How can I avoid greenwashed skincare products?

Yes, we are confronted every day. How can I avoid greenwashed skincare products?


First, what is greenwashing? It means giving the impression that the product is something that it is not. For example, all-natural.

Claims about natural, organic, and botanical are very loosely regulated. Therefore, you need to do some research yourself. Also, the “free-from” claims are useless. You still need to look at what is in the product. To see if there is anything else that you don’t want to be exposed to.

My advice. Read the product ingredient label. By applying some simple rules you can start to distinguish good from suspect products. My simple rules are:

(1) Avoid products with the words parfum, perfume, fragrance in the ingredients list. These are all synthetic.

(2) Look for layman’s terms in parentheses, so you know what it is. For example, Cymbopogon flexuosus (Lemongrass) oil.

(3) Avoid products containing PEG, MEA/DEA/TEA, ALS/ALES/SLS/SLES, EDTA, etc.

(4) The order of ingredients is important. The first listed ingredient is the most concentrated ingredient in the product. Knowing this, you can easily determine the relative concentration of each ingredient in the product. What if you find that Shea Butter listed behind some synthetic ingredients? Then you know that the product contains more of these synthetic ingredients than Shea Butter.

Want to learn more. Please go to our LEARN page. Here you will find free downloads of my informative booklets.

Good luck. Any questions? Please feel free to ask.

Dr. Mike Thair
Master Formulator
Indochine Natural Sdn Bhd