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Anyone heard of Arbonne products?

3K views 22 replies 7 participants last post by  gotmilkmama 
#1 ·
I've been exposed to Arbonne recently and wonder if anyone else uses their products or have heard of the company. They are a health and wellness company that provides nutrition, weight loss, skin care, aromatheraphy, and body care.
 
#2 ·
I've heard of them. At first I was impressed because their main point is that they don't use mineral oil in their products. But, then after some more research into skincare I found out Arbonne freely used other petroleum products, just not the mineral oil. Turns out mineral oil is probably the healthiest of petroleum, so what's the point. Arbonne also uses other chemicals that are toxic. Instead I just use my own aromatherapy blends so I know they are 100% natural and chemical free.

Carole
 
#3 ·
Nursin'fool-

What other chemicals? I have used their products for a year now and love them, and have the boxes with the ingredient breakdown right here in front of me. My husband who is a chemistry major has looked over it and it's all good.

Everything I know about Arbonne is that it is a great company, great animal-free products (animal free in every way, no testing, no by products, not even lanolin like Burts Bees). Their anti-aging line is great, I don't bother with the vitamins and such, I like Shaklee for those items.

HTH.
 
#4 ·
Thanks girls for the replies. I know they state being very 'natural' and botanically based. If there is harmful ingredients I am also curious as to what they are or what name it would be listed as, so I know what to look for on the bottle.

Thanks for any info anyone has or if you are happy or not happy with their products.
 
#5 ·
One of my dearest friends sells Arbonne so naturally she gave us their baby line when our son was born, almost 2 years ago. That's the only soap we've ever used on him. Everything I understand about them is that they don't use petroleum or spooky ingredients in the products. If I find that they do I will discontinue their use. I'll ask my friend about it.
BTW, she says that they are reformulating their baby care line to remove all nut oils as there have been a few cases of it irritating childrens' skin.

Pax,
Danae
 
#6 ·
It's been over a year since I researched the Arbonne line. I know I was so excited to finally find a "natural" line, and then disappointed when I looked further. I can't say anything about their baby line, because I only looked at the ingredients on their anti-aging line. I don't have the ingredient list anymore, but here is a site that talks about harmful ingredients in cosmetics. You can check the labels yourself.

http://www.hallgold.com/toxic-chemic...-directory.htm

I'm not bad-mouthing Arbonne. Maybe they've changed things. I do remember they had some petroleum based ingredients in the anti-aging when I checked into it last year.

Carole
 
#11 ·
My sister used to sell Arbonne. She quit because the products broke her out. I know that they are very animal friendly, which is very important to me. I too have heard of "chemical" problems with their company, but have read nothing to back it up, yet. I will look into it as I have recently started a work from home business in the Health & Wellness industry and want to know more about my competition as well as educate myself in this field to the fullest extent. Thanks for the links...gotta luv the moms here at mdc!
 
#13 ·
From what I now understand, they do use preservatives to prevent bacteria growth, etc. but no more than 1% in their products. Obviously their shelf life is not as long as other products that use much more preservatives. They don't claim to be completely 'all natural'...just herbal and botanically based with using the minumun amount of preservatives needed while still being safe.

Thanks for the websites and any other info anyone can provide.

I am also curious about other 'Natural' products. I know Aveda claims to be very natural and environmentally friendly but haven't done the homework on it. Their stuff sure smells good though!
 
#15 ·
Okay guys, I have bad news. I got the ingredient lists for the anti-aging line. Here's just a few of the "bad" ingredients that you will find on the list of toxic ingredients on the link I already gave you. And yes, some of them are petroleum products.

PEG-18 Methyl Ether Dimesthyl Silane
Urea
TEA-Carbomer
Dimethicone (Silicone product)
PEG-4
Propylene Glycol Dicaprylate/Dicaprate

Here's what they use in small amounts as the preservatives:
Methylparaben
Propylparaben
Trisodium EDTA

I knew there was a reason I didn't buy the line, even though I was initially very excited that it was a "natural" line.
 
#16 ·
Thanks for the info nursin'fool!!

I am a bit confused though. Which isn't hard to do as I'm not familar with chemical terminology. I just took the first ingredient you listed.

PEG-18 Methyl Ether Dimesthyl Silane

And then I looked it up on the cosmeticcop website you gave. This is what is said.

polyethylene glycol. Also listed as PEG on ingredient labels, polyethylene glycol is an ingredient that self-proclaimed "natural" Web sites have attempted to make notorious and evil. They gain a great deal of attention by attributing horror stories to PEG, associating it with antifreeze (however, antifreeze is ethylene glycol, not polyethylene glycol), and there is no research indicating that PEG compounds pose any problem for skin. Quite the contrary: PEGs have no known skin toxicity and can be used on skin with great results (Sources: Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, June 2002, pages 587-606; and Cancer Research, June 2002, pages 3138-3143). The only negative research for this ingredient indicates that large quantities given orally to rats can cause tumors, but that is unrelated to topical application.

Polyethylene, when it is not combined with glycol, is the most common form of plastic used in the world. It is flexible and has a smooth, waxy feel. When ground up, the small particles are used in scrubs as a gentle abrasive. When mixed with glycol, it becomes a viscous liquid. In the minuscule amounts used in cosmetics, it helps keep products stable and performs functions similar to glycerin. Because polyethylene glycol can penetrate skin, it is also a vehicle that helps deliver other ingredients deeper into the skin. It is even used internally in medical procedures to flush and clean the intestinal tract. See propylene glycol.


So is it harmless or not?
:
 
#17 ·
GotMilkMama,

Yes, this is all very confusing. I think that's the problem!!

I think it's very possible that the ingredient is "harmless", but my point was that Arbonne makes claims about their ingredients, and I believe they mislead their consumers. I was led to believe they had no petroleum in their products, yet they obviously do. Yes, they are mineral oil free, but mineral oil is only one of many petroleum products cosmetics may contain.

I just wanted people to be aware. When I suggested earlier that Arbonne contained petroleum products, other people wanted more info because they too thought Arbonne was petroleum free. The ingredients may or may not be harmful, but Arbonne does contain them.

Also, just a side note. The link I posted above to the "Cosmetics Cop" website is very informative. However, you need to understand it isn't a site about natural products. She has no problem with petroleum being used in cosmetics.
 
#18 ·
Thanks Nursinfool -

I am trying to do some research on Arbonne products as well as other natural or claim to be natural products and what is harmful and what is not. It is very confusing!!!
:

But thanks for the sites and your info. It has helped! If you come across any other informative sites on what products are harmful or not and why please share!!
 
#19 ·
I have used their products on both myself and DD with no problems, and I usually break out with new products. I like their baby care line, and they have a sea salt scrub that I love!

Anyway, I don't know about their ingredients, but I do feel that they are better than most products that are available out there.

HTH
 
#22 ·
Here is the response I got from Arbonne when asked about possible petroleum in their products. This is what their rep said:

"It is not unusual for people to read about these ingredients and then look at ours and get all nervous. However, you have to be comfortable with the company in question. Arbonne has built its' reputation on our products. We are not going to market something as Pure, Safe and Beneficial if it isn't. Arbonne is not 100% natural. Nothing can be without mixing it up in your kitchen each day or running the risk of bacterias and fungus forming.

When an ingredient is listed on a product, that ingredient has to serve a purpose. The ingredients that were in question were listed by their "technical lab name" as they serve the purpose of that ingredient; however, take for instance Urea, ours is listed as Urea because the function is as a preservative, but we formulate our Urea in the lab so on the product knowledge sheets you will see the source as "science". Same is true with the others she listed. We just leave out the chemical toxins but it serves the same purpose.

As far as mineral oil, petrolatum and petroleum goes, it basically is the same. WE DO NOT USE ANY PETROLEUM, PETROLATUM OR MINERAL OIL OF ANY KIND IN ARBONNE PRODUCTS. Some of these ingredients are addressed on Arbonne.com under product knowledge under frequently asked questions. The methlparabens and propylparabens are not petroleum derived. Neither are the others that were mentioned. I am not sure why Arbonne hasn't gotten back with you unless your email didn't go thru or they just haven't had time. We are the fastest growing network marketing company (or any other company for that matter) right now and we didn't get there by blowing smoke. We are the best on the market. We have the BEST research and development lab in Switzerland headed up by one of the World's best known cosmetic chemist. And remember, the reason Petter started Arbonne was because he was concerned about what he saw as a chemist going in to mainstream cosmetics. He didn't start this company twenty five years ago to make money. In fact, he was then and still remains one of the richest men in Norway. His family actually put a lot of their own money into this business. Arbonne did not make him one of the richest men, he already was. Since Arbonne does only word of mouth advertising, it is proof positive that it must be good or we wouldn't be bringing 30 to 50 thousand new clients, consultants or wholesale buyers in a month. There are far too many professional individuals that have joined Arbonne that are way smarter than me who have done their due diligence in checking everything out.

We are not in the convincing business……………the integrity of the company, the pureness of the products, together with a twenty five year track record speaks volumes."

Anyway, after that I looked into a couple more of the ingredients. It's very difficult to research skincare ingredients, because I think the huge skin care industry has a vested interest in making sure we don't find out too much about the ingredients they use.

It does look like PEG-4 can be made from rapeseed instead of petroleum. Also, Propylene Glycol Dicaprylate/Dicaprate can be made from coconut oil instead of petroleum. Those were two ingredients that I had previously found to be petroleum-based, because that's how they are listed in most data bases. So basically I would only be concerned about the Urea, parabens, and TEA-Carbomer. Dimethicone is also an ingredient I don't like, but it used widely in the medical field.

The only other thing to consider is that in most of the Arbonne products, water is the first ingredient. You're paying for a product that is mostly water....

I do think Arbonne is one of the better products out there, and probably as good as you will get for commercial products. There is no "perfect" commercial product because they all have to use a preservative or they couldn't mass market them. I choose to make my own, so I don't have to deal with unknown factors. I make small batches and refridgerate my ingredients.

Hope this helps clear things up.
 
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