Does selling to a major corporation spell invariable disaster for a small natural cosmetics and health company? People all over the US have been on high alert and very sensitive towards Burt’s Bees since their recent sale to Clorox and not without reason. Clorox is the leading US seller of bleach products, and many environmentalists say bleach and the other chemicals Clorox creates is bad for the environment. Despite the company’s claims otherwise, I’m one to agree.

Personally, as I’m sure many others would agree, I’ve been much more scrutinizing of their ingredients label lately, and yesterday something caught my eye. On the Burt’s Bees Garden Tomato Toner, the last ingredient listed is ‘fragrance.’ As Swye readers might remember, we posted a video about what the word ‘fragrance’ means in cosmetics. I wrote to Burts Bees and asked them what they included in this vague word. Here is what they said:

The term “fragrance” on a label may indicate the use of natural, synthetic, or a combination of ingredients. Burt’s Bees makes every attempt to exclusively use blends of natural oils in formulating our fragrances which sometimes result in over 15 different essential oils. However, on a rare occasion it may be necessary to use synthetic ingredients in fragrances to hold all these oils together and keep the scent of the oils stable. If your product is less than 100% natural and has fragrance listed in the ingredients then it is most likely partly synthetic. Burt’s Bees only uses synthetic materials in fragrances when it is absolutely necessary to deliver a stable, safe product, and we never use phthalates in our fragrances.

It’s good to hear they don’t use phthalates in their products, but the idea of using anything artificial in our cosmetics still irks me, but they continued:

At Burt’s Bees, we believe that synthetic ingredients should not be used in natural personal care products. The only instance when a synthetic material is acceptable is only when there is no viable natural alternative and it has absolutely no negative effects-on you or the environment.

All of the synthetic components that we use are rigorously tested to ensure safety, and we make sure not to use phthalates, potential toxins found in some fragrances. Just the same, we will continue to try and find natural alternatives to even these safe ingredients without compromising the consumer experience.

We apologize but the ingredients of our fragrance are proprietary to the fragrance house that makes them and we are unable to disclose the exact ingredients.

Burt’s Bees remains committed to being ’seriously natural’ and to you, our consumer. We will continue to provide you with safe and effective earth-friendly natural personal care products.

Being ’seriously natural’ is a good promise, but are they meeting it? I’m not totally convinced, but they’re still a far better choice than most of the other cosmetics companies products out there, like Chapstick.

What do you think? How do you feel about this? Let us know in the comments.