Monday 3 May 2010

Organic, homeopathic products, dirt cheap?

Do you like to buy beauty products that don't contain parabens, phenoxethanol or other nasty stuff?  Do you find that these products can sometimes be expensive?  What if I told you that you could get all natural, organic beauty products for dirt cheap

I've recently discovered Homeopharma.  Homeopharma is a Malagasy company that specializes in homeopathic medicines as well as organic body care products.  And now they are exporting, at least to Europe.  I don't think their products have hit North American or Asian shores just yet.  I have just bought their children's shampoo (see photo at left).  The shampoo contains no preservatives.  The ingredients are mostly plants, although there is some sodium laureth sulfate in it.

I do have a couple of concerns with their products.  The labelling is not top.  Their website says that all their products have been certified as organic by Ecocert, yet the Ecocert label is absent from their beauty products' packaging.  The list of ingredients on the children's shampoo that I bought includes "parfum" (fragrance), with no indication that this fragrance is natural rather than a synthetic one containing phthalates, a harmful chemical known to disrupt the body's endoctrine system.  The label on the product does say "produit 100% naturel" (100% natural product), yet this cannot be true given that at least one of the ingredients is sodium laureth sulfate, a synthetic chemical.

Needless to say, this company needs a little more sophistication.  But it's an interesting start and their products are cheap!  The shampoo cost the equivalent of US$ 3.50.  The homeopathic medicines (a smattering of which you can see in the photo) cost about the equivalent of US$1 each.  That's here in Madagascar - the prices are probably a bit higher in Europe. 

2 comments:

Ken said...

Organic I kind of get, although I don't know where anybody gets off calling Sodium laureth sulfate unnatural. Next thing you'll be telling me that C12 H22 O11 is unnatural because it is also the byproduct of chemical synthesis... I believe this is called the Naturalistic fallacy. What about natural mercury? Is that good for me?

But to buy distilled water at outrageously inflated prices because the distilled water supposedly contains mysterious "residual energies" from the molecules that were distilled out of it that somehow help the body heal itself... Well I'm really surprised that you would fall for 18th century snake oil that has no basis in fact.

Fortunately, the Brits have finally come to their senses on this one. See http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61L26E20100222

Ken said...

SLS, C12 H22 O11 is the chemical formula for sugar which is also a synthetic chemical. The point I was trying to make is that I don't understand why people consider biological synthesis to be somehow superior to other means of chemical synthesis. The baking soda you buy from the store is made using non-biological synthesis and is perfectly safe, whereas arsenic and snake venom are produced biologically and are rather unsafe.

I am astounded that homeopathy is the multi-billion dollar industry it is considering they're selling distilled water with nothing else in it except water.

I quite like the explanation of it provided by James Randi here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWE1tH93G9U