Washing-up Liquid

Most of us in the UK do our washing up by hand with only about 44% of us owning a dishwasher. Far and away the leading brand in washing up liquid is Procter & Gamble’s Fairy brand, with 41% of the market.

Supermarket own brands (likely to have been manufactured by McBride plc) make up just under a third of the market. McBride also manufactures a washing up liquid under its own label, Surcare which you will find on the score table above.

Conventional brands do contain petrochemical surfactants and synthetic fragrances, not to mention the increasing number that claim to be antibacterial.

According to the Ecologist in 2009, 

using a dish detergent in hot water also creates another health hazard- chemical vapours. In hot water the chemicals vaporise and are inhaled as steam; and some ingredients can produce vapours that cause severe irritation to the eyes and respiratory tract.

Organic and Fairtrade brands

Three companies in this guide, Greenscents, Bentley Organic, Sodasan, are certified as organic. Greenscents and Bentley Organic are certified by the UK’s Soil Association and Sodasan by EcoCert, a French organic label originally applied to food products but more recently certifying the ingredients of household products. 

There is only one Fairtrade certified brand – Traidcraft’s Clean & Fair.

Toxic chemicals

We have rated all the skincare companies for their toxic chemicals policies. The companies which received a best rating had a policy because they had banned the use of parabens, phthalates and triclosan (see our feature on toxic chemicals for why we have chosen these chemicals) were:

• Greenscents
• Bentley Organic
• Bio-D
• Faith in Nature
• Earth Friendly
• Ecozone
• Lilly’s Eco Clean.

Animal testing

Although the testing of cosmetics on animals has been banned in the EU, this is not the case everywhere else in the world. The EU’s REACH legislation has also complicated the issue. 

Ethical Consumer rates all companies selling cosmetics on their animal testing policy. Companies will score a best rating if they have a policy not to test on animals, have a fixed cut-off date (a date after which none of their products or ingredients will have been tested on animals), and are not selling to markets, such as China, where animal testing of products is required by law.

Greenscents, Bio-D, Faith in Nature, Earth Friendly, Ecozone, Ecoleaf, Traidcraft Clean & Fair, Lilly’s Eco Clean, Astonish, Method and Ecover all received our best rating for animal testing.

Palm oil

Palm oil and palm oil derivatives have become an important component in many personal care products.

The new ‘PO’ column on our scoretables shows how all the companies rank on their palm oil policy and practice. You can see the expanded score table if you are a logged in subscriber by clicking on the orange ‘More Detail’ box. 

The only company which was palm oil free across all its products was Earth Friendly Products. Bentley Organics, Sodasan, Sonett, Traidcraft and Ecoleaf got our best rating for using sustainable palm oil.

Vegan washing-up liquid

All the following brands of washing-up liquid are vegan:  

• Traidcraft
• Greenscents
• Bentley Organic
• Sodasan
• Bio-D
• Faith in Nature
• Earth Friendly
• Ecozone
• Sonett
• Ecoleaf
• Attitude
• Astonish