So, is it natural.......?

Indochine Natural  is unusual among manufacturers of body washes and shampoo in that our Australian co-founder and Managing Director Dr. Mike Thair produces these products from whole vegetable oils. However, the more common approach these days in body care products marketed as “all-natural” is to use “plant-derived” chemical surfactants.

For example, if you read the ingredients on a mass produced “all-natural” shampoo you may find the ingredient “sodium cocoyl isethionate (coconut derived)”…….aha you may think, it is derived from coconut so it must be “natural.”

Lets look at how sodium cocoyl isethionate is produced. The first step involves ethylene oxide and a bisulfite salt being reacted in an aqueous solution to produce an isethionate salt. In a second step the isethionate salt is reacted with a fatty acid (derived from coconut) to form sodium cocoyl isethionate. A point worth noting here is that the ethylene oxide used in this reaction is a known carcinogen, and that traces of ethylene oxide can remain in the product, along with carcinogenic 1,4-dioxane (Kosswig, Kurt (2000). "Sulfonic Acids, Aliphatic". Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry (Wiley-VCH)).

So is it natural?  You be the judge.