Paraffin, evil incarnate or just misunderstood?

[Quanta]

@Quanta I'm so frustrated with companies like LUSH slamming preservatives and claiming to add fresh fruit to their products. It just sends such a dangerous message to consumers that both of these things are totally normal in your beauty products. I did find this article which was pretty interesting as to how they might be able to do it.

I can't stand Lush. I think their business practices are dishonest at best, dangerous at worst. They are either lying about not having preservatives in their products, or they really are leaving them out of products that require them. I read the article you linked to and I'm not convinced, especially regarding essential oils as preservatives. It has been proven via preservative efficacy testing that tea tree oil completely loses its antimicrobial properties when added to skin care products at usual usage rates. So I'm not convinced that essential oils will preserve things. I think it is irresponsible for them to promote fear of certain ingredients just to make a buck.
I went and read the ingredients of some of their lotions and creams on their website, and some have water or a water-based substance (like "oat milk") as the first ingredient. I don't think there can be enough other ingredients in it to make the water content low enough to not be hospitable to microorganisms. And all of their products are in lidded pots, nothing in a pump or squeeze bottle, so people are putting their fingers in it which is the best way to introduce microorganisms.
I compared ingredients on one of their products ("Dream Cream") that comes in two versions, one with parabens and one that is "self preserving". Neither has what I would consider a good emulsifier, but that is beside the point. In the "self preserving" one, they rearranged ingredients and left out the parabens. They left in the ingredients that are very difficult to preserve, being oat milk and rose water. Oat milk is still the first ingredient, although rose water is now the third.
They have an ingredient information page for each ingredient they use, so I looked at the pages for the two parabens they use, and they say they use less than half the maximum limit. In hard to preserve things like this cream I think they really should be using more than that, or at least use it with something like phenoxyethanol. I'm glad that they use parabens in at least some of their products, but my real issue is the fact that they offer a "self-preserving" version at all, which to me seems to be feeding people's fear of "chemicals".

You know what would be awesome is if there was a place on the SMF where we could put articles and research papers that we run across like a learning library. So if I was curious about different studies on preservatives I could look through user submitted documentation. Is there a place on here that already exists? I did a search but maybe i'm using the wrong lookup terms.

I don't think there is. Maybe bring it up with forum staff and ask for at least a stickied thread somewhere.

This is unrelated to paraffin but at the bottom of the article I just linked is a really good example of fear mongering by someone out to make a buck and is exactly the kind of content that causes confusion and harm.

I have never been a fan of Dr Mercola. I went to his website and saw what he's charging for his special cottonballs. Who does he think he's kidding? I'll keep buying my reasonably cheap, unreasonably huge boxes of Q-Tips from Costco, thanks.

 

[Skylantern]

@Quanta Well said. We're in agreement on LUSH. On another forum a few cosmetic chemists discussed the possibility of hiding preservatives in "fragrance" without having to list them. They also talked about how you can put fruit essences and dried fruit powder in products just fine, but pointed to a promotional video for LUSH showing them dumping fresh fruit into a product. They do have some refrigerated products but it should be clear that fresh fruit is not safe in unrefrigerated products, especially those that claim to be self-preserving. So there's some question about transparency and misleading marketing claims.

This was the first I'd heard about Dr. Mercola. He's a relatable example of someone trying to instill fear in an everyday product without any real scientific evidence. Just like I saw with all the toxic claims about paraffin. Like you said, no one is dropping dead from burning their Yankee Candles. This is why I feel content creators should be more stringent about the content they promote. They have an obligation to do no harm.

 

[Skylantern]

@Quanta Thank you for your detailed responses, you always make sure to write well-worded thoughtful replies and it's both informative and appreciated.

 

[Quanta]

@Quanta Well said. We're in agreement on LUSH. On another forum a few cosmetic chemists discussed the possibility of hiding preservatives in "fragrance" without having to list them. They also talked about how you can put fruit essences and dried fruit powder in products just fine, but pointed to a promotional video for LUSH showing them dumping fresh fruit into a product. They do have some refrigerated products but it should be clear that fresh fruit is not safe in unrefrigerated products, especially those that claim to be self-preserving. So there's some question about transparency and misleading marketing claims.

This was the first I'd heard about Dr. Mercola. He's a relatable example of someone trying to instill fear in an everyday product without any real scientific evidence. Just like I saw with all the toxic claims about paraffin. Like you said, no one is dropping dead from burning their Yankee Candles. This is why I feel content creators should be more stringent about the content they promote. They have an obligation to do no harm.

Given the fact that I don't see reviews for LUSH products that mention stuff going bad, I lean more towards them sneaking in preservatives. Who is watching them make this stuff? How does anyone even know what's really in their products? And what is fresh fruit even supposed to do in skin care products? I've seen their videos on YouTube and they put orange puree in shampoo bars. WHYYY?!! What purpose does it serve? The employees making the stuff in the videos can't even pronounce half the ingredient names. I'm sure they don't know what they're doing. OK, I'm starting on another LUSH rant. I better stop now.

And as for Dr Mercola, I have known about him for quite a long time. My mother is into a lot of the alternative health stuff out there, so he has definitely popped up on my radar more than once. I frequently have to research things to give my mother good reasons not to believe a lot of the stuff she reads in books and online. She is very trusting of people who tell her not to trust certain other people. It's maddening. But that's a whole 'nother rant, and I think I'm done ranting for the day.

@Quanta Thank you for your detailed responses, you always make sure to write well-worded thoughtful replies and it's both informative and appreciated.

Thank you for that, it's nice to know my input is well regarded.