Skip to main content
Search
Hot Ingredients

The Science Behind Ingredient Safety

Ingredients are often in the news (and not just ingredients in skin care products, in foods too). As a company responsible for helping moms and dads like you safely care for your little ones, it’s our job to evaluate our products and make improvements.

Ingredient Safety

JOHNSON’S® products are rigorously and repeatedly evaluated, to meet the highest standards of safety and quality. It’s how we’ve set the bar for developing the best baby products in the world for more than a century. Below we share the safety of ingredients that people have questions about, so you can feel comfortable and confident that JOHNSON’S® leaves nothing to chance when it comes to your baby.

Talc

Baby Powder made from cosmetic talc is one of JOHNSON’S® iconic products, a longtime part of baby care rituals, and continues to be popular with adults around the world as well. With over 100 years of use, few ingredients have the same demonstrated performance, mildness and safety profile as cosmetic talc.

We wanted to share some facts about talc, to keep you well informed.

  • The safety of talc is based on a long history of safe use.
  • A frequent misperception is that cosmetic talc contains asbestos.   It does not.
  • JOHNSON’S® Baby Powder contains only U.S. Phamacopeial (USP) grade talc which meets the highest quality, purity and compliance standards.
  • And with more than 30 years of research by iindependent researchers, scientific review boards and global authorities, talc is approved as safe for use in cosmetic and personal care products by the European Union, Canada and many other countries around the world. Additionally, the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC), which identifies potential risk factors for many diseases, has not identified talc as a risk factor for ovarian cancer.
  • Since the early 1990s, many research papers and epidemiology studies have evaluated talc and perennial use and these studies have found talc to be safe.  In fact, the Nurses’ Health Study (2010) and the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Cohort (2014), the only two large-scale prospective studies looking at talc and ovarian cancer, found no causal relationship between talc and ovarian cancer.

On the skin, talc has unique properties enabling it to absorb excess moisture, which also provides a distinct cooling sensation. It can also be useful to prevent chafing.

Mineral Oil

Mineral oil is used in a wide variety of personal care products as a highly effective moisturizing ingredient and skin protectant. It is also used in foods and pharmaceuticals  It has a long history of safe use and is refined for these purposes.

We use only highly refined and the highest quality paraffin oils, which meet or exceed the same safety requirements as other personal care oils. This ingredient is not classified as a carcinogen.

Our mineral oil meets the standards of the United States Pharmacopeia (USP), some of the highest quality purity standards worldwide and is considered a safe and effective moisturizing ingredient for your baby.

Natural plant oils, on the other hand can be unstable, particularly in sunlight.   And because they are “natural,” some individuals may find them irritating or allergenic.

Fragrance & Parfum

Fragrance oils have been in use for thousands of years for a variety of reasons. They have been shown to enhance, soothe and calm babies, as well as help with their healthy development.

Our fragrance oils comply with the highest safety standards.  We examine every fragrance ingredient as well as the composition of the oils.

Our first priority is helping you do what’s best for your baby. If you have a question about a specific fragrance, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Dimethicone

Dimethicone is one of the most widely used ingredients in personal care products. When applied to the skin, it imparts gloss, smooth feel, and silky touch. It forms a protective barrier on the skin, conditioning and helping to soothe irritated skin.

In the US, the FDA has approved dimethicone as a "skin protectant" active ingredient in over-the-counter (OTC) drug products. In addition, dimethicone can be used as an antifoaming ingredient in processed foods and cooking oils.  Industrial applications include caulking, lubricants, and kinetic sand.

In 2003, the U.S. Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) Expert Panel reviewed the safety data for dimethicone as well as a group of closely related polymers that function primarily as skin and hair conditioning agents in cosmetics and personal care products and concluded that dimethicone is safe as currently used.

Phenoxyethanol

Phenoxyethanol is a widely used, safe and effective preservative system that helps protect against bacterial growth. We follow current practices that limit the use in personal care products to concentrations below 1%.

Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES)

Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES) is a very mild cleansing agent (or “surfactant”).   By blending together SLES with other mild surfactants, we are able to make very mild cleansers and shampoos for babies.

Sometimes Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES), which is a mild surfactant, is confused with Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS).   Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) is one of the most commonly used surfactants and has been commercially available since the early 1940s.  Of all the surfactants, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) it is known for high detergency and for generating maximum foam and is therefore often used in adult shampoos and cleansers.

However, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) can be very irritating to eyes and skin.   That’s why we do not use Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) in our JOHNSON’S® NO MORE TEARS® baby cleansers.

Propylene glycol

Propylene glycol is a safe and effective humectant, used to increase and maintain moisture in the skin and hair. It is used in a wide variety of personal-care products because it attracts and absorbs water. It reduces flaking and restores suppleness to skin and can be found in facial cleansers, moisturizers, bath soaps, shampoos and conditioners. In food, it is used to maintain product freshness, and can be found in beer, packaged baked goods, frozen dairy products like ice cream, margarine, coffee, nuts and nut products, and soda.

Many websites inaccurately describe propylene glycol as antifreeze. In fact, ethylene glycol is a component of antifreeze. Even though the two names sound alike they are used very differently.  We do not use ethylene glycol, and it is not found in our baby products.

The U.S. Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) Expert Panel analyzed all of the toxicology data and exposure studies concerning topical application of propylene glycol as commonly used in cosmetics products, and found that it is safe and does not pose a health risk to consumers.

Contact Us

Our first priority is helping you do what’s best for your baby.
If you have a question you don’t see answered here, don’t hesitate to reach out!

JOHNSON’S® Safety

JOHNSON’S® Safety

The JOHNSON’S® products you enjoy are rigorously and repeatedly evaluated, to meet the highest standards of safety and quality. It’s how we’ve set the bar for developing the best baby products in the world for more than a century.

JOHNSON’S® Ingredient Guidelines

JOHNSON’S® Ingredient Guidelines

Along with the science that drives all of our decisions, there are other guidelines that inform which ingredients we choose. We’re sharing these with you to help make selecting the right products for your family a little easier.

Frequently Asked Ingredient Questions

Frequently Asked Ingredient Questions

Get answers to our commonly asked questions around ingredients and JOHNSON’S® product reformulations.

Back to Top