Sukin, organic or not?

We recently came across the Australian brand Sukin Organics, a natural skin care brand. It is not certified organic but, at first glance seems to be fairly natural.  It was on sale at the Chemist Warehouse this weekend so I bought the body wash, shampoo, conditioner, a couple of skin creams and cleanser and thought I'd give it a go.

This morning I was feeling quite virtuous - I did Pilates, watered the plants, ground my own coffee, did the washing, cleaned and then used the Sukin products.  I've seen differing reviews on the internet so decided to do my own research, is Sukin fine even though its not certified organic? Or, are we being Suk-ed in?

The chemical low-down 

Sukin isn't certified organic and there are still some chemical ingredients in their products, including (from the body wash and hand wash):

• PEG-150 Pentaerythrityl Tetrastearate (a binder and skin conditioning agent); 
• Cocoamidopropyl Betaine (skin conditioning agent)
• Phenoxyethanol (a preservative); 
• Benzyl Alcohol (a solvent and preservative).  

The links are to each ingredient's info page on EWG's Skin Deep - Cosmetic Database a really useful page that has loads of information about different brands, products and the ingredients in various cosmetic products.  Go on it, type in the names of the products that you use on a regular basis and start freaking out about how bad they are! haha.  The last two ingredients listed (Phenoxyethanol and Benzyl Alcohol) also make the Green Beauty Guide's list of 100 ingredients to avoid.

This could be completely wrong, and is based on my very limited chemistry knowledge (ie high school), but I wonder if the two skin conditioning agents are required because the alcohol products that are used as a preservative are drying?  I think this a way too over simplification (ignoring the solvent and binding agents) but just a thought.

However, from what I understand, these products although chemicals may be a better alternative to other chemicals that are used.  So the best of a bad bunch maybe??  Also Sukin says on its website that where preservatives are used they are "within the recommended usage levels as outlined by the relevant parties in Australia, the US, EU and Japan".  The EU and Japan consistently seem to have high safety standards and ban many products that are considered safe in the US so this is comforting.  Sukin also discloses all the ingredients that they use here.

But... on the plus side

On the plus side, Sukin products have no sodium lauryl sulphate, synthetic fragrances, animal derivatives, harsh detergents, propylene glycol, artificial colours or parabens and they are 100% vegan and 100% carbon neutral.  So they are a LOT better than your average cosmetic product.  The other advantage is that the products are well priced.  From what I understand, being certified organic is an expensive process, if Sukin became certified organic the prices would probably increase as well.

I used the shampoo and conditioner this morning and loved them.  The shampoo did seem a bit drying on my hair (with its 12 year build up of blonde dye) but the conditioner sorted it out fine.  The body wash was also really good.  Great fragrance and it still felt like normal body wash.  Maybe it was also reassuring to have something a bit more natural after looking at the long list of chemicals in the shower for the last few weeks.  Love the Rose Hip Oil and Rose Hip Hydrating Day Cream as well.  And the Rose Hip Oil is certified organic so no complaints there!

Also, remember that the four ingredients listed above are just four out of maybe 20 ingredients and the rest of them look fine (I may be wrong on this as well, but I'm in no way an expert at nasty ingredient spotting).  So if you're walking through Chemist Warehouse (as an aside, have you noticed how, on the sign, just before the words "Australia's Cheapest Chemist" it says "is this?" in VERY small letters.  Like as if they may have got done for misleading advertising once...?) and tossing up between Sukin and another brand, 95% of the time Sukin would be the way to go (the 5% is in case you come across a certified organic brand).

Maybe its a gradual process and in a few months/years I won't be happy with any potentially harmful ingredients but for now Sukin is a whole lot better than what we previously had (Palmolive and St Ives body wash and a collection of different shampoo/conditioners) so I think the change is only positive!