Paraben Police Report: Aveda

As you may already know, one of my biggest pet peeves is certain cosmetic companies who claim to be “naturally based”, and talk all about beautiful, natural ingredients that have wonderful therapeutic benefits. They even take it a step further and globally source these ingredients via some wonderful fair trade-type agreement that helps build up the economies and welfare of developing villages and the people who live work there. Sounds lovely, I know. Why would I possibly be peeved with companies who use beneficial ingredients and help communities all over the world?

The Crime

Because when I read the labels of these companies' products, I see some of the most toxic, potentially carcinogenic preservatives, surfactants, binders, fragrances, etc. that are used in cheap, mass produced cosmetic formulations mixed in with the good ones. Parabens, especially. This makes me want to bang my head against a brick wall.


Aveda was one of the biggest ones I had issue with. They stem from an Ayurvedic tradition, which I love, their products smell amazing and feel great, and then I found parabens and other ingredients that are known to be dangerous on their labels.

The Investigation

I was shopping with my mom last night and saw an Aveda store in the mall. I said… “Ooh, Aveda! Let’s go in and read labels!” My mom was like “Yeah, great.” (Insert Maude Face here).

What do you mean I have to read labels?

I wanted to go in because it had been a long time since I had read their labels. I had checked out their website and they do not publish their ingredient list, which really irked me. They have a really pretty little glossary of the natural ingredients they use (guess they couldn't find pretty little pictures of the chemical ingredients), and lots of happy anecdotes about their Fair Trade program, but no lists that show all of the ingredients that are in all of the products. I even went as far as to call their customer service line and ask if the line contained parabens and the lady said she didn’t know and gave me another “corporate” number to call. Well that number was not in service. So at that point, I was ready to completely write off Aveda for good.

So I decided that since the store was right there, and it had been awhile since I’d checked them out I would go in and investigate. I picked up a few products and did not see any parabens or other particularly harmful ingredients. I did see phenoxyethanol, which is another preservative that is not the best option, but is still far better than parabens or formaldehyde-releasing agents. “Hmmm, I thought. This is a good sign…” I picked up bottle after bottle, jar after jar and still did not see any parabens.

The Findings

Well the lady in the store (who was watching me like a hawk the whole time) asked if I needed help (no, thank you…I’m helping myself just fine…), and I decided to just ask her if the line was now completely paraben free. “Oh yes! We took out parabens almost a year ago. They have been found in breast cancer, you know.” Why, yes, I did know thankyouverymuch. I politely thanked her, said I was very glad to hear that, grabbed my mother and left (but not without a sample of their delicious herbal tea).

So I am very happy to report that Aveda is not only paraben free, they are also sodium lauryl sulfate free. This is a very big step in the right direction for a company of this size and popularity. There is still work to be done…still some ingredients that are not as safe as I’d like to see…but still, this is great news. I am very glad they have come around and I am hopeful that some of their competitors will follow suit.