Johnson’s Baby Shampoo – How 'Mild, Pure & Gentle' Is It?
If you are the parent of a newborn, along with the nappies, endless babygro’s and teddies, chances are you were also given (what feels like a lifetime’s supply of) Johnson’s baby products with the reassuring strapline - ‘pure, mild and gentle.
Turns out, their products aren’t as pure, as mild or as gentle in North America, Australia or China as they are in the UK, parts of Europe, Japan and South Africa. The culprit? The ingredients. According to the johnsonsbaby.com website, Johnson's Bay Shampoo contains the following:
Water, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, PEG-80 Sorbitan Laurate, Sodium Trideceth Sulfate, PEG-150 Distearate, Fragrance, Polyquaternium-10, Tetrasodium EDTA, Quaternium-15, Citric Acid, Yellow 10 and Orange 4. May also contain: Citric Acid, Sodium Hydroxide.
Unless you know your Cocamidopropyl Betaine from your Polyquaternium-10, the list may seem innocuous, if a tad bewildering. Rewind to 2009 and The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics asked Johnson & Johnson to remove the formaldehyde-releasing chemical quaternium-15 which is an ingredient in their iconic Baby Shampoo. And we take our hats off to Johnson & Johnson for having non-formaldehyde versions of the shampoo in Denmark, Finland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Sweden and the U.K.
But why is a known carcinogenic still in a product that is targeted at babies in the US, Australia, Canada, China and Indonesia? Don’t they deserve to be cancer free?
While there numerous natural baby products available that are chemical free – we use Burt’s Bees and Green Baby on our children - if you want a non- carcinogenic Johnson’s Baby Shampoo you’ll have to pay almost double the price for an alternative from their ‘Natural’ range.
In October, Johnson & Johnson was listed number one in a Forbes survey looking at the most trusted brands in America, in part due to its ‘ethical leadership’ and ‘…high standards of quality in its products and services.’ When you consider that our memories of Johnson’s products can go far back as birth, it’s no wonder that we hold the brand in such high esteem.
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