What is actually in shower gel?
Shower gels clean through the use of surfactants. Surfactants remove substances from our skin that cannot be washed off with plain water. They have a lipophilic end that likes to bind to fat and a hydrophilic end that binds to water. When you shower, the greasy dirt, such as sebum or cosmetics such as body lotion, is caught on the skin and rinsed off with the water.
Surfactants can be divided into three different groups:
- conventional surfactants,
- Natural cosmetic surfactants and
- Surfactants for solid shower gel.
If you take a look at the list of ingredients of the shower gel, you can usually recognize the conventional surfactants by their sulfates. “Sodium Laureth Sulphate” and “Sodium Lauryl Sulphate” are most commonly used as they are particularly cheap. But they can irritate the skin. The skin-friendly sugar surfactants are predominantly used in both natural cosmetics and solid shower gels.
Many conventional surfactants are not allowed in natural products. Their surfactants from natural raw material sources sometimes foam less, but clean the body just as well as conventional surfactants.
What alternatives are there?
In addition to liquid shower gel, there are now also many more sustainable alternatives. One of the most popular is the solid shower gel: a concentrated product that contains very little water - which makes transport more ecological. But solid does not necessarily mean natural cosmetics. If you want to know exactly which surfactants are in the shower gel, you can find out more using the ToxFox app from BUND.
Another advantage of solid shower gels is that they are more economical and require significantly less packaging. When it comes to packaging, paper is better than plastic. Although many manufacturers rely on recycled plastic, this has few ecological benefits. Recycling cosmetic packaging is very energy-intensive and producing new packaging from recycled plastic is time-consuming.
Fragrances in shower gel
If you are prone to skin irritation, it is better to use products with a natural cosmetic seal. The natural cosmetics standards have much stricter requirements than the EU Cosmetics Regulation: synthetic fragrances and dyes are taboo, as are many other synthetic or mineral oil-based substances.
Attention: The terms “natural” and “organic” are not protected when it comes to cosmetics. “Organic” is only legally defined for food. When it comes to cosmetics, you should definitely pay attention to the natural cosmetics seal.
It's still worth taking a look at the ingredients, because whether they contain questionable fragrances cannot be ruled out even with a natural cosmetics seal. Popular fragrances such as limonene and citral can trigger allergies. Fragrances also harm the environment: limonene endangers aquatic organisms. Many other fragrances are difficult to biodegrade and can accumulate in the environment.
Conclusion: The most ecological choice is a fragrance-free shower bar or shower gel that you can mix yourself from natural cosmetics.
Source: SWR market check
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