Are All Of the Ingredients Listed On The Label Of Your Dog's Shampoo?

This week I was horrified; but sadly, not surprised to discover a teenage clothing brand selling makeup that was found to contain heavy metals and asbestos.

ABC affiliate, WTVD, I-Team broke the story last week after having the cosmetic product tested by an independent laboratory to determine what ingredients, if any, were missing from the label. 

The laboratory found four (4) heavy metals - barium, chromium, selenium, and lead as well as asbestos in the cosmetic powder product developed for teenagers. 

The company at the focus of this controversy quit selling the product and opened their own independent investigation. 

So, how could this happen? How can cosmetics made for children be contaminated with heavy metals and asbestos? 

The contaminating culprit is talc, or talcum powder, a hydrous magnesium silicate.

Talc is a mineral produced by the mining of talc rocks that are crushed, dried, and milled, and graded. The grading indicates the purity of the talc and how likely it is to be contaminated. Manufacturers who care about the purity of ingredients must still have the talc tested to determine whether or not it is pure talc or contaminated. Each lot purchased must be tested - getting expensive. 

Right about now you are probably thinking, "Gosh, that is terrible but what does it have to do with dogs?"

The Food and Drug Association (FDA) and Safety Standards

The FDA does not regulate the ingredients in cosmetics (except for color additives) nor do they regulate the safety of ingredients for dog grooming products.  

The bottom line: Just like in the dog grooming industry, there is no watch dog. You must be your dog's ingredient watch dog and this means avoiding products that may have potential safety concerns.

Keep in mind, safety is by ingredient lot. So, testing once isn't sufficient, you must test each ingredient lot that comes in the door to determine if it meets safety standards! 

Many of the dry dog shampoo products on the market contain talc and looking at some of the other ingredients in those products (for example fragrance, methylparaben, propylparaben, imidazolidinyl urea), I can almost guarantee their safety standards are fairly low. 

This brings up company consistency across product lines. When I research products I look at their complete product line not just one or two products or ingredients.

A company that makes a product with DMDM Hydantoin as a preservative who suddenly comes out with a product that uses Rosemary Extract likely doesn't care as much about the ingredients and the product safety as they do making money. 

Did you know there are also different grades of safety for coconut, olive, jojoba, and essential oils? There are... 

4-Legger's organic dog shampoo is gentle and mild with a Castile soap base made from USDA Certified Organic Oils. 

Here is how our shampoo is made: Coconut oil (Cocos nucifera), Olive Oil (Olea europaea) and Jojoba Oil (Simmondsia chinensis) is mixed with water and potassium hydroxide in a kettle under heat.  The potassium hydroxide is from potash mined from salts that contain potassium mixed with calcium hydroxide, a colorless crystal or white powder from calcium oxide (called lime or quicklime) is mixed, or slaked with water.

The result of that reaction is Saponified oils of coconut (Potassium cocoate), olive (Potassium olivate), jojoba (Potassium jojobate) and glycerine. The water evaporates off and the glycerine is mixed back in. The aloe (Aloe barbadensis Leaf Juice) and Rosemary Extract (Rosmarinus officinalis) are added.

 Our dog shampoo is USDA Certified Organic to Human Grade Food Standards! We are passionate about ingredients and ingredient integrity so every dog can have a healthy bath!

Have a question about a shampoo ingredient? Check out 4-Legger's dog shampoo ingredient database!