I love the smell of cucumber in the morning. Actually, I rarely take showers in the morning, so the fresh cucumber scent Pattern Body Wash is one I’ve come to love early evening-ish, post-jog. Proudly vegan with no parabens or other petrochemicals, Pattern lathers up easily and leaves you feeling clean and cool as, you know, a cucumber — unless you got the black pepper, citrus, or eucalyptus version, in which case you’ll feel a different scent of clean and cool.
These scents are, however, listed as “fragrance” in the ingredients list — a nebulous term that could contain all sorts of weird stuff. Pattern does note that their fragrances are “naturally derived” — and Pattern’s evident enviro-commitment makes me liable to think they don’t contain anything crazily bad. However, many eco-companies with naturally-derived fragrance actually name the ingredients that make up that fragrance. For example, my usual soap — Dr. Bronner’s Lemon Organic Bar Soap — has a fresh lemony scent derived from good old organic lemon oil.
My soap also ranks a “low risk” 1 (out of 10, 10 being the most dangerous) on Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep cosmetic database. Pattern isn’t in the database yet, but I looked up the ingredients — to find that six of them are in the “medium risk” range: peg-150 distrearat and disodium EDTA have 3s,
tocopheryl acetate and
phenoxyethanol have 4s, and cocamidopropyl betaine and peg-40 castor oil have 5s.
Now that’s not so bad a record. After all, Avalon Organics soaps and body washes have scores ranging between 3 to 6; I use Avalon’s facial cleansing gel, which scores a 4. Still, even for body wash lovers who shun bar soap, both Aubrey Organics and California Baby offer a number of shower gels in the “low risk” range. Erin of Make Her Up says her whole fam loves California Baby bubble bath. Mie of Kokochi has photographic proof that her kid loves the bubbles California Baby makes — as does Magi at Kaffee Katsch.
Of course, Pattern’s scent or feel could be generally superior or more likable to shower takers. Megan of A Girl Must Shop!, Henna of Canadian Beauty, Beauty and Fashion Tech, and Specialkalle of Face Candy all have declared they love Pattern — without doing the anal comparative analysis I’m trying to do.
Unfortunately, while I can pop into Whole Foods or Co-opportunity to pick up those two, Pattern’s only available online — at $20 per 8.1 fl. oz. bottle. While Pattern works great, smells delish, and is more eco-friendly than most body washes out there, I’m just unlikely to order personal care products over the ‘net when I have Whole Foods and Co-opportunity in walking distance with products that are just as eco-friendly. How about you? Have you ever ordered lotion or body wash online?
[crossposted on BlogHer]
You’re right, I didn’t make a detailed analysis of Pattern’s eco-friendliness – I generally don’t feel like I know enough to do that sort of thing, so it was good to read your analysis of it!
I did love it because I could use it for my face, body, and hair and I can’t do that with most body washes. And yes, I liked the cucumber scent.
:)
Comment by Henna — February 19, 2008 @ 10:25 am
I’ve never bought body wash online, but I did buy some awesome hair goo online, after Special K left the previous bottle (bought in the Yay Area) in a hotel bathroom.
Yay, citrus body wash!
Comment by meg — February 20, 2008 @ 3:13 pm
I haven’t ever bought any personal care products on-line. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t buy something on-line without being able to try it out some way first. (Well, maybe if there was some super good sale with free shipping and it was an environmentally safe product.) Since there are many products available at Whole Foods and my local Co-op, there’s little reason for me to order it on-line.
Comment by Karen Miller — February 20, 2008 @ 5:37 pm
Have never bought personal care products online. I really want to be there to smell it, feel the texture, make sure it is not greasy or sticky. kwim. Jamie
Comment by Jamie — February 20, 2008 @ 6:51 pm
I bought a line of skincare when I was pregnant that was amazing. I don’t think the line has a website itself yet, but i was able to track it down through it’s distributor.
Though it’s designed for the mother-to-be, I still use it now. The woman who created it is fom one of the best spas in LA and she uses only the highest quality oganic ingredients. Another plus is that its all made in small batches weekly, so there’s no stock just sitting in the warehouse. I loved it, though I have had some bad on-line shopping experiences as well
Comment by Lora — February 25, 2008 @ 10:12 am
Thanks for this post!
Comment by Max_1 — April 23, 2008 @ 1:22 pm