Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Cosmetic Industry Declaration of soaps in LOI

  • Declaration of soaps in LOI

    Posted by Agate on November 4, 2018 at 4:44 pm
    Hi everyone,
    I’ve come across the following LOI for a shampoo:

    Aqua, Cocos nucifera (coconut) oil, Pinus banksiana (pine) extract,
    Medicago Sativa (Alfalfa) extract, Matricaria chamomilla (chamomile)
    flower extract, Echinacea purpurea flower extract, Urtica dioca (nettle)
    leaf extract, Trifolium pratense (clover) flower extract, Camelia
    Sinensis (Green Tea) Leaf Extract, Equisetum arvense (Horse Tail)
    extract, Olea europaea (olive) fruit oil, Glycerin, Citric Acid,
    Lavandula angustifolia (lavender) oil, Citrus Bergamia (Bergamot) Oil,
    Pelargonium Graveolens (Rose Geranium) Oil.

    I’m confused about the coconut oil in there, so high on the list. Surely that isn’t really just coconut oil, but presumably liquid soap from coconut oil, Potassium Cocoate?
    If so, is it legal to just write Cocos nucifera (coconut) oil, when it’s effectively Potassium Cocoate (and Glycerin)?
    Agate replied 5 years, 4 months ago 3 Members · 6 Replies
  • 6 Replies
  • belassi

    Member
    November 4, 2018 at 4:54 pm

    Calia Organic Hydrating shampoo, huh?
    Obviously the LOI is incorrect. Yet another garbage “natural” product. 12 Euros for 240mL! (and in another thread we were discussing profit margins)
    Cost of making that rubbish will be about half a Euro. So profit margin of 95.8% … 

  • Agate

    Member
    November 4, 2018 at 9:24 pm

    Yes exactly, it’s by Calia, which is a very popular “natural” shampoo brand.

    Good to hear that you also agree that it’s incorrect. I was doubting myself and wondering if it was maybe appropriate to write Cocos nucifera (coconut) oil, when one is actually using Potassium cocoate. I’ve seen it done on so many “natural” products, and that’s just one example. How come so many companies get away with shoddy labelling? Is there just no one there to enforce it?

    That’s just a crazy profit margin. They’re doing something right then.

  • belassi

    Member
    November 5, 2018 at 12:09 am

    They probably decided to leave out the potassium hydroxide, a major ingredient, because it isn’t ‘natural’ enough.

  • Agate

    Member
    November 5, 2018 at 8:21 am

    Yes I figured that. It seems quite unfair to those who do follow the rules to just conveniently leave out ingredients that don’t sound “natural”.

    On a different note, wouldn’t it be the right thing by most countries’ regulations to list Potassium cocoate and Glycerin as the product of the chemical reaction rather than Potassium hydroxide and Coconut oil as the ingredients used initially?

  • bill_toge

    Member
    November 5, 2018 at 9:19 pm

    Agate said:

    On a different note, wouldn’t it be the right thing by most countries’ regulations to list Potassium cocoate and Glycerin as the product of the chemical reaction rather than Potassium hydroxide and Coconut oil as the ingredients used initially?

    you could do that, but a) most producers wouldn’t know how much of each substance is produced, unless they have an advanced chromatographic method to hand; b) there’d be some variation from batch to batch
    listing the starting materials is a perfectably acceptable practise, and more accurate - after all, if the product has been produced properly, you can state exactly how much of each material has gone into it
  • Agate

    Member
    November 5, 2018 at 10:02 pm
    Thanks Bill, that is valuable information. I’ve seen both done and been confused about which is correct.
    In theory I don’t think it should be too difficult though to calculate how much of what is produced in a chemical reaction, especially when it is as simple as saponification. But I imagine the actual values aren’t quite the same in practice as they should theoretically be.

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