Arbonne Cosmetics Gluten Free? Unanswered Questions So Far

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How do you know where to look for gluten in your food and cosmetics? 
How do you know if something is really and truly gluten free? 
And what about cross contamination?  Is is really as bad as it sounds?
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I have done my fair share of searching for gluten free cosmetics in the last few months. And I know that many of you have spent many more months, even years doing searches. One thing that I see a lot is publicity for Arbonne being a great gluten free cosmetic choice. I have seen the lists, the personal Arbonne representative website articles, and so on. From what they say, there are many "gluten free" products to pick from. However, there is a disclaimer (I think I read this in bold print somewhere) that it is not made in a gluten free facility.

As you have read in my column before, there are occasionally some companies that produce things in facilities that are not gluten free, but appear to not be a problem. Those companies have been more of the home-grown type, who started small and still "act small" once they've grown up some. By and large, the bigger companies have not been able to give answers that are as clear or comforting about cross contamination. Only one, maybe two, companies have stated that they are completely gluten free with a gluten free facility (Afterglow and another I haven't posted on yet). Both of these are the smaller types where the owner might answer the phone or do some of the customer service.

I wrote to Arbonne a few weeks ago asking a handful of very specific questions (beyond just "do you have any gluten free products?"). The information I received from Arbonne appeared to be a "form letter" type that looked similar to other emails I have seen from Arbonne posted on message boards before. To be fair, I have not called them yet. I wanted to see what they did or didn't answer in my email request. Well, I got a letter that listed all the products without gluten in them, as well as a list of products with nut-derived ingredients and peanut oil. No answers about my specific questions and I didn't ask about nuts!!

I will be calling them to see what else they say. To Revlon's credit, they (Revlon) indicated that because of the way the products are made and transported (read: Gluten Cross Contamination Risk), they can't guarantee anything truly being gluten free. I will ask Arbonne something directly like that to see what they can say about the making and transporting part.

I am not looking to bad mouth or put down any cosmetic company. There is no need for cheap shots here, just honesty and thoroughness. However, if I get wishy washy answers about the non-gluten free facility issue (and making and transporting), that certainly casts a big shadow of doubt over the statements of the company and their representatives. Again, this may highlight the classic difference between the two basic definitions of "gluten free". One being simply without glutenous ingredients, the other including no glutenous ingredients and virtually zero cross contamination risk.

The proof will be in the customer service call.

I'll get back to you when I take care of this. Take care.

Erika

Revlon Confirmed - No Guarantee on Gluten Free Cosmetics

Just a quick post here from one of the "big" cosmetics companies. I wrote to Revlon last week to ask about gluten free products. I had seen a post from someone a while ago (on a message board) saying that none of their products can be guaranteed to be gluten free, but I wanted to get the most updated message from the company myself. Here is an excerpt from their letter:

"Unfortunately, because of the way cosmetic ingredients are made and transported, we cannot guarantee that a product is gluten-free."

Well, that about sums it up. To read between the lines, it seems that they recognize the effort it takes to make sure products are gluten free not only by ingredient, but by processing environment. They are being brutally honest here. Not great news if you've loved their products and have gluten sensitivities, but they aren't putting any grey areas out there. I respect them for that.

Perhaps other large companies should take a look at their example and rethink the messages they give their customers. At the very least, they could do what Arbonne has done and state clearly that although this-and-that-product doesn't have gluten, it is not made in a gluten free facility.

I'll update you on more companies, one by one.

Take care,
Erika

Afterglow - A Great Gluten Free Cosmetic Choice

Afterglow is a company a stumbled upon a few months ago. The founder of the company created Afterglow Cosmetics because all of the women in her family have sensitivities to perfume, food, and cosmetics.

I wrote my usual inquiries to the customer service email, and after a few question/reply vollies, I got a response directly from the president. She thanked me for my thoroughness with the gluten questions and said she would put up a page on their website addressing the specific questions I had. I am not sure when this will be in place, but I didn't see it when I checked just now.

Here's something you aren't going to find many places - every product in their line is gluten free. Their faiclity is not gluten free (so they must be sharing with another company), but each piece of equipment is thoroughly cleaned and sanitized between uses. All of their products are hand-filled, so there are no production lines and no contamination of any kind. They have several customers who have celiac disease, so they do know what they are talking about.

They have a nice website, fairly easy to navigate. The customer service was great - quick reponses and the email from the president. Obviously a smaller company who is more "hands-on" than the big national chains. They have very large images to show the colors. Of course, that won't reflect exactly what it would look like on a person, but they have been enlarged since I was last on the site. Nice selection of colors, though I have seen a few companies that have larger selection. Probably depends on your preferences. Currently, it sounds like they are looking into a few new products (I had inquired a few things).

Overall, it appears like a tremendous option for anyone wanting gluten free cosmetics. They have some information pages about other things they don't have in their products. Seems like they are very much into avoiding toxics and irritants of various kinds. Interesting to read all they have available. So besides being safe from gluten, you may be safe from many other things you didn't know you needed to avoid!

Check them out - I strongly recommend a "look-see". http://www.afterglowcosmetics.com/

And don't be afraid to drop a question or comment their way. Easy and friendly.
http://store.afterglowcosmetics.com/

Enjoy looking around and try a sample or two.

Erika

Gluten Cross Contamination Does Matter for Cosmetics and Skin Care

OK, I think I've mentioned this in almost all of my posts thus far, but I just want to make a completely separate post on this one issue just to emphasize its importance. For anyone with gluten sensitivities, cross contamination does matter! If avoiding gluten were like avoiding excess sugar (for a diabetic), you check your labels and avoid whatever ingredients are sugar-likeand ask about sugar residue. If avoiding gluten were like avoiding excess salt, you'd check your labels, avoid sodium in any form, and ask for salt/sodium residue.

I'm no dietician, but from my general knowledge about other food related health issues, peanut allergies and gluten problems are the only two sensitivities I know of where you have to check beyond just ingredients. (If you know of other sensitivities, please correct me!) 20 parts per million is a current general standard that you hear about. Only Oats, an oat company in Canada, rejects anything that is 5 parts per million and over. 5 ppm in something as small as a speck of gluten is tiny tiny stuff!! If it didn't matter, why would people be checking? And if a cosmetic or skin care company says it doesn't use a gluten free facility and they don't check for it and they can't answer for the cross contamination risk, could 20 ppm or more sneak into a product undetected? You bet. It's not like stray gluten molecules have neon green beacons on them.

Now I am not saying that every cosmetic company who uses a non-gluten free facility has problems and gluten running around all over the place. But if they don't have a very good handle on that "next level" of information, trust me - there are plenty of other places to spend your money and get good products. I'm sure it hasn' always been that way. But thanks to the internet and greater awareness, much more info is available at the push of a button and click of a mouse. And some companies are really responding to this. Hopefully, even a few of the smaller companies that hadn't realized they were a good "gluten free cosmetic" candidate will learn a few more ways to promote themselves to people who need them.

Well, those are my thoughts after a nice Thanksgiving break. I'll get some more info requests rolling and share some info I've had waiting.

Erika