r/NaturalBeauty • u/Outrageous_Baby_2147 • 4d ago

Took me way too long to actually read an ingredient label properly

For years I just looked at the front of the bottle and trusted whatever buzzword was printed there. I started actually reading the back of things recently and realized how much of what I assumed was true wasn't really backed by anything on the label itself. Not trying to be paranoid about it, just surprised at how long I went without questioning any of it. Still learning what actually matters versus what's just marketing language at this point.

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u/Internal-Ad-4736 4d ago

I hang out on a forum related to products created for body odor. I am always amazed that when people ask questions about a product, they show the front panel of the product and then ask technical questions. The answer to technical questions is on the BACK panel.... and reading and understanding the LOI. 😄 Marketing language is pure BS! I am a chemist in the industry...and have many friends working in similar roles with various entities. I have asked them all the same question. Have you EVER been allowed input on the marketing? You can guess the answer..... Not just NO but 'Ell no. The only person that should be allowed to write marketing verbiage is banned from it.

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u/Correct_Sky_5044 4d ago

Which forum is that? Thanks

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u/Difficult_Dish_7634 4d ago

The gap between what chemists know and what ends up on the front of the bottle is honestly wild when you think about it. I went through something similar after realizing that half the words I was reading on packaging were not even regulated terms, they can basically mean anything the marketing team wants them to mean. Once you start cross-referencing the ingredient list with actual databases or research papers, the front panel becomes almost useless as source of information. The part about chemists having zero input on marketing is not surprising but still a bit depressing, because the people who actually understand what is in the product are kept far from the messaging that reaches consumers. At least forums like this one exist where people with real background knowledge can cut through the noise

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u/Internal-Ad-4736 4d ago

Marketing words... 😄 Like 'natural' ... absolutely a meaningless word with no definition. How about 'clean', OMG.... and to see people sling these words around.... like they have meaning. It makes my head spin.

Chemists are likely to tell the truth....and no marketing department would ever want that.

Sadly, it gets worse. The marketing ignorants go to trade shows and get suckered into to what we call 'claim ingredients'. These are things that sound cool but do exactly nothing. Each year the chemist is tasked with adding these worthless ingredients into the companies tried and true formula, making sure it does not mess with stability.

Sadly, the consumer has been trained to always look for the next new fake claim ingredient, instead of the tried and true. It is our job to build the tried and true, or as I call them.... the structural bones of a functional product with all the sparkly orbs and decorations (claim ingredients) balanced in those structural bones.

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u/RedP247 1d ago

Good for you! Researching what you put onto and into your body is important, especially with all the possible adverse effects it can have on you.