'Labelwashing'

‘Labelwashing’…..

Don’t worry, I’m not going to talk about the care instructions we find on our clothes. I’ll save that for another day 😉. Labelwashing is a term I’ve just created!

Shortly after launching Artio I came across the term – ‘greenwashing’. After months of creating Artio Skincare I was surprised it never crossed my path before.

In essence, greenwashing is

  • when a company or organisation spends more time and money claiming to be ‘green’ through advertising and marketing, than actually carrying out meaningful steps to be truly green.

  • The idea of greenwashing has been in existence for many years but it still appears to be a very hot topic.

Keeping the planet in mind is definitely important to us and we’ve made choices with regards to our products and packaging to help protect the environment.

One aspect of ‘greenwashing’ that’s extremely important to me is something I’ve labelled as ‘labelwashing’ (excuse the pun). I suppose it’s looking at greenwashing from a slightly different angle.

‘Eco-friendly’, ‘organic’, ‘natural’ and ‘green’ are all examples of statements used on skincare labels. To say the least, they can be confusing and misleading to consumers.

Whilst trying to find the right ‘natural’ skincare range for Little Tom (see my first blog and then this will make more sense) finding products that were ‘truly natural’ proved frustratingly hard. It took time and energy to read further into a product to find out exactly what was in there. I spent more time taking products out of my basket than putting them in.

 
LABEL PHOTO 2.jpg
 

One thing that became clear during the creation of Artio is how few details are required by law to appear on a skincare label or box. Simple things like

  • product name,

  • volume/weight

  • ingredients list and

  • shelf-life

    among a few others have to be on there.

    But what the law doesn’t govern (extremely shocking in my view) are statements appearing on labels such as ‘natural’, ‘suitable for sensitive skin’ or ‘organic’. 

    Surprisingly, it’s up to the company selling the products to decide how they want to market their skincare - including the statements they choose to use. Anything goes, as long as labels are not ‘misleading’ to the consumer and Trading Standards stay away.

So what have consumers got to worry about?

  • The complexity of ingredient lists on products make it difficult to choose whether or not a product is exactly what it claims to be.

  • Companies appear to be sugar-coating the use of toxic ingredients with clever marketing. These companies need to stand up and be honest with customers, but in reality, that’s unlikely to happen. It’s all about £££ for them I suppose.

    Ingredient transparency is one of the things we’re really proud of. It means you’ll be able to make a fully informed decision about the products you’re buying from a brand you can trust.

Labelwashing is simply brainwashing in our view.

Rachel x

 
 
Rachel Saidi