What's in Your Air Freshener?

Recently, a commercial for an air freshener caught my eye because on the front of the package, in bold letters, they had the words 'ESSENTIAL OILS' and they marketed it as an essential oil air freshener. This definitely peaked my interest and filled my brain with questions. How are they doing it? What are they using? Is it truly natural? It was that final question that made me go into 'Detective Mode'.

While I was in the grocery store, I bee lined to an aisle I rarely go down anymore. The aisle with the million and one products that clean your home from top to bottom with a million and one chemicals to fill your life (sorry products, I've gone the natural way with cleaning). There it was... the commercial air freshener that was coming out with their own natural air freshener... and then I caught it... in very small letters above the ESSENTIAL OILS title was a very small 'CONTAINS NATURAL'. Wait a minute... 'CONTAINS NATURAL ESSENTIAL OILS'? Do you see how tricky that is? Hmmm... now this is interesting. The trickery of a label. Just as I had done, I am sure many others had done, our eyes went right to the ESSENTIAL OILS, automatically assuming this was a natural product, because essential oils are natural... right. I reached for it, as I had to see the ingredients. But wait... there was no ingredient list! What?!?! How could that be??? Don't they know about the Fair Label Act??? They get around it by putting on their label 'For ingredient and other information visit website.' Wait a minute, what? While I was in the aisle, I grabbed my phone and went to the website, and that was not easy either. I got so frustrated, I figured when I got home I would go onto the computer.

After a little bit more 'Sherlock Work', I found out that companies that make air fresheners can legally

keep the ingredients secret, due to business protections on product ingredients and fragrance formulations. Yes, you read that right... they don't have to disclose their product ingredients! They can LEGALLY keep them secret! What!?!?! A company is using chemicals and they don't have to disclose what they are. People... we are breathing this in!

Surprisingly enough, after much research, here is what I did find out. The product only contained a small amount of essential oils, but used deceptive labeling to make us think it was a natural air freshener. The rest of the scent was a list of fragrance oils, without disclosing the fragrance name, which are synthetic made scents (we'll talk about this another day). Though as I kept digging, I found the Safety Data Sheet.

Although these products don't have to list their ingredients, they do have a 'Safety Data Sheet'. Have you ever looked at one of these? They are quite interesting and they are used for workplace employees and emergency personnel. After reading them, I still can't tell what all the ingredients are but I now know all the precautions (really scary), that this company tests on animals (really???), that the liquid is combustible liquid (sure, now let's just leave it plugged into a wall socket), and so much more.

After doing the work, I feel so much better that I am choosing the lifestyle of natural living, though don't forget last weeks blog, we still want to research how essential oils will affect our families. Always read every word on the packaging of products. Companies have such tricky ways to get us to buy their products and perceive it to be something else. If products don't have ingredients on it, take a moment to do a little research. As the consumer, it is your right to know what is in a product that you will be using around your family. With all the different ways to make our homes smell nice, why would we want to use something that we don't know what's in it. I sell products and love the fact that my customers can read (in fact, actually pronounce the ingredients) what's in the product. Before you buy a product, do your research. With the internet there is so much information out there, just look for consistent information.detective

Has there been a product that fooled you? How do you feel about companies not having to list their ingredients? I'd love to hear from you. Until next Monday... Stay Natural!