATION

Manufacturers of pet grooming products are not required by law to disclose any information about the ingredients of the products they sell.  Although there are a few honorable exceptions, many of these manufacturers continue to maintain a shroud of "trade secrecy" and will even question why groomers would need ingredient information.  Here are a few reasons.

 1.    To be able to assess the extent to which a product is consistent with how it is advertised.   For this very same reason, some manufacturers would rather NOT provide an ingredient list.  They do not like to be called out when the ingredient list does not match the description of a product.  For example, one pricey pet conditioner states in the description that it is a “Cream for loosening difficult tangles.  Its collagen and proteins provide elasticity and softness to the pet’s coat, returning it to the right moisture balance. “  Under this description is the ingredient list.  I have added the main function of each ingredient in parenthesis: Water (diluent), Cetearyl Alcohol (aka emulsifying wax, emulsifier and thickener found in ultra thick conditioners and lotions), Cetrimonium Chloride (conditioner, anti-static), Citric Acid (Acidifier to adjust pH), fragrance,  Benzyl Salicylate, Hexyl Cinnamal, Hydroxycitronellal (three of the 26 fragrance components identified as potential allergens and required by EU law to be identified on EU products.), Cocos nucifera (coconut oil, emollient and moisturizer), PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate (emulsifier, probably for the fragrance oil), Methylchloroisothiazolinone and Methylisothiazolinone (Preservatives), CL 19140 CL 42080 (colorants)

Hey, where’s the collagen?  Where’s the protein?  The ingredient list reveals a product consisting mostly of an emulsifying wax, a quaternary conditioning agent, fragrance, and a little bit of coconut oil.  The company continues to market this product as having generous portions of protein and collagen, in spite of their absence in the ingredient line-up.  If there were no ingredient list, we would not know of this absence.  How many of our pet products where there are NO ingredients disclosed have similar discrepancies? 

 2.    To be able to identify the primary ingredients and those that are minor players. Not only do we want manufacturers to identify their ingredients, we should want them listed in the order, by volume, in which they appear in the product. This is the only way we have of knowing whether a touted ingredient is significant in the product or pixie dust at the bottom of the line-up.  Anytime an ingredient is listed below fragrance you either have very little of the ingredient or a whole lot of fragrance. 

 3.    To be able to know if/when the ingredient line-up of a product changes. Don’t you hate it when a favorite product undergoes changes and you don’t know what is different?  We deserve to know what has changed!  In one case, where there was ingredient disclosure, we were able to identify that a company that marketed “No DEA!” replaced the ingredient Cocamide MEA with Cocamide DEA, an easier to use ingredient with greater foaming action.  But they continued to allow the “No DEA” claim to appear in advertising. 

 4.    To be able to make generalizations about what sort of products work or don’t work for us under our individual conditions of use. Without ingredient information, we learn about every new product by trial and error.  We ask each other for anecdotal information (“What is your favorite shampoo”), and when something does not perform well for us, we move on to the next product totally in the dark as to why someone else’s favorite was not so great at our tub.  If we have hard water, we blame our water instead of being able to look for shampoos that contain chelating agents, such as EDTA, or a primary cleanser, such as Alpha Olefin Sulfonate, that performs well in hard water.  

 5.    To identify and avoid specific ingredients that are problematic, especially those that might be irritants or allergic sensitizers.  Post-grooming itching and allergic responses are one of the most common problems related to shampoos and conditioners.  Without specific ingredient identification, it is nearly impossible to pin down what ingredient is causing an allergic response in an animal or staff member.  For every product, there is some individual that may be sensitive to some ingredient.  Although fragrances and colorants are often the culprit, some people and pets can react to preservatives, thickeners, foaming agents, and natural ingredients such as Lanolin.  We could have a class on contact allergy dermatitis and common allergens, but what good would it do if 85% of our products offer no ingredient disclosure? 

 Discussion and Conclusions:  The claim by pet grooming product manufacturers that they are not disclosing ingredient information because they do not want to reveal “trade secrets” to their competition is simply bogus.  Any manufacturer (or individual with money) can submit a competitor’s product to a deformulating lab for analysis and what is called “reverse engineering”.  This can yield a reasonably accurate recipe for the tested product, way more than an ingredient list reveals.  The real reason for not disclosing ingredients is that they don’t want groomers to know what is in the bottle.  They want to be able to sell the products on the basis of marketing hype and puffery, and leave us with no option but to take their word for what is actually there.  They don’t want us to be able to figure out that a signature ingredient is either absent or present in just a pinch.  They want to be able to tout their products as being significantly different from others when there may be more similarities than differences. 

     There is one rationale for reluctance to share ingredient information with which I can sympathize with our companies.  That is the fear that groomers will try to avoid certain ingredients based on Internet smear campaigns.  There is considerable fear mongering that is used to make consumers wary of mainstream human cosmetic ingredients and to steer them toward alternative products.  One much maligned ingredient is Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, which has virtually disappeared from most human shampoos, but is still an important ingredient in the formulation of many pet shampoos.  Because there is so little education of groomers about products and ingredients, there is little to counteract the fear of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate that can be created by researching on the Internet.  Manufacturers of pet products are justified in a concern that groomers might jump to conclusions about their products based on misinformation on the Internet.  Silicones are a whole class of ingredients that have a bad rap on the Internet based on misinformation and deliberate fear mongering without an iota of scientific basis.  Silicones have been so successfully knocked about that one of our companies who pioneered their whole line of products based on the functional superiority of silicone ingredients and is now almost hiding the fact that their products contain silicones as primary working ingredients. We have to dig deep within the company website to find that they are still using Amodimethicone.  They would have us believe that silk proteins are the major player in their products.   Another company flat out lies and makes the claim that they use “no silicones” when their detangling gel product is primarily silicone polymer.  By hiding or denying their use of silicones, companies are by default empowering the fear mongering around these ingredients.  They are completely missing the opportunity to educate their users and our industry as to the facts and science around the functional advantages of silicones, because they are afraid that groomers won’t “get it right.”   This insults our intelligence! 

 What is a good list?  It is simple: full disclosure means identification of all ingredients in the order in which they appear by volume in the product, using INCI names.  INCI, International Nomenclature for Cosmetic Ingredients, is a naming system that uses standardized ingredient names and is recognized internationally.  Names of ingredients that simply describe the ingredient, such as “Coconut Surfactant”, or “thickening agent”, rather than identifying it, are dodgeballs.  Using chemical suppliers names or industry jargon names, such as “Lauramide D” (Lauramide DEA is correct) is confusing rather than clarifying; using chemical descriptions, such as “EGMS Fatty Acid Esters” is beating around the bush to baffle the reader into submission.  But EGMS sounds less daunting than Ethylene Glycol Monostearate, the INCI name.  By the way, this is simply a pearlizing agent.  In an ideal world, we would be able to know each ingredient by its technical, INCI name, as well as its function in the particular product.  A few companies provide this information in the way of product tech sheets, or on their websites.  

    There is a light beginning to shine, slowly and gradually, as companies are bending to the pressure to become more transparent about ingredients.  But many are still dodging and dancing, giving up bits and pieces or using language that it unstandardardized, inconsistent, or baffling.  Groomers can help bring our industry into the twenty first century by supporting those courageous companies thst are sharing clear and complete ingredient information, and shunning those that are not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[A Facebook User]

So, what can we do to get disclosure introduced as a law? As much as I hate getting the government involved, I'm willing to bet it is the ONLY way we are going to get this info. I know it is the law for human shampoos, but not for animals? And groomers are exposed to these products WAY more than anyone is exposed to human shampoos (unless you are a beautician)...

[pat ray]

very interesting I would love to know what is in my favs, and my non favs. and then I would know why I like and don't like.

[Debbie Larson]

Excellent blog Barb. I understood it much better than I might have had I not done your webinar. I will definately partake in some more of them!! Thank you.

[Chris]

Care to share any of your honourable mentions?