Finally! USDA Organic Beauty Products

Reader Contribution by Staff
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Just trying to keep my hair naturally beautiful!

The quest for food-grade personal care products is getting easier.

I’ve been using Intelligent Nutrients shampoo and body cleanser for the past few weeks, and it’s been an organic experience.

USDA-organic experience.

This line, formulated by Horst Rechelbacher, the mastermind behind Aveda, boasts certified organic ingredients and most products bear the USDA seal of approval. It’s packaged in sleek, chocolate brown bottles with pump dispensers.

“We’ve created something that has not been done before with Intelligent Nutrients. We’ve merged food science and cosmetic chemistry to create a new paradigm in beauty,” says Rechelbacher.

All Intelligent Nutrients products are free of conventional ingredients commonly used in beauty products today, including sulfates, petrochemicals, plastics, phthalates, parabens, formaldehyde donors, heavy metals, silicone, mineral oil, petroleum and 1,4 dioxane. The company also purchases renewable energy credits to offset its carbon emissions.

But, does it work “as well” as conventional cleansers?

Leave it to the experts at Mode Organic Salon in Seattle. The chic salon is the first to carry and entrust Intelligent Nutrients to its clients’ manes.

“This is the product line I’ve been waiting for,” says Joe Carling, founder of Mode Organic Salons.  “Since the concept of opening an organic salon first came to me, I have been scouring the globe for a high end product line that would live up to my standards of what I feel an organic professional beauty line should be. Intelligent Nutrients not only exceeds this standard, but it’s also an incredible organic health and lifestyle line as well,” Carling says.

As for me, I think the body cleanser is great. It lathers and moisturizes and has a faint scent. As for the hair shampoo, I was also impressed. It provided enough lather (which is usually achieved by sodium lauryl sulfate or sodium laureth sulfate) to make me feel like I was getting clean without stripping my hair of its natural oils. After using this product for two weeks, my hair felt softer, but it also retained water more (because polymers and chemicals were not binding my hair together), so it took a little longer to dry.

But, as with any quality personal care product (and especially one that is USDA organic), price is always a restricting factor for many people. Both the hair and body cleansers retail for $39–quite a lot more than the average product on today’s shelves, including the “organic” products without the USDA seal of approval.

What do you think about that? Would you rather spend you money on an “organic” or “natural” personal care product that doesn’t bear the food grade organic seal, or do you go for conventional products to save money in tough economic times? What about DIY treatments for hair and skin to save money and save your skin? Do you think personal care products that want to be labeled “organic” or “natural” should be better regulated?

So many questions–I need your input. Leave me a comment and discuss!

  • Published on Oct 14, 2008
Tagged with: Reader Contributions
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